Kilkenny vs Waterford - All Ireland semi final 07/06/2011

[johnneycool]

On the plus side for Kilkenny    I thought young Fennelly in the corner was handy enough and quick on his feet.

Any relation to Liam Fennelly as he looked to have similar sharp features?

[Premier Emperor]

Any relation to Liam Fennelly as he looked to have similar sharp features?

We hear ya, we hear ya.
He's a son of Michael Fennelly, same sharp features.

[Croí na hÉireann]

Eoin Larkin's first touch is woeful. Cha should be on here.

Kilkenny are far off the pace and standard they will need if they play Tipp.

No KK player distinguished themselves particularly today (with the probable exceptions of Walsh and Hogan) but to suggest Eoin Larkin's touch is woeful (perhaps you only meant today, not in general) is ludicrous. Power's touch was much, much worse today, losing ball left, right and centre. Struggling to hold onto anything

Very disappointing performance from the Cats. Some of their striking and distribution was very shoddy, as was some of the decision making. I've never seen Shefflin choose to play so many balls in low to the full forwards when a simple point was on offer. He did a lot of uncharacteristic moaning to the ref as well.

I expected them to come out and make a statement. With all due respect to Dublin, there was nothing there today to suggest that KK can seriously challenge Tipp. John Mullane was great to watch, but you'd wonder what Lar and Kelly could do.

Yeah, I meant yesterday. In fairness he wasn't alone but I thought his touch was poor. Even Shefflin was poking at the ball like an aul wan raking the fire at one stage, before kicking it away. I've never seen that before. I wonder was the grass a bit longer than normal?  One time Larkin was trying to pick it up, couldn't, ended up standing on the ball (!!) and the ball nearly disappeared into the grass.

The conspiracy theorist in me says they might have left it a bit longer to stop lads slipping around like they were last weekend. I didn't notice as much slipping this week to be fair, but I wonder is that why.

Whatever Cody has planned he wasn't gonna show his hand in this game.

He's had no problem doing so in the past. They've just gone out and walloped teams when they've been on top like yesterday. People seem to think they wlll just go up 2 or 3 gears effortlessly in the final which is always possible but maybe they are finding those higher gears harder to reach now.

Agreed but I can't help but feel that he is taking a different approach this year, solely with Tipp in mind.

[deiseach]

Rather sanguine about it all. We're just not good enough. I can see us not getting into a semi-final next year. Might be a blessed relief.

Match report here

[TippTony]

Watching Kilkenny on Sunday I was reminded of Ger Loughnanes constant criticism of Tipperary 3 or 4 years ago, that they lacked the kind of ruthlessness you'd see from Kilkenny to finish off a team.

Maybe Kikenny's defensive play for the last 20 minutes was just tactics to see the game out and avoid any injuries, but with only 5-6 points in it and Mullane capable of getting in for a second goal, it would have been a very risky strategy not to push on and widen the gap.