NHL 2014

[seafoid]

A lot more settled look about Galway for sure but some things would worry me about yesterday . Johnny Glynn ruins some great possession with terrible striking of the ball and silly decision making. Secondly the form joe displayed . He was poor and I just hope that it was some sort of after effect of his hamstring injury and not a indication of his form for this year. We need him at the top of his game . To be honest I don't care where he plays, too many people are hung up about him playing at 14 where I actually think that Glynn might be the better option there. Thirdly the way that the half forward line retreated so deeply in the second half, which allowed the cats to mop up and launch attack onto our backs . This has echoes of 2012 where there was too much of a defensive set up to the team but please god yesterday was just a response to the fact that callinan could not get any length to his puck outs in the second half. Now on a more positive note, the team has a more settled look to it. We have real competition for places, in the forwards we have as nailed on players... Joe, n Burke , c Cooney and then fighting for the other spots.. Glynn, mannion , Hayes, Flynn, d Burke , Healy , Donnellan ( who resumes club activity next week ), in midfield brehony, Smyth , d Burke or tannian ? Backs could be the 2 burkes, coen , Collins, Moore, Harte, hynes and tannian? Some amount of players to choose from to be sure but it's a nice problem to have right now. I would put us in a second bracket of teams behind Clare and Kilkenny !! That would put us in a similar place to tipp , Dublin and cork in my opinion but we have a lot of work left to do. We have yet to beat Dublin or Waterford in championship hurling and this would be a good year to start exercising those ghosts wouldn't it?? Such an intriguing year of hurling to look forward to, so many teams could do well, I just want Galway to be considered as one of those teams. Roll on the summer!!

There will be a lot of training done between now and the summer.
I hope they can develop some tactical flexibility. 
I don't think who plays in the league final is so relevant.

[mouview]

Joe was carrying his injury into Sunday's game apparently. Why he was played is beyond me? Galway had done OK in the league without him.

Would like to see Glynn at 14 as well. Don't think his stickwork is good enough under pressure further out the field but he is an absolute horse of a man and destroyed a few full-backs during the league when he was played there but Cunningham keeps moving him out the field. Any time he wins possession at 14 his marker is forced to foul him because he's just so strong.

Glynn certainly had a good league campaign, but you fear that with the pace rising for c'ship, his sheer lack of 'close-in' skill and cumbersome striking will become more and more of a burden - an awful lot of ball falls off him rather than he catching it clean; agree though that he should be left at FF, with plenty of quicker, skillful players around him to work off him. Simply don't think that he and Donnellan can be played on the same team - both are so alike in awkwardness. Nearly above all requirements now, we need a strong, settled half-forward line, that can win ball, hurl, take scores and set up chances for those inside, not too much to ask is it?! Big Joe at no. 10 perhaps?

[Asal Mor]

I'd like to see Joe playing around the middle, getting on the ball and using his vision, which is his greatest asset. Either way, there's far too much talk about Joe and where to play him. It's not his fault (he always seems very humble) but there's a lot more to Galway than Joe. Cooney and Glynn might be the main men in attack this year though as always, who knows until the big days come? Niall Burke, Donnellan, Damian Hayes, Niall Healy and Cathal Mannion all have the ability to do a lot of damage too. I'm a big fan of Glynn in particular. I've seen too many insipid Galway forwards over the last 20 years who went missing in big games. I think Glynn, with his physicality and battling nature is made for championship hurling. And Conor Cooney is a good lesson to those of us who are too quick to dismiss fellas after having a shaky start to his inter-county career. I thought he wasn't up to it but now he's looks the business. Maith an buachaill.

[orangeman]

Tipp v KK on Sunday.


Should be interesting though both are pale shadows of former selves.

[Asal Mor]

Tipp v KK on Sunday.


Should be interesting though both are pale shadows of former selves.

Well, they're both building new teams so we'll see in the summer how pale they are. They're still favorites and third favorites with the bookies, and are both well capable of winning the All-Ireland this year. Certainly, some of the big players from the '09-'12 battles are gone already or on the way out, but they'll always have exceptional talent coming through. Hopefully, they'll both really go for it tomorrow.

[AZOffaly]

I can promise you they will go for it? Tipp v Kilkenny? Jaysus they'd try and beat each other in unislim!

[Rossfan]

I can promise you they will go for it? Tipp v Kilkenny? Jaysus they'd try and beat each other in unislim!

I read "Hurlingman" Considine's piece in yesterdays Examiner.
He's appealing to the linesmen and umpires not to interfere to stop off the ball stuff as " lads have to sort each other out"

[Asal Mor]

I can promise you they will go for it? Tipp v Kilkenny? Jaysus they'd try and beat each other in unislim!

Listening to it, it sounds like a championship game. Tipp will be serious contenders this year too. They've brought in a few quality young lads and Brendan, Padraig , Bonner Maher, Michael Cahill and Noel McGrath are all back in form.

[waterfordlad]

Great game. It didn't really take off till into 2nd half but was real end to end stuff after that. Lovely move between Hogan and Reid to work the winning point from the sideline ball. Tipperary wouldn't be too happy with some of the decisions I'd say. Noel McGrath had a wide given in extra time when ball inside the post and a soft free was given against Tipp defender just after Kilkenny's 2nd penalty when it looked like great corner back play in a tussle with Shefflin.
Hopefully the championship games will be as good at that.

[Canalman]

Cracking game. Thought ref a tad hard on Tipperary and one if not both penalties could easily have been frees out imo.
Still fancy Tipperary to make AIF.

Imo win for KK today may paper over a few cracks which will show themselves later in the summer.

Well done to both teams for a great game.

[mouview]

Middling match where  both sets of defences and midfields dominated. Despite the win, I'd say Cody would be worried as only Richie Hogan in the forwards produced anything like a performance; Power, Reid (from play), Shefflin, Mark Kelly, Colin Fennelly to a degree, Walter Walsh (did he touch the ball?) all practical passengers. Tipp's division wasn't much better; Callinan, Noel McGrath and Bubbles only seen in fleeting patches, Shane Bourke had a 'mare, Bonnar worked hard but is awkward.

Both these sides could be a good bet not to play in September.

[AZOffaly]

Cracking game. Thought ref a tad hard on Tipperary and one if not both penalties could easily have been frees out imo.
Still fancy Tipperary to make AIF.

Imo win for KK today may paper over a few cracks which will show themselves later in the summer.

Well done to both teams for a great game.

Was wondering that canal man. At the game I thought both penalties were harsh. Not sure what a backsman can do there.

[orangeman]

I can see why the ref gave the penalties but both were soft enough. Some great fielding of the ball by both teams and backs to the wall stuff.

KK definitely not the team of old - how could they be I suppose.

[orangeman]

There must have been a game of tiddly winks in the Tipp dugout on Sunday and Cody didn't want to lose it.

TIPPERARY County Board chairman Sean Nugent has laughed off his touchline spat with Kilkenny manager Brian Cody during the Allianz Hurling League final at Semple Stadium.


Nugent acknowledged that Cody was "seriously annoyed" when he marched towards the Tipp dugout during the first half before verbals were exchanged. It is understood that a remark was passed towards Cody from the Tipp bench – but not by Nugent.

Cody reacted by storming to the edge of the Tipp dugout and TV pictures showed that his anger was directed at Nugent, with Premier County board secretary Tim Floyd seated alongside him. Speaking after the game, Cody played down the incident and joked that he "made a mistake in what bench I was at".

Nugent adopted a similarly jovial stance when contacted yesterday.

"Brian came in just to look for directions to his own dugout. We gave him the directions and he went there. He said he was lost!" Nugent said.

"He was seriously annoyed at the time but in Tipperary we have immense respect for Brian. He's a passionate man about the whole thing and when you're that passionate, as the rest of us are as well, it can overflow at times. But it adds to the excitement of the whole occasion.

"We went to the Kilkenny dressing-room after the game and everything was grand. There's no problem at all that way. We have great respect for them."

Nugent admitted that the intense nature of the rivalry between Kilkenny and Tipperary helps to make the fixture what it is.

"It's absolutely intense," he said. "You'd find it hard to find words to describe what it is – with the emotion and the effect that it has on people."

[johnneycool]

Middling match where  both sets of defences and midfields dominated. Despite the win, I'd say Cody would be worried as only Richie Hogan in the forwards produced anything like a performance; Power, Reid (from play), Shefflin, Mark Kelly, Colin Fennelly to a degree, Walter Walsh (did he touch the ball?) all practical passengers. Tipp's division wasn't much better; Callinan, Noel McGrath and Bubbles only seen in fleeting patches, Shane Bourke had a 'mare, Bonnar worked hard but is awkward.

Both these sides could be a good bet not to play in September.

I'd say Eamon O'Shea would take another few awkward hurlers like Bonnar Maher in his forward division in the morning, he gets on some amount of ball and more often than not uses it well. Tipp will go nowhere without him, the others need to make themselves available when he does get on the ball.. The other Mahers solidify the centre of the Tipp defence well although Paudie has an achilles heel of big catching full forwards the last time he was in there, maybe he's learned from those chastening experiences. Hard to know what to make of the Tipp attack as Clare gave them an awful lot of space in the semi-final and they made good use of it, the Kilkenny defence are much tighter man markers and nullified them well. Wee Davy and TJ Ryan would have taken note.

Sad as it is, I think Henry is gone and if Cody is fair to the rest of the lads Henry should only be put on in the last 10 minutes or so as he hasn't got the legs anymore, a fact proved when the Tipp corner back was behind him and still somehow managed to sneak in front of him to steal the ball, incorrectly called by the referee as a foul for Shefflin. Mark Kelly wasn't going great guns either but somehow got hauled off first. Richie Hogan and TJ Reid have now to lead this team along with the Fennellys and Eoin Larkin. For the first time in a long time Cody has a few selection headaches in relation to the spine of his team, Hogan was OK on sunday but I thought Lester Ryan was better in previous games in the centre back position. Big Walter is the go to man for buck outs when he's stationed close to the right sideline but it hasn't worked to date and he's been out of sorts. Cody might get a reasonable warm up game against Offaly in the Leinster championship to put some of this right, but the Dubs and Galway could pose different threats later on.


Evidently Tony Considine doesn't agree with me on Henry and Walter;

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/hurling/the-cream-of-the-crop-so-far-267639.html