2012 Leinster Club Championships

[Kevin]

This is great news. Congrats to the KK 'family' on this latest success.

Offaly clubs in back to back Leinster titles...NICE!!!!!!!!!

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Mighty proud to be an Offaly man in Nowlan Park yesterday. First of all, have to have some sympathy for the Oulart lads, 3 provincial finals is hard for a club. But that's not our problem. KK hurled really well, and the mix of hurling that they produced was fantastic, strong in the air, winning many of the 50/50 stuff on the ground, and some fantastic ground hurling also.
And to win with Ciaran Slevin playing well below his best will be a huge plus to them when they sit down to analyse this. David Redmond hurled a great game in the centre for Oulart but Gilmartin and Leonards industry won out here. Kevin Grogan had one huge game and his point was massive in the second half.

Coolderry And now KK in Nowlan park, 2 bonusses for the county, surely all the top 6 clubs will be chomping at the bit for the club championship to come around in 2013, and this can only be good for hurling.

The amount of people down on the pitch from all over the county shows how people are craving success and for younger kids to see Offaly clubs lifting silverware is a positive. With Offaly beating Meath yesterday and a positive reception for Club Faithful, hopefully things might see a turn for the better in 2013!

Well done to KK again, well done to Danny Owens, Jimmy Dunne, John Leahy before them, and to all who have worked with the club to build the fantastic facilities they have down there. A lot of people have knocked KK over the years, and often with good reason at times, but fair play, you have kept going and this achievement is an inspiration to all clubs in the county!

As a matter of interest, did radio 3 spend much of the time on the hurling or how did they do the split with the Portlaoise game?

[Toxicity234]

Back to Back Leinster title's for Offaly Clubs.
That in its self said something about Offaly Hurling.
Yesterday Kilcormac/Killoughey were composed and determined.
From the 1st min goal from Currams. Which was made from one of the youngest player on the pitch blocking down and one of the experienced player.
The reaction of both Currams and Gerathy were great for the 1st min of the big match. Gerathy had and ball up and passed before Rossiter could react.
If Currams had stayed on the field with the way he was playing K/K could well be further ahead at half time. He didn’t look like he was 100% in the second half but after the bang to head. He did well to come on at all and knock over the 2 point in the second half.
From the time of Ger Healion shoulder in the 5 min on Paul Roche. The K/K backs were on top.
David Redmond looked to be hurling well for Oulart but it was Kilmartin who was winning the dirty ball and driving KK forward. He was in the half back line helping out and in the middle of the 1st half score a great point.
Connor Mahon was getting the better of Stamp at centre back. I have been critical of his use of ball before but yesterday he was great. He gave 5 or 6 little pop pass that there a joy to watch. The pass was only about a half a yard but it open up the whole fielded for KK.
James Gorman has had a tough year but yesterday on the biggest day I thought he was great. His 3 points were all about his feet. He won the ball step away for his man and over the bar. On the day where score were hard to come by he made it look easy.
It’s nice to be in December saying good thing about Kilcormac/Killoughey and Offaly Hurling.
And looking forward to the new year.

[kingscounty]

I also think the two games K/K played against Rathdowney and Mount Leisnter Rangers were key to K/K winning yesterday. These were two very hard games which stood to K/K , against Rathdowney they were on the ropes for alot of the game and they fought back like the Offaly of old . Yesterday they played for the whole game not for 15 minute periods, with forwards tackling like defenders and lads putting their bodies on the line all for the one cause. It would be great to see Offaly with the same heart and desire to win that our club hurling teams have.

[Lone Shark]

I won't lie, I was concerned for K/K going into that match - I genuinely thought that Oulart were caught on the hop last year by Coolderry, and that they were beaten by their own manager's ineptitude as anything else on that occasion. With a proper level of focus and some intelligent thinkers on the sideline, I really thought Oulart would be a lot better than that this time around.

That said, K-K were really fantastic and earned the win. Oulart didn't lose this game, K-K won it. Grogan, Peter Geraghty and Kilmartin hurled well and also they looked like they were hurling well, hence their mention in terms of the man of the match award, but I thought Conor Mahon had a great game in an understated way. If you read about Oulart in the run up to this game, so much of the discussion was about how well Darren Stamp was hurling and how he had benefited from stepping away from Wexford and giving all his energy to his club. Mahon didn't catch the eye when on the ball, but he completely negated Stamp's influence while still finding the time to do some good things himself.

It was also notable that while Rory Jacob was given a little bit of space to run around and do what Rory Jacob does - i.e. buzz around the place frantically and hit the ball wide - the K-K defence did a really good job on Sinnott and Kirwan, who were much bigger threats. I'd be a little bit concerned that Eoin Moore got so much freedom and that's an area where they'd have to improve, but generally it was very good defensive play with lads always looking sharp in the hunt for breaks. Critically, the forwards put pressure on every clearance. Oulart never got a chance to pass the ball, they were always just clearing it blind - which suited the K-K backs perfectly.

Also if people thought Oulart were over-rated (and I'm quite possibly guilty of overestimating them myself) wait till Thurles Sars come to town. Here's a selection of the views posted on Premierview already. In the history of the GAA there has never been a club team that has had so much hype for so little actual achievement.

Just watching it here now, Oulart will be sick,Kilcormac are poor too. Great result for Sars I think,

The road has really opened up for Sarsfields now. Kilcormac had beaten the Carlow champs and Errill to get to todays final and chances are Oulart were probably wrecked after last week. I'm sure that the Sarsfields lads will start playing down their chances again but on paper Thurles would be a 10-15 point better team than Kilcormac if this were are game in July or August.

Sars are a far better team than Kilcormac, seen Kilcormac play Cork Sars in Holycross about 6 weeks ago and they were very poor, recognized a lot of the players today. If Sars go out with the heads right and have their homework done they can put up a big score if the conditions allow for it, even though they have shown conditions havnt exactly stopped them this year so far.

Looking good for the Sars now anyway

Thurles will beat the **** out of Kilcormac, Portlaoise will be the venue I'd guess.

My edit btw - no point in reproducing bad language, ye get the idea.

It will be a major shock if Sars are not hurling in Croke Park on St.Patricks day.Probably against St.Thomas'.If they can handle Watson in the semi they'll handle Lougheil.

Sars may book the open top bus, a few laps of the square, get it cordoned off gardai, in d bag.

From what I saw today, I couldnt see those Kilcormac backs holding all of Sars forward line for an hour. Couple of big strong honest lads there, who done well today, but I could see them having trouble with Sars pace and movement.

...the bookmakers had Oulart hot favourites.. Looks like a stroll in the park for Sarsfields now.

[True Red]

The arrogance of those Tipp lads is staggering

[Plain of the Herbs]

Ye know what they say about them - bad losers and worse winners.

The arrogance of those Tipp lads is staggering

[KillougheyGoBragh]

TG4.ie/Oulart v's K-K

Anybody having problems playing this video?
I keep getting an error returned.
Any help appreciated.

[townman]

TG4.ie/Oulart v's K-K

Anybody having problems playing this video?
I keep getting an error returned.
Any help appreciated.

just watched it there on tg4 player no problem

[Bord na Mona man]

TG4.ie/Oulart v's K-K

Anybody having problems playing this video?
I keep getting an error returned.
Any help appreciated.

Region protected perhaps?

[llkj]

TG4.ie/Oulart v's K-K

Anybody having problems playing this video?
I keep getting an error returned.
Any help appreciated.

Region protected perhaps?

From what I know, you are not based in Ireland, right? If not, you'll need to log in from an Irish IP address to watch the TG4 player.

[KillougheyGoBragh]

" Error Code:
VE_FMS_CONNECT_FAILED "
Thought it was the media player I'm using (Flash) or the browser (Chrome) but it fails on Firefox and other players so it must be something to do with 'Regional Content' as I get same error for the Kickhams v's Portlaoise video.
Could be available after 7 days or something like that for Interrnational viewing.
Thanx for the replies BTW.

[tipptopper]

Wait till we get k/k in the all Ireland semi.. Itll be a land slide victory for the cream of tipp!! remember the cream will always rise to the top.. k/k wouldnt even hold there own in junior b hurling in tipp.

[Muck Savage]

Wait till we get k/k in the all Ireland semi.. Itll be a land slide victory for the cream of tipp!! remember the cream will always rise to the top.. k/k wouldnt even hold there own in junior b hurling in tipp.

Thats true, sure kk might as well go on the beer for the christmas and enjoy it. Sure they might forget about going to the semi and save wasting petrol heading to the game. Best of luck to the cream in the AI, Tipp teams have won a lot of club AI's inthe last 20 years so yer well use to it.

[townman]

Wait till we get k/k in the all Ireland semi.. Itll be a land slide victory for the cream of tipp!! remember the cream will always rise to the top.. k/k wouldnt even hold there own in junior b hurling in tipp.

hope you do better than the tipp team did in this years semil-final 20 points defeat was it will lar run around like a blue arse fly
after Brian Leonard all day