The only line on your team that looks strong is midfield, but saying that i canât see Ben OâConnor being pulled from the forwards or for that matter Kenny being reverted to the backs. Letâs just say iâll cream myself if Limerick get the opportunity to meet that sort of team in the championship this year.
[quote=âGmanâ]I doubt that.
and I can also say that most diehard Waterford fans, not the jump on board crowd from the last ten years, would seriously question that those 3 are the best Waterford hurlers ever.[/quote]
I wonder is there a more unlikeable following in GAA than the townie thrash thats been bandwagoning behind Waterfurd in recent years?
Cian is badly exposed here. Bringing shame on his native marble city.
You donât rate Kenny/Curran/OâNeill?
I like Limerick this year, particurly with Justin in charge. Munster is this year, besides Clare anyway could win.
[quote=âTurenneâ]I know its very early, but what about this team for Waterford/ championship for the Cork folk hereâŚ
Martin Coleman
Conor OâSullivan Eoin Cadogan Brian Murphy
Tom Kenny Ronan Curran Shane OâNeill
Ben OâConnor Jerry OâConnor
Graham Callinan Niall McCarthy Timmy McCarthy
Pa Horgan Diarmuid OâSullivan Cathal Naughton
Its far from ideal, but we would have physical presence in the center forward line and at full foward, and about as strong a center-back line as I think we could put out. Iâm less bothered by the goalkeeper, but maybe Colemanâs longer puckouts might put greater pressure on the opposition.
Not strong enough to beat KK, but strong enough to win Munster imo.[/quote]
your a gas man, last night you claimed to be not concerned with the kk mauling as ye had Halpin, Gardner, Deane, Fraggie and Sullivan all to come back.
today you would not play any of them in the Championship except for sullivan who you would make the fattest fullforward of the Century.
your a gas man.
[quote=âHBV*â]your a gas man, last night you claimed to be not concerned with the kk mauling as ye had Halpin, Gardner, Deane, Fraggie and Sullivan all to come back.
today you would not play any of them in the Championship except for sullivan who you would make the fattest fullforward of the Century.
your a gas man.[/quote]
You actually mean Brian Murphy, Timmy Mac, Niall Mac, Conor Sul and Diarmuid to come in to my team. 
The other lads mentioned would make up a nice bench.
[quote=âTurenneâ]You actually mean Brian Murphy, Timmy Mac, Niall Mac, Conor Sul and Diarmuid to come in to my team.
The other lads mentioned would make up a nice bench.[/quote]
ah, i can see now why you wouldnât be panicking!
The GAA president Nickey Brennan was waiting in the wings around Nowlan Park last Sunday evening for a unique photograph that will surely frame his term of office more than any other.
Because of diary clashes and other constraints he had never been able to get together with the three Kilkenny captains that collected the Liam McCarthy Cup on his watch.
So, while Denis Walsh was gingerly stepping through the rubble of a harrowing ordeal almost an hour after Corkâs 4-26 to 0-11 defeat, Brennan was stepping out onto the Nowlan Park sod for the picture with Jackie Tyrrell, Henry Shefflin and James âChaâ Fitzpatrick.
It was tempting to suggest that Michael Fennelly, this yearâs captain, should join them just for effect because already the 2009 championship looks a formality. And beyond that, Brennanâs successor Christy Cooney can get used to shaking more Kilkenny hands than just the man he replaces next week⌠because his own stretch as president, which ends in 2012, will surely involve more black and amber triumphs.
Mystique
Up in Dublin, Anthony Daly joked that it could be 2020 before Kilkenny lose a match again. Deadpan from Daly no doubt, but a sign too of the way people now look with some mystique at the All-Ireland champions.
These arenât the words Brian Cody will want to hear but he must prepare for them because that is how the wider public views the hurling landscape.
Their brutal dismissal of four opponents now since losing to Waterford at Walsh Park six weeks ago has been by a cumulative total of 68 points.
This is not Leinster championship cannon fodder like they get through every summer. This is Galway (11 points), Tipperary (17 points), Clare (13 points) and Cork (27 points). Thatâs an average of 17 points per game against four of their perceived closest rivals as a backlash to losing the only game they will probably lose in 2009.
John McIntyre was seething when Galway lost by 1-20 to 0-12 four weeks ago but other results have put that defeat into perspective.
It begs the question as to whether the All-Ireland championship is now just a contest to get to the final.
Kilkenny doing what they are doing right now, in March and early April on just one collective session per week, is based on the premise that if they drop their guard they will suffer.
Cody touched on that point after Sundayâs rout. âThey are sensible lads and clever lads and they know the realities of sport â you drop your standards and you are blown away, itâs as simple as that,â he said.
âIf we had not played with the genuineness that we did play with then we couldnât have played like we did. You drop your standards and you get carried away at your peril.â
Itâs their mantra now and their match fitness and touch, above everything else, stood out on Sunday. A league final has been reached using just 27 players, below the combined average of the other seven Division 1 teams.
In the long-term absence of Noel Hickey, Donnacha Cody and regular midfielders James âChaâ Fitzpatrick and Derek Lyng, Cody and his selectors have not opened up the squad to new players and change in that policy between now and the summer is most unlikely. It has sharpened instinct and touch among who are enjoying the routine of playing week in, week out.
Why change a winning squad that gives so much? Just as he didnât run substitutes in during the second half of last yearâs All-Ireland final procession, league jerseys wonât be given away cheaply either by Cody. Theyâll be earned.
What they have now they intend to hold and nurture to an even higher standard because, unlike any of their rivals, they already know what their best team should be.
That renewed vigour in Kilkenny is best reflected in the surge of performance by Richie Power, who has delivered most consistently in attack. As an underage star Power was peerless in Kilkenny but that ability hasnât always translated and, up to last year, Powerâs place on the championship team was in jeopardy more often than it was secure.
Challenge
He is the one project that, up to now, Cody didnât manage to get a proper handle on and the challenge for him to improve his ways has always been laid down by the manager.
This year, more than ever, there has been a response and in the six games Power has contributed 5-27, including a host of frees in Henry Shefflinâs absence.
With Shefflin back for the last two weeks Power has still contributed handsomely and while his three goals stand out from Sunday, his range of cross-field passes and his strength in holding off a formidable opponent like Eoin Cadogan were a feature.
Nowhere is the measure of Kilkennyâs strength more apparent than their current midfield of Fennelly and Michael Rice, who tore Cork, including Tom Kenny, asunder and finished with five points between them.
For Cork boss Walsh there just wasnât a weakness in sight, nowhere that Kilkenny might conceivably improve. It was Kilkennyâs biggest scoring tally since the 6-28 they piled on Offaly in the 2005 Leinster championship and their biggest winning margin in the league since the 3-26 to 0-5 rout of Wexford that same year.
With âChaâ back training, JJ Delaney and Noel Hickey also making good recovery and Lyng making good progress, the treatment table will soon be lighter and Codyâs options thicker.
Human nature as it is, they may drop their guard as Cody fears and they may lose another game. But just donât hold your breath.
Oh for fuck sake is all i can say to this,if yer insisting on posting on internet forums try not to make it about hurling if you can at all,the likes of John Cusack of Moonminane,Clonea and Michael Hayes of Butlerstown not to mention John Keane,Cheasty, Phil Grimes,Austin Flynn etc would absolutely devour those flaky bottlers you mention above,the greats of Waterford hurling hold All Ireland medals and a place in hurling history,they were part of an exceptional team,wait(it could be a long one) for your heroes to win something before you desmiss the real greats of Waterford hurling.
P.S The âill have you know ive attended more matches in the last decade than youve had hot dinnersâ boast was directed at me, not a fucking hope in hell id say,i will attend around 10 club games a Week for 6 Months of the Year and a lot of Inter County and Colleges games at all levels and have been doing this for 20 Years or so now.Cian Foley goes to a few Waterford Inter County games here and there.
[quote=âTurenneâ]You actually mean Brian Murphy, Timmy Mac, Niall Mac, Conor Sul and Diarmuid to come in to my team. 
The other lads mentioned would make up a nice bench.[/quote]
Whatever about the bench.
I canât see where the scores would come from in that half forward line.
Timmy - No
Niall Mac - No, only on a good day
Callinan - No [I actually got him mixed up with Corry at the game. He was a good ball winner going forward but defensively he gave away the ball a bit. Worth a look at full forward?]
With little or no scores coming from the half forward line yeâd come up with scores under 20 points total and thatâs not enough to win championship matches any more.
Yeâd be hoping to choke a team to death and this is not Cork 2004. That team would be capable, not this team though.
[quote=âcluaindiuicâ]Whatever about the bench.
I canât see where the scores would come from in that half forward line.
Timmy - No
Niall Mac - No, only on a good day
Callinan - No [I actually got him mixed up with Corry at the game. He was a good ball winner going forward but defensively he gave away the ball a bit. Worth a look at full forward?]
With little or no scores coming from the half forward line yeâd come up with scores under 20 points total and thatâs not enough to win championship matches any more.
Yeâd be hoping to choke a team to death and this is not Cork 2004. That team would be capable, not this team though.[/quote]
Agreed with cluaindiuic here. That team Turrene would only hold up Corks development and return to challenging for All-Irelands.
Brian Murphy is gone, i heard heâs going to try and sort himself out before he plays again. Niall Mac, Timmy Mac etc are all steps backwards. Corry has potential, but is a bit weak, Rob White is a better option but they donât seem to like him, probably because of his golfing or something. Coleman isnât anywhere as good as Nash in goal either. Coleman is a good keeper, but if he didnât have the name he has i doubt heâd be ahead of a few other keepers. Some people in Ballinhassig would think heâs not even better than Matthew Collins, also from Ballinhassig who plays in goal for them most of the time now.
Iâd be looking more at a team like this and look to the future. KK are going to walk the next 2 All-Irelands it seems. Lets just get back to building a team.
Anthony Nash
John Oâ Callaghan Chris Murphy Conor Oâ Sullivan
Shane Oâ Neill Ronan Curran Sean Og Oâ Halphin
Barry Johnson Tom Kenny
Pat Horgan Rob White Ben Oâ Connor
Kieran Murphy (Sars) Brian Corry Cathal Naughton
Anthony Nash
John Oâ Callaghan Chris Murphy Conor Oâ Sullivan
Shane Oâ Neill Ronan Curran Sean Og Oâ Halphin
Barry Johnson Tom Kenny
Pat Horgan Rob White Ben Oâ Connor
Kieran Murphy (Sars) Brian Corry Cathal Naughton
Very average look about this lot.
Its mad the more you look at this years Munster chship the more you come to the conclusion that its Limericks to lose. Tipp wont be arsed and the rest are just shite.
Theyâd definitly make a decent bet
[quote=âLazarusâ]
Very average look about this lot.
Its mad the more you look at this years Munster chship the more you come to the conclusion that its Limericks to lose. Tipp wont be arsed and the rest are just shite.
Theyâd definitly make a decent bet[/quote]
Including Waterford? The only side to beat Kilkenny in the league?
Ya Waterford are shit
Davy is destroying waterford
Fair play to him, tis a missionaryâs work heâs doing down there.
[quote=âLazarusâ]Anthony Nash
John Oâ Callaghan Chris Murphy Conor Oâ Sullivan
Shane Oâ Neill Ronan Curran Sean Og Oâ Halphin
Barry Johnson Tom Kenny
Pat Horgan Rob White Ben Oâ Connor
Kieran Murphy (Sars) Brian Corry Cathal Naughton
Very average look about this lot.
Its mad the more you look at this years Munster chship the more you come to the conclusion that its Limericks to lose. Tipp wont be arsed and the rest are just shite.
Theyâd definitly make a decent bet[/quote]
Have you even seen all these players play? I doubt it, and i wouldnât expect them to be winning anything this year, but they could in the future.
Could put Cadogan in for Sean Og in time.
[quote=âcaoimhaoinâ]Have you even seen all these players play? I doubt it, and i wouldnât expect them to be winning anything this year, but they could in the future.
Could put Cadogan in for Sean Og in time.[/quote]
âThey could in the futureâ to be sure but they probably wont.
If I was the Cork manager the team I would be putting out come June would be something like:
Coleman
Shane O Neill-Ronan Curran-Conor O Sullivan
Paudie O Sullivan-John Gardiner-Eoin Cadogan
Tom Kenny-Jerry O Conner
Ben O Conner-Pa Cronin-Fintan O Leary
Cathal Naughton-Michael Cussen-Pat Horgan
The fact of the matter is that Cork are going to win no all ireland thsi year or nexy year, the likes of Donal Og, Sully, O Halpin, Deane, Timmy and Niall should be left off and begin the rebuilding, we in Clare held onto our All Ireland winners for too long and are paying the price nowâŚ