Wexford vs Kilkenny Leinster Senior Hurling Final

[dodo]

20 minutes gone and a goal in it.

Kilkenny    1-7
Wexford   0-7

Kilkenny goal from clear penalty by Henry Shefflin. Looked like the cats were going to run away with it at 1-6 to 0-3 but there is life in the Yella Bellies yet !
After Cork's big surprise earlier can the Model county boys shake up the hurling championship ?

[dodo]

Wexford defense holding up fairly well, riding their luck at times but that's the way in any contest. Richie Power had a ball cleared off the line and the ensuing 'point' was challenged strongly by Damien Fitzhenry who was convinced it was wide. Wexford getting plenty of posession, would be interesting to see the percentages. That comentator on TV3 keeps on about Banville having a good game at 14, don't see it myself at all.

Half time:
Kilkenny   1-8
Wexford  0-9

[dodo]

Wexford have had 54% posession in the first half according to TV3 stats.

[dodo]

Eddie brennan has decided to tune in and start scoring. He has 2-1 scored in 7 second half minutes.

42 minutes gone

Kilkenny    3-13
Wexford   0-11

[dodo]

63 minutes gone

Kilkenny   4-18
Wexford  0-14

Amazingly a few minutes ago TV3 gave a stat. of Wexford 52% second half posession.

[slow corner back]

Isnt it always like that with the cats they put on a spurt at some point in the game and no one can live with them. At least the spurt was not in the first ten minutes this time.

[dodo]

Final Score

Kilkenny    5-20
Wexford   0-17

Eoin Larkin named man of the match by Nicky English on TV3

[Zulu]

The Leinster championship needs to be scrapped, it no longer serves any purpose and is completely pointless. Bringing Galway in would change nothing, a more radical solution is needed.

[INDIANA]

absolutely agree,  bringing galway in will do nothing.

[Bord na Mona man]

Interestingly the Sunday Game pundits chose to brush over Kilkenny's level of physicality.
Walsh's stroke on Lyng deserves as much revisiting as Collie Moran's tackle on Bannon.

Duignan and Farrell were hardly going to pipe against Kilkenny in fairness though.
The attitude that only football needs cleaning up never helps.
This sort of mentality plays into the hands of the aggressors unfortunately.
Kilkenny are masters of playing on the edge and there is little chance of them being pulled up on it.

[slow corner back]

Walshs stroke was wild and nowhere near the ball but he did strike the players foot not his midriff or head. In my book it was somewhere in between a yellow and a red, lenient ref gives yellow stringent ref gives red. He got away with it today alright but from the refs point of view it was a fifty fifty call.

[Bord na Mona man]

Walshs stroke was wild and nowhere near the ball but he did strike the players foot not his midriff or head. In my book it was somewhere in between a yellow and a red, lenient ref gives yellow stringent ref gives red. He got away with it today alright but from the refs point of view it was a fifty fifty call.

A deliberate off the ball strike, is an off the ball strike in my view.

However the bigger point is how Kilkenny are taking maximum advantage of refs being lenient and not enforcing the rules properly.
Flicking hurleys at the man in possession, shoving under puckout, dragging around the neck with hurleys etc.
Good luck to them for doing so, but imagine if it was a non traditional up to the same antics!

[AZOffaly]

That's true BnM man, and as you are only too well aware, we've been grousing quietly about that for years. Quietly because it would look like sour grapes from a well beaten team if we were constantly bitching about it. Even Loughnane said something about it, and then rowed back as quick as he could, but he was correct.

However, even given their undoubted street smarts, you have to say they are the best team I've ever seen to take half chances and go for goals. When a Kilkenny forward turns a man 30 yards out, he is thinking goal. The maxim of 'take your points the goals will come' doesn't seem to register with them. They think 'take our goals and we'll put these lads away'. And it so often happens. Wexford and Offaly, especially, have lived with Kilkenny for different periods of the game several times, but Kilkenny move through the gears, and when they do, they score goals.

I'm not in favour of scrapping the provincial championships, but I do think the Leinster lads need to seriously apply themselves to raising their game to match Kilkenny. I think Wexford have the right idea in trying to work the ball down the field with shorter strokes to teammates, 60-40 balls or better. Kilkenny are so dominant under 50-50 balls, that at times you might as well be hitting it off a wall, it comes back that fast. The forwards are simply not there in Offaly or Wexford, or probably Dublin at the moment, to win those 50-50 balls consistently against this batch of Kilkenny defenders, so you have to minimise those sorts of deliveries, I think.

Also, I believe, to beat Kilkenny you need to score at least 2 or 3 goals. Given their own propensity to score the goals, and the manner they do it, I think a team facing them has to take a conscious decision to try and work goalscoring opportunities as well. Pick fast forwards, and get them running at Kilkenny, and when they spot a half opening, go for blood.

Some, I repeat SOME, of the Munster teams may have the capability to take on Kilkenny mano a mano and give them a right rattle, but for everybody else, I think the blueprint is Cork a few years ago, or Wexford in the first half yesterday, or Galway a few years ago. Don't hump in 50-50 100 yard deliveries from the half back line, work the ball up intelligently, and then, in addition to that, think goal when you have a chance. Obviously you need to keep the scoreboard ticking over with points, so don't charge stupidly in looking for a goal, but when the space presents itself, go for it.

They are an incredible team, in my opinion, but they are still only human. They can be beaten, but they can't be beaten by inferior teams who play into their hands.

[INDIANA]

the blueprint to beat kilkenny as Cork have shown is not to give them space, as well as playing to the limit of your ability over 70mins. very few teams however have the discipline over 70 mins however to see this through, thats why teams fail so often against them. one lapse at the back=goal.

[AZOffaly]

Defensively, yeah, close down the space. As I said, they're lethal when there's a half chance. Goal.

I'm focussing on offensively at the moment though. Cork, Galway and Wexford showed the benefit of opening them up intelligently by passes which keep possession, and then running at them. I'd also say that teams should develop the Kilkenny mentality of maximising half chances by going for goals at vital times in the game when those half chances arise.