such as? shefflin being capable of 70 mins? murphy in the corner?
those two aside, whatâs improved?
is their form any better than it was 12 months ago?
personally, I think theyâve regressed. witness Codyâs indulgence of Eddie Brennanâs over-indulgence.
EB wouldnât have been let in the gates of nowlan park in that state 4 years ago. get fit on your own time, come back when youâre ready to hurl. Cody obviously thinks he needs Brennan, which says a lot for the inside forward line he has at his disposal currently.
A couple of the cats are nowhere near their best, and while Tipp may not be in vintage form, theyâre closer to their peak, which should be enough I think.
Brian Hogan is a big improvement on Tennyson at centre back as well in fairness and the fact that Rice has replaced Cha in the side as well. How he didnât start last years final I will never know, very underrated hurler
Herrity in very good form on goal, Hickey canât get any worse than last year, Hogan back at centre back, Rice fit and playing his best hurling. Tommy Walsh back to full fitness. Michael Fennelly in HOTY form.
On the flip side Tyrell seems to have gone back a bit as has JJ Delaney and the full forward line is a bit lightweight.
Kilkenny will be a good bit stronger from 5 to 12 than they were last year.
I find it very hard to make a call on this. After the KK / Deise game I thought Tipp would walk it but they failed to impress the following week.
Between last yearâs final and the Tipp/Dublin game thereâs plenty there for Kilkenny to learn if theyâre still able for it. Weâve talked about it on this forum a good bit, but Kilkennyâs distribution in attack last year was atrocious. I watched the game again and it was even worse than I remembered, just the same thing over and over and over again. They just lobbed ball in, Curran broke it, and Cahill and Stapleton swept it up. I think they opened up the Tipp defence on about four occasions in total. Twice in the first half - Shefflin playing a brilliant ball to TJ Reid which he wasted by shooting too soon, and Eoin Larkin catching the puckout and charging straight through the middle to feed Power - and twice in the second - Jackie Tyrellâs spontaneous run through the middle with Rice in support, and the crossfield ball that spread the Tipp defence and gave Richie Power the goal chance.
That was their lot, and even there, there was no pattern at all, just a few plays that developed favourably through pieces of individual excellence. By contrast, Dublin had lots of ideas for opening up Tipp and they showed great imagination. They played lots of low ball down the line to try isolate Tipp defenders against their men which worked on a number of occasions. They changed the direction of the attack quickly with reverse handpasses to off the shoulder runners. They were particularly clever with their use of broken ball, Whereas Kilkenny played into Tippâs hands by trying to bulldoze forward everytime they won a break last year, Dublin tended to take a step backwards away from the tacklers with a runner bombing past them at pace to take a handpass and avoid the tacklers completely.
That running and supporting has to be part of Kilkennyâs plan this year, unless Eoin Larkin absolutely destroys Paul Curran at FF. I doubt that will happen to be honest. The Tipp defence are outstanding at dealing with hopeful high ball, they just gobble it up. They were just as good at it against Dublin as they were in last yearâs final, although admittedly the extra man helped. Last year the run by Tyrell was the only time Kilkenny made a proper supported charge through the Tipp half-backline in last yearâs final. If they want to get through that defensive shield of OâMahoney and Maher theyâre going to have to do it a lot more this year. Thereâs a problem for Kilkenny here, in that their superiority in the 50-50 exchanges has led them to actually by quite sloppy in their short game. Their passes are often behind players or have the receiving player reaching to catch the pass. Last year Tippâs hard hitting meant that loads of those passes werenât executed properly and attacks continually broke down. Itâll be interesting to see if theyâve rectified it.
If they donât run at Tipp, theyâll have to show some variety in some other way. I think theyâve a couple of options. The first is to actually deliver low ball, something they didnât do at all in last yearâs final. Thereâs enough evidence there to suggest Stapleton and Cahill might not be too hot in dealing with a corner-forward supplied with good low ball, whether Kilkenny still have the corner-forwards to threaten them is another matter.
Another place where Dublin landed a lot of hits was their supply to their half-forward line. Interestingly, Rushe, OâDwyer, and Ryan offered an aerial threat that Kilkenny never posed last year in their half-forward line. Something youâd never have expected a few years ago but maybe Richie Power will help rectify that. As well as doing well in the air, Dublin occasionally worked a move very well where a half-forward like Rushe would drop very deep to take a 30 yard pass and shoot from distance. Sometimes they just did something similar where they created a quick overlap around midfield and made a long range scoring chance from a fairly non-threatening possession. Remember last year Kilkenny were just leathering ball at a forlorn Richie Power instead of doing any of this stuff.
Their attack aside, I think Kilkenny should be focused on the fact that their discipline let them down last year. They gave away a couple of stupid frees that really hurt them. The worst of the lot was in the 55th minute where Tyrell butchered Paddy Stapleton for no good reason at all. They were very much on top at that stage, had pulled Tipp into three points and you could see Tipp were worried. That free steadied the ship for Tipperary and they eventually kicked on from there. It was foolish stuff from a man with Tyrellâs experience.
Whether they can make the necessary improvements or not remains to be seen. Itâs a mugâs game trying to predict what way it will go because you just donât know what either side will produce. The intensity of the Dublin game, lively as it was, was not even remotely close to the intensity of last yearâs final which must have been one of the most physical games ever played. Maybe Tipp wonât reach those heights again? I donât see them being bullied personally as I donât think itâs in Tippâs dna to be bullied, but they might crack once or twice at the back where they didnât do it last year. It has the makings of a fascinating encounter in any case.
great analysis there WTB. You have to bear in mind though that whenever KK play without Shefflin upfront they are a rabble in the forward line.Last years All Ireland and this years league final are good examples. He puts order on the whole attacking setup through his distribution and general ordering fellas around, Headless chickens like Richie Hogan develop a pattern to their play when he plays.
Super stuff wtb.
A major factor in the last 2 finals which has been completely overlooked in relation to this year for me is the influence of Declan Fanning. His strength will be sorely missed as will his raw aggression. He completely bullied his opponent in the last 2 finals, canât see John OâKeefe getting close to that.
Christy Heffernan is after having a right go at Tipp. The examiner had a piece on it today. He said that Tipp are still crying over the penalty in the 2009 final and that Tipp people in general are horrible losers.
In fairness every team that loses an A/i semi final or final with a controversial reffing decision still bleat on about it. All you need do is mention the 1996 final to the Limerick lads and they will start whinging about Kirby, the mention of 1989 to Galwaymen and the whole Keady Affair will be the first thing mentioned.
I was on the old Canal End that day with a few heads from Scarriff. Must go down as the funniest shit Iâve ever seen in Croke Park. Of couse Cooneys biggest mistake on the day was not sending off that filthbag Duignan
