Ah yes.
Hope you are right, next year will be 14 years since some one outside of the big 3 won the AI. The longest sequence ever.
Congratulations to Kilkenny and to the Kilkenny posters here. The game wasn’t near the standard of the last two years but it was an excellent battling performance by them. Deserving winners for sure.
A couple of observations.
Why did Tipp take off John O’Brien? Just after he had got them back into the match.
Paul Murphy was outstanding.
Bonnar Maher gave Tommy Walsh plenty of it.
Herity was very poor for the goal.
Corbett and Kelly were absolutely hopeless. Corbett played himself out of HOTY today.
[indent=1]Murphy was excellent alright. Bonner Maher was Tipp’s best for me. Great duel with him and Walsh. I know there’s a bit of an in-joke here about hunger being the difference in matches but certainly Tipp were well off the pitch they were at the last two years and it did make a difference. Kilkenny didn’t really have a defensive plan at all as it turned out and just went man to man as in their pomp. There was loads of space back there (certainly in the first half down my end) but they dominated in the one on one battles and dominated the middle and in the half forwards. Tipp were reduced to high hit and hope balls. Kilkenny closed down the space in front of the goal very well as they fell back in defence later on in the match.[/indent]
Well, where do you even start?
Kilkenny did kind of stumble and bumble their way to the All-Ireland final particularly late on in the semi-final when it felt as though they were just keeping Waterford at arm’s length. In saying that though the semi-final is just about getting through. I had no doubt when Kilkenny got together after the Waterford game that the focus on Tipp intensified and the players were spoiling for the rematch. That was evidenced today with fierce performances all over the field.
Tactics wise I felt that there would be something creative and innovative. It was neither. It was a pretty simplistic man marking job on all forwards.
First Half:
Murphy on O’Brien
Hickey on Kelly
Tyrrell on Corbett
Tommy on Bonnar Maher
Hogan on Noel McGrath
JJ on Callinan
Second Half:
JJ on O’Brien
Murphy on Bourke
As a whole the Kilkenny defence was magnificent. Tipp totally failed to take advantage of this man-marking in any shape or form. Why not bring Kelly out to the half forward line to have Hickey out of his comfort zone? At one stage in the second half O’Brien was in full forward with JJ on him. [sarcasm]I bet JJ was hugely uncomfortable[/sarcasm].
Herity: 6 – Was steady in cleaning up ball. Should have saved that shot though. Might have cost him an all-star
Murphy: 9 – Spectacular display from a first time finalist. Hit a huge amount of ball. All-Star.
Hickey: 8 – Rolled back the years with a dominant display. Cynical challenge took the gloss off but needed to happen. By any means necessary.
Tyrrell: 8 – Kept Corbett silent. Unlucky to give away free in 2[sup]nd[/sup] half. What was that for?
Tommy: 8 – Good display. Back near his best. Tough to keep Bonnar Maher quiet.
B Hogan: 8 – Massive plus to have him this year. Played a captain’s role.
JJ: 10 – My MOTM. His best display in a number of years. One of the best half backs of all time.
Rice: 8 – Great at winning dirty ball. Poor striking is a given.
M Fennelly: 9 - Great goal. Dominant again. Hurler of the year.
Brennan: 8 - Where did that performance come from? On bad wide. Great run for Hogan’s goal.
Power: 7 – Maddeningly inconsistent. Sometimes unplayable. Other times makes poor decisions.
Shefflin: 8 – Had some wide and short. Having the leader back showed though. 10 All Stars. 9 All Irelands. 2 HOTYs. The greatest of all time?
C Fennelly: 8 – Great game from another first time finalist. 3 good scores. One beauty in the second half after a lovely hook. Serious prospect.
Larkin: 7 - Started very well. Had a good goal chance snuffed out by Cahill. Drifted out of the game. Made a couple of poor passes. 2 good points.
R Hogan: 7 - See Richie Power. Some goal though!
I may be a bit biased but I thought it was a great game. It was every bit as good as the other two. The trilogy has been a credit to the two teams. Tipp have some concerns. No score from Corbett, Callinan or Bonnar Maher makes it hard to win. They are over reliant on aging Corbett and Kelly. Much in the same way we are over reliant on Henry. They should be fine but they need some more scoring forwards. Not starting Brendan Maher was a crazy decision. He did very well when he came on. Having him come on at half back was a bonus to Kilkenny.
Tipp need to ensure that they do not over-react to this. I would not be surprised if Tipp take the crown back next year. Dublin and Limerick will continue their improvement next year. Dublin with everyone fit could be a genuine contender. Waterford need to get rid of Davy to progress any further. Cork could do with throwing some money at Donal O’Grady. Galway have some fundamental issues to address before they make a breakthrough.
I’m as proud as I have ever been to be a Kilkenny man. The team is just incredible to have this level of success over the years. Shefflin, Brennan, Hickey.
We’ll never see the likes of them again.
Make no mistake; this is the greatest team that has ever played the game.
doubtful last comment- the east stirlingshire shinty team of the 50’s won 5 in a row & were better stick players
Congrats CLD, gutted here but without a doubt the best team won today.
Time to drink the fuck out it now…
Thanks MI! 
Only saw it up to half time but once Fennelly goaled I knew there would be only one result
As I said on here before the Dublin match, stop Tipp’s half backline dominating and you are half way to beating them. Their forwards for all their hurling ability just cannot win dirty ball - Bonnar aside
got home safely, thanks to PJ, Marc and Sean for their safety messages to ensure I did.
anyway, thought it was a decent game. Kilkennys intensity from the first minute was unreal. Walsh had a serious first half, but Tipp played awful stupid ball in his direction. he had a run to every ball he was competing for so was always favorite. But the Tipp forwards did fook all. the difference in the work ethic of the both sets of forwards was immense. Whereas Kilkenny werent letting men clear and were blocking and putting the backs under pressure, the Tipp forwards were not doing the smae work they did last year, and the difference alone in Walshs clearances from last year to this was huge. Every ball he got, he had time to look up, and always plant it cross field to Shefflin.
Another tactic by Cody, putting Shefflin on O Keefe who wasnt up to the challenge. I think he was injured too, the time the ref was injured, O Keefe was getting a good bit of work done to his left hamstring. All Kilkenny forwards and midfielders scored from play, yet only McGrath and Ryan late on got scores from play for Tipp.
Cant understand why O Brien was taken off, he was actually doing a lot of work and getting posession, and was probably Tipps best forward at the time. I genuinely cant remember Eoin Kelly doing anything from play. Corbett did feck all, but bits and pieces. Bonnar Maher did a lot of work, but his final ball didnt work out a lot. Walsh intercepted a pass halfway thru the second half, that is completley uncoachable. Maher got the ball, and expecting the tackle from Walsh, went to lay off the ball. Walsh knew exactly what Maher was doing, and didnt tackle but went for the pass and timed it perfect.
That goal by Hogan was brilliant. From the whole move to the finish, unreal stuff. they only showed it once at the game, so looking forward to seeing it again.
By the way, listening to Eamon Cregan on the way home, christ he talks some shite. They were discussing using a sweeper role, and Cregan says, that Kilkenny play a sweeper role. when questioned, he said ‘the corner backs come up close to the half back line and pick up the breaking ball. If thats not a sweeper system, then I dont know what is’. Liam Rushe laughed at him and siad a sweeper role is what they used to do with McCaffrey on their team this year.
Cregan is a fool and a whinging cunt of the highest order. Another version of Babs “hurling was better in my day” fool
Yeah that was class alright.
I think it was a combination of that uncoachable skill and the knowledge of what Maher was going to do which I expect came from a lot of studying of their opponent.
That incident in the second half where Tyrrell took the two shoulders when coming out with the ball and did that ridiculous war dance when he thought he’d won the free when it had been given against him made me laugh.
yeah, I said it to my father at the game that any time Maher was attacking, Walsh never got in a position to make a block or a hook, he was more interested in getting the next ball, as Mahers first option was always to pass, rather than shoot. it got very one dimensional and he ended up running down dead ends as a result. Kilkenny got their defensive match ups spot on.
and a nother note, they didnt move their forwards at all. they all held their own position and didnt rotate like they used to. Brennan was keeping Padraig Maher quiet and his influence was down, and Maher moved onto Shefflin then for the second half to try quieten him, and whilst he did a bit, his own productivity from half back was much diminished. Brenadn Maher was a big upgrade, and arguably should have started. I had question marks over Colin Fennely and his fitness, but he looked very sharp, and wasnt holding back on sprinting on his hamstring which a lot of players do in their first game back from such an injury.
A fully deserved win for Kilkenny, greater hunger and intensity. As Gman says the work rate of their forwards in closing down the Tipp backs was the bedrock of their victory. Tipp forwards got very little decent quality ball and they were hustled out of it by an outstanding KK backline. A reversal of the 2010 final in terms of hunger and desire, watched that game on Friday evening and Tipp harassed and hustled in numbers. KK did exactly the same today. Great performances from Murphy, JJ, Tommy Walsh and Brennan(thought he was a poor choice TBH but he was superb today). Shefflin played well but shot some uncharacteristic wides in the first half. Only Bonner Maher did himself justice today for Tipp, some pretty awful performances from them today especially from Eoin Kelly who should have been taken off.
On a side note Tommy walsh was very lucky to stay on today, if he had hit anybody other than the ref he could well have walked. Gave Kelly a nice rap on the top of the helmet just prior to clocking the ref too. Cant understand why he has to do it, takes away from him being one of the best hurlers in a long while.
was funny alright. but it was never a free out. he clearly tapped the ball on the hurl and didnt overcarry.
Did he not catch it 3 times?[quote=“Gman, post: 593728”]
was funny alright. but it was never a free out. he clearly tapped the ball on the hurl and didnt overcarry.
[/quote]
he intercepted the ball- big fuckin deal- its a basic skil- why all the hyperbole- some cunt telegraphed a pass & some other cunt read it yet why the hyperbole you twat?