Kilkenny v Waterford AI semi final 9th August - can Waterford exact revenge ?

[Premier Emperor]

Fingers crossed for the Deise. Wouldn't a Waterford-Limerick final be marvellous ?

Marvellous? It would be the worst All Ireland final since 1996!

[Zulu]

Fist off well done to kilkenny on reaching another AI final but are the RTE commentary team and analysts under instructions to talk up every hurling game? Kilkenny were 5-7 points up all through this game and rarely looked in trouble yet Canning et al are trying to tell us it was some sort of classic, it was a decent game but hardly edge of the seat stuff and there was plenty of loode play around the middle of the pitch.

[EddieMerx]

Fingers crossed for the Deise. Wouldn't a Waterford-Limerick final be marvellous ?

Marvellous? It would be the worst All Ireland final since 1996!

Jesus typical Tipp, if there is no kk, Cork or Tipp in the final it's a bad year! I honestly believe the Cats have a massive game in them and Tipp may be humiliated this year

[seafoid]

Tipp are the hurling equivalent of France at the UN. Why does France still have a permanent security council seat?   Why do people talk about Tipp in the same breath as Cork and the cats ? Tipp stopped winning consistently shortly after De Gaulle died. I remember hoping they'd make the breakthrough back in the early 80s. In many ways I am still waiting. 

[orangeman]

Well done to KK - Yet another final appearance - comfortable winners - a repeat of last year's AI final was never going to be on the cards. Well done to Waterford for salvaging a bit of pride.

[020304 Tir Eoghain]

Looks like KK are just doing enough in each match this year. There seems to be another gear left in them for some reason, which might
be bad news for their final opponents, whoever that might be, probably Tipp.

[Eastern_Pride]

Tipp are the hurling equivalent of France at the UN. Why does France still have a permanent security council seat?   Why do people talk about Tipp in the same breath as Cork and the cats ? Tipp stopped winning consistently shortly after De Gaulle died. I remember hoping they'd make the breakthrough back in the early 80s. In many ways I am still waiting. 

Jaysus thats philisophical speaking for yiz now! If all punters were like this chap hurling would be a far more interesting game!

[Reillers]

Looks like KK are just doing enough in each match this year. There seems to be another gear left in them for some reason, which might
be bad news for their final opponents, whoever that might be, probably Tipp.

Ya, l didn't expect another show of last year's final. But you couldn't have, that was them peaking, you can't improve on that, it's as close to perfection as you'll get on a hurling pitch.

KK remind me a bit of Cork in 05 when they just did enough each game and went on and won the AI final. And KK like Cork back then, have a lot of milage on the clock, which looks to be showing. They've been going for a long time and have lost a bit of their bite.

I didn't think they'd win the AI this year, I thought Galway would beat them, but that didn't happened so I hoped Waterford would, I doubt Tipp/Limerick will beat KK in the final, so this looks to be their year again.

But I can't see them winning the AI next year, they've too much milage on that clock, it's got nothing to do with age or ability, they're just going stale.
They're lucky in a sense, they put all their efforts into hurling, no football, or other sports like rugby or soccer, even looking at Cork, our team could be massively improved if we could take Cussen and Aidan Walsh from the footballers, they don't have the pressure of the dual codes. They put all their efforts into hurling, and clearly it shows. But this team has been going for a long time, and I know KK people like to tell themselves that every player on the team is replaceable and the lads on the bench, even their "second string" team is as good as the starting team, but they're not. And IF they win it this year, I think it'll be the end of this current KK team. Whether they win it again next season with a new fresh team is another question completley. But the team looks tired and lacks hunger. KK have a lot of gears, and today (this season really) they looked like they could go up another gear if they needed to. But the KK team of last season would just go up the gears as high as they could every game. They look to be getting stale. The only ones that can stop this Kilkenny side, is Kilkenny themselves. And I think that might be the case next season. They look tired. They look like they're forcing it a bit, just doing enough each time, when last season and a few before that, they'd hit up as big a score as they could.

KK could well come out and destroy Tipp (if it's Tipp, I've a funny feeling Limerick could catch Tipp out, which, while I wanted Limerick in the final a few weeks ago, I don't know, purely because it wouldn't be a competition. It'll be interesting to see what's left in this KK team, all season so far they've just done enough to win games. It'll be interesting to see in the final if they've still the hunger to go and humiliate a team, completley blow them out of the water, or just do enough to get by. The ability is clearly still there, but is the hunger?

[orangeman]

Winning the AI by one point or twenty points is the same thing. You get handed the Liam Mc Carthy and an AI cross at a dinner dance later in the year. The following year takes care of itself. Right now, KK won't be worried about 2010, they'll be focussing on 6th September.

[Reillers]

Winning the AI by one point or twenty points is the same thing. You get handed the Liam Mc Carthy and an AI cross at a dinner dance later in the year. The following year takes care of itself. Right now, KK won't be worried about 2010, they'll be focussing on 6th September.

They wont care, but we will, the rest of us who still hold out hope of winning an AI in the next few seasons. We all know that KK have the ability to go on and win more AI's but, if the hunger starts to go, then the rest should follow after that. Winning itself so consistantly can in some ways become almost a burden of sorts. There's always that massive pressure to win there. In 06 Cork were going on this unbeaten run, and we were saying how if we lost before it got serious it'd be almost a good thing, just to get it out of the way and bring back the hunger. But we didn't, and at the end of the day in 06 the hunger, the will to win it wasn't really there, and we were beaten by a KK team who had our game plan totally worked out. They were better, but they were much more fired up then we were. They had something to prove, we didn't not really, because all we had been doing was winning. I can't really explain it better then that.

[orangeman]

Are you trying to compare the KK and the Cork teams ?

[Reillers]

Are you trying to compare the KK and the Cork teams ?

In a way I was I suppose, and so what if I was. For a few years Cork were better then the KK team. And as I've clearly pointed out, all I'm saying is that what I see in KK now, is how the Cork team were in 05/06 how they lost the hunger which was key to them going down hill (though I do think KK will be able to replace players easier then Cork.) I was using it as an example. I'm not sure what else I could have used seeing as it's been Cork/KK with the AI's for almost the last 10 years. If you like I could use Kerry footballers if you like. They lacked hunger and that led to them being beaten by the better team, who were more hungry and had a point to prove.

[orangeman]

Are you trying to compare the KK and the Cork teams ?

In a way I was I suppose, and so what if I was. For a few years Cork were better then the KK team. And as I've clearly pointed out, all I'm saying is that what I see in KK now, is how the Cork team were in 05/06 how they lost the hunger which was key to them going down hill (though I do think KK will be able to replace players easier then Cork.) I was using it as an example. I'm not sure what else I could have used seeing as it's been Cork/KK with the AI's for almost the last 10 years. If you like I could use Kerry footballers if you like. They lacked hunger and that led to them being beaten by the better team, who were more hungry and had a point to prove.

There wasn't much in the teams for a while I'll grant you that - now Cork have fallen apart. KK are still there - going for 4 in a orw.

[Reillers]

Are you trying to compare the KK and the Cork teams ?

In a way I was I suppose, and so what if I was. For a few years Cork were better then the KK team. And as I've clearly pointed out, all I'm saying is that what I see in KK now, is how the Cork team were in 05/06 how they lost the hunger which was key to them going down hill (though I do think KK will be able to replace players easier then Cork.) I was using it as an example. I'm not sure what else I could have used seeing as it's been Cork/KK with the AI's for almost the last 10 years. If you like I could use Kerry footballers if you like. They lacked hunger and that led to them being beaten by the better team, who were more hungry and had a point to prove.

There wasn't much in the teams for a while I'll grant you that - now Cork have fallen apart. KK are still there - going for 4 in a orw.

Cork "have fallen apart" after going for a 3 in a row. About the same timing if you ask me.

What's different now from when Cork were on top and now is, well KK are a distance apart now, when Cork were winning, teams were more competitive. Now it's just KK, and it has been for about 2 seasons, and while they've gone forward others seem to, for one reason or another fallen back in the progress, obviously that's to take nothing away from KK, they are an incredibly special team.

But it happens to every team, it's called time. Teams go stale. Even the best of teams. This current KK team have a lot of mileage on the clock, and it doesn't matter who you're manager is or how good you're players are. You can't stop the affect that time has on a team.

[orangeman]

Are you trying to compare the KK and the Cork teams ?

In a way I was I suppose, and so what if I was. For a few years Cork were better then the KK team. And as I've clearly pointed out, all I'm saying is that what I see in KK now, is how the Cork team were in 05/06 how they lost the hunger which was key to them going down hill (though I do think KK will be able to replace players easier then Cork.) I was using it as an example. I'm not sure what else I could have used seeing as it's been Cork/KK with the AI's for almost the last 10 years. If you like I could use Kerry footballers if you like. They lacked hunger and that led to them being beaten by the better team, who were more hungry and had a point to prove.

There wasn't much in the teams for a while I'll grant you that - now Cork have fallen apart. KK are still there - going for 4 in a orw.

Cork "have fallen apart" after going for a 3 in a row. About the same timing if you ask me.

What's different now from when Cork were on top and now is, well KK are a dstance apart now, when Cork we winning teams were more competitive. Now it's just KK, and it has been for about 2 seasons, and while they've gone forward others seem to, for one reason or another fallen back in progress, obviously that's to take nothing away from KK, they are an incredibly special team.

But it happens to every team, it's called time. Teams go stale. Even the best of teams. This current KK team have a lot of mileage on the clock, and it doesn't matter who you're manager is or how good you're players are. You can't stop the affect that time has on a team.

I agree with you. Time catches up with everybody and every team. But Cork didn't seem to realise this as past while. I always said that it was no shame for the Crok team of 2008 that they no longer at the top of their game. Father time caught them up as well. But they didn't realise it at the time. Maybe they do now.