While it may not impress you, TAN will positively wet himself when he reads this.
[quote=âAppendage, post: 593830â]
Well done on this fine achievement. Particularly impressed that you got to talk to a brother of one of the players. Outstanding stuff.[/quote]
No need to be so sneery pal. You really disgust me at times. :guns:
Hope you Kilkenny lads a quality celebration. 
A touch of class from the admins as always.
Bullshit.
Tipperary didnât perform because they werenât let perform.
Hurling, like most other sports, isnât about two teams playing their absolute best all the time. One team can limit the ability of the others to perform. Thatâs what happened on Sunday.
Ah dâauld- they werenât let play rubbish. They were mullocked out of it, nothing genius or exciting about it ffs. fair play to KK but ease off on the praise I say. There was 3 points in it after 61 mins ffs despite their âexcellenceâ.They are a team of mullockers with individuals of discernable talent. Tommy Walsh & JJ are 2 of the greatest WBâs ever, Henry is the greatest forward of the modern era. The rest of em are talented bulldozers, no more no less.
Does anyone else think that Sheedy did a runner after last years win because he knew Tipperary hadnât a chance against a fully fit Kilkenny team?
No you fucking Mong.They proved in 2009 that they had the beating of Kilkenny only for a soft penalty with a full strength Kilkenny team.Please refrain posting about something you dont have a breeze about.
Cool the jets Whiplash. Just asking the question. Seems like the Tipp lads are a bit touchy about anybody questioning their all-conquering team.
How does the fact that they lost the all-ireland final in 2009 add weight to your argument by the way?
The soft penalty is a red herring anyway. Kilkenny carved open the Tipperary defence in the build up to that penalty and did it again for the 2nd goal. Whoâs to say they wouldnât have done it again if required?
Cluaindiuic - outstanding avatar and signature, and TFKâs man on the spot when it mattered most (despute needing serious knee surgery) - when Tommy Walsh was drunk. 
You have a point, but youâre going a bit OTT with it. Personally I found it to be a poor game. I couldnât wait to watch the 09 and 10 finals but I havenât bothered yet with this one. I donât agree with you that Kilkenny didnât play a great game, they did, but youâre right that it was nowhere near the standard of 08. Kilkenny didnât produce the real magic on Sunday, occasional exceptions like the goals aside. They performed very efficiently and with a savage intensity and combined the two got them over the line. But unlike the 2009 and 2010 games, this one was low on brilliance, and you could come to no other conclusion than that Tipperary played poorly.
This isnât to deny Kilkenny credit for how well they did in shutting Tipp down, itâs merely to say that Tipperary should have performed much better despite Kilkennyâs intensity. They were bad, particularly from midfield up. Where they lived with Kilkenny in 09 and 10 they died on Sunday. The midfield battle was a total whitewash. Their short game evaporated. I donât know how many times I saw Tipp players struggling in possession with no one moving for them. Again a lot of this is down to Kilkenny pressure, but it is also down to Tipp not bringing the energy and initiative they brought for the last two years. Treaty Exile said after the game that it looked a role reversal on last year, and to a very large extent it was. Tipp driving hopeless long ball down on their attack was if anything worse than the distribution shown by Kilkenny last year. They seemed to have deluded themselves that the hardworking, shortpassing build ups of 09 and 10 were no longer necessary, and that they were good enough to open defences by dragging them apart and ballooning ball forward. Where it was the exception for the last two years it had become the rule.
You donât judge them on what they did when they couldnât get a platform, thatâs a different problem, but you can judge them on what happened when they did. Iâve met a few people already whoâve suggested the legendary Tipperary arrogance worked its magic again with this crowd and I donât know if thatâs true. All I know is that for a team that were so bent on further success, so focused on not letting complacency and laziness set in, they failed to deliver at the most important time of all.
Banging all those goals against Waterford was possibly the undoing of Tipperarys year. I made them believe all they had to do was drive it up to the full forward line and goals would flow.
Of course students of GAA history will recall that the great Kerry team of the late seventies went on to win a three in a row after being denied a five in a row. There is no obvious reason why Kilkenny canât repeat this feat.
Nana nana nana Na Na Na
Up the supercats!
Supercats!
Up the supercats!
Listening to one of OTBâs Guinness âHurling People talk Hurlingâ Podcasts, some mongoloid cunt from Cashel asked (to a cacophony of cheers and âgwan ya boyaâ, etc etc) Joe Deane and Donal Ăg Cusack would it be fair to say this Tipp team are on a par with the KK team and perhaps about to pass them out. Joe Deane gave the question more respect that it deserved but Donal Ăg practically laughed yer man out of it basically saying show me your medals. It summed up a nice little microcosm of the attitude in I encountered in Tipp leading up to this one. Thereâs a lot of handwringing to be done this week, nice and predictable to see Babs come out and lob the first grenade.
Tipp might take solace in the last two All-Ireland finalists went on to win it next year. Kilkenny make no secret of the fact that it was losing last years Final that drove them on this year, where then in the extra motivation, the âhungerâ going to come from next year? Iâd agree with Olympiakos, thought it wasnât anything special there on Sunday especially compared to the previous two years.
What it proved was that the big two are not as far ahead of the pack as we thought but Iâd be more worried about Tipp than the Cats.
Shefflin is not getting any younger itâs true but Cody can still unearth top class players from the conveyor like Murphy and no one else comes close to matching the amount of big day performers that Kilkenny have in spades, They have the best half back line in the History of the game(and I include Finnerty, Keady and McNerniny in that), Tyrrell, Hickey still have plenty left to give, best midfiled in the country and every one of their forwards scored from play again against Tipp. The key is Shefflin though. Iâd estimate that Kilkenny are roughly about 20% less effective without him. So long as he can keep going thereâs no reason to think that Kilkenny wonât be winning more All-Irelands.
Strange as it sounds Tipp look more exposed than Kilkenny, they trounced Galway in last years U-21 but much of that team were already playing senior or would have been known about. Declan Fanning was a major loss as was Eamonn O Shea. Weâve probably seen the best of Lar Corbett thouigh he will have a point to prove next year. Eoin Kelly looks finished. Callinan and Shane McGrath are flaky. John O Brien is limited enough but does not lack for effort. Noel McGrath and Bonnar come out of the Final with a good bit of credit. Even so Tipp and Dublin have given us the blueprint to contain the Tipp forwards. Tipps defense still looks the business, granted they were caught napping for Fennellys goal but no one could have stopped Kilkennys 2nd goal.There was a poor turnout last night at the homecoming, itâs a long way from one year ago where some Tipp fans were talking about there own drive for five.
Declen Ryan has much to ponder. I though he didnât do much wrong on Sunday, no hesitation in making changes anyway but his crucial mistake cam before the game of course. Itâs hard to picture Kilkenny being quite as dominant as they were in the first 15 minutes if Brendan Maher had started the game.
But they were getting outplayed in nearly every position. I agree, Brendan Maher should have started but it wouldnât have changed the result.
Tipp werenât in the right frame of mind on Sunday. They were no where near the attitude and level of intensity they brought to the two previous finals. It was as if theyâd made to the top table in 2010 and it was only a case of plodding along in 5th gear to maintain it.
This match should be treated as a leason learned rather than a reason for an inquest. They have superstars in the making with the 2 Mahers and 1 / possibly 2 McGraths and plenty of high quality players around them. They just need to start developing another Eoin Kelly because the current one is bet
You donât just develop an Eoin Kelly.
Anyone in hurling circles knew of Eoin Kelly before he even landed in Kieranâs.
Amazing how Tipp canât put titles back to back.
Amazing how Limerick canât put managers back to back.
Watched the first half of this last night again. Jaysus the Tipp full backs were immense in the first half. Really disciplined solid display. And KK got a huge break for the first goal. Stapleton was injured on the sideline and was running back into position when Shefflin picked out Hogan.
On the other hand some of their forwards didnât want to know. Iâve been pilloried here for my views on Callanan but yet again he didnât want to know when it was needed most. McGrath gave Hogan an armchair ride. Time and again there are shots of Brian Hogan bursting out with the ball with McGrath nowhere to be seen. And while Bonner Maher got some change out of Walsh in the second half he was wiped out in the first.