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Proof, if any more proof was needed that Kilkenny are in a different league to the rest.
I think the guff about the Munster championship being ultra competitive and Kilkenny having no competition in Leinster has been put to bed this year too.
Kilkenny would destroy everyone in Munster as well.
In fact, some of the Munster counties should be glad they are insulated from a beating from Kilkenny every year. Tipp can still half heartedly point out that they have only lost to Kilkenny twice in over 35 years.

Looking at Offaly now. It would be easier for Offaly to jump from 7th best to 2nd best in the country, than it would be for the 2nd best team to overhaul the Cats. Every other big county are now suddenly realising that they must do some serious rebuilding in order to take on Kilkenny. Cork this year are a bit like Offaly circa 2000-2001. They had one last tilt at the Cats with the old guard and now realise they will never be able to beat them with the current squad.

Tipperary are probably the best positioned side to take on Kilkenny, in that they have already started to blood players and have a decent underage setup. They also were saved a savage hammering by losing to Waterford in the semis. Imagine Sheedy trying to pick up the pieces if they got a double digit trimming yesterday.
Waterford sadly will be badly punctured by yesterday and will have to rebuild without much great underage resources.

With Waterford and Cork rebuilding, Limerick in a bit of turmoil, Galway being windy as always, there is a great chance for Offaly to move up the pecking order. There is at last a spine of players that we could build a team around for 5+ years. Kenny, Bergin, Hanniffy, Horan are players you would expect to wear the jersey for a long time.
There are fast improving young players like Dooley and Molloy.
If we get another few years out of seasoned players like Murphy, Oakley and Franks, it will help bring on young players with potential like Daniel Currams

The improvements of this year need to be consolidated. At least make sure we don't slide back to the days of half hearted performances and tame defeats of old. There is plenty to be learned from this year. A more experienced Offaly side would perhaps have stayed the distance against Waterford. With time, players will learn though. We have come a long way, but there is no guarantee that you won't quickly return from whence you came.

It is important that Offaly learn to play every game with the fire and intensity of the Limerick and Waterford performances. It should be our default gear and not just for a once a year blow out performance. Kilkenny put themselves where they are by playing their matches and training session games at high tempo. Yesterday was business as usual for them. There was no need for geeing up, fist pumping, bulging eyeballs and psyching up. They just did what they have done so often. They did it out of habit.
Offaly need to develop good habits too.
I'm not suggesting we can easily match Kilkenny, but with the right frame of mind and approach to every game, we can make ourselves a consistent outfit and keep ourselves in the top tier of hurling counties.

If we can at least manage to keep ourselves in the top 4 or 5 counties in Ireland, then there is a much better setup to bring underage players into. How many promising underage players have we wasted in recent years by adding them into a senior setup that was terminally ill?
I know that our underage is not yet where it should be, but if we keep the senior panel competitive, playing with the right attitude, then there is at least the correct template to build on.

Lets hope Offaly got a good run through Division 2 next year and get another good tilt at the championship.

I agree that the main goal now has to be getting to be second to Kilkenny until this great team eventually falls away (which they will). But what goals does that leave you with. Because we are in Leinster with them we can't even have a provincial title as an attainable goal. Do we just say that if KK are the only team to beat us in a year that's our great season??

TheManFromFerbane wrote:I agree that the main goal now has to be getting to be second to Kilkenny until this great team eventually falls away (which they will). But what goals does that leave you with. Because we are in Leinster with them we can't even have a provincial title as an attainable goal. Do we just say that if KK are the only team to beat us in a year that's our great season??

with kilkenny in the all-irelands in minor, U-21, and intermediate ..... when will they become beatable???... certainly not in the near future, assuming they can keep the hunger going... which they seem to be able to do with ease...

No team can keep it going forever. I say within 3 years we'll have a different All Ireland champion. This isn't based on anything other than the belief that no team can keep going forever and eventually they will have to have a bad day at the office.

When Cody retires there'll have to be a bit of a negative impact for them. His ability to keep them hungry and firing on all cylinders is amazing. Surely the next man in that job will not be able to keep them going. 1 All Ireland sates a lot of hunger for most people. I know Kilkenny have different standards at the moment but, even so, you'd imagine that when Cody's gifts for motivation and focus are no longer there, they'll eventually run out of steam. For a while at least.

It would be nice to see them win 1 more and then we could ruin another five-in a-row!!

The big question is who the next Seamus Derby will be??

i think KK win actually end up winning more the next decade than they will this. They have the majority of the best young hurlers in the County and the system to get them to reach there full potential. If Cody goes Martin Fogarty, multipul U21 All Ire winning manager will step in. Paul Murphy,Kieran Joyce,Paddy Hogan, John Mulhal cant even make the panel ffs. All the other counties are down.

I watched them in the flesh on Sunday and it was truly a case of men against boys. True The Deise are not THAT bad but Kilkenny are truly that good. I definitely think they are well on for 5 ina row. They Championship structure that allows them one bad day out at provincial level and a re run if needed. Also take into account the general state of hurling is weaker than it has been outside KK in the last 20 years. If they are able to maintain their hunger (which appears not to be a problem) then its well on the cards. If Henry had not picked up his knee injury in the 1st half of the All Ireland last year I think that they could have easily opened the same can of “whoppy” on Limerick.

The saddest thing is that the show piece of the Championship has been such a dead rubber two years in a row and I would think half the TV audience would have tuned out by half time. Tipp look like they are doing it at underage and the U21 final will be a big game for the non senior panel players that are aspiring. At the start of the season it was felt that it was going to be the most competitive for years ….. Doh

sorry guys for going off topic now.
can anyone explain why tommy walsh wasnt sent off.having just studied the game a second time ,he made 3 bookable offences aswell as sum persistent fouling?did the ref not want to leave the cats with 14 on the day that was in it?

also why is sheflin allowed contest every single foul given against him or his team,hes fast becoming the wayne rooney of soccer.take note next time ye see them in action.

finally just to commend the kilkenny team on one of the best displays ever in a final.
very dissapointed in guys like ken mcgrath and browne who especially who had been hurling beyond his years.

the bar has been set,lets try and follow.
uibh fhaili
uibh fhaili

The only reason Tommy did not walk was that Barry Kelly did not want to been to send anybody off in a facile win. You would have to have struck off the ball to get the line. Personally I think he gets away with a huge amount.

Henry has the leeway to question the referee in the same way most players of his profile have. He knows that he will never be sent off for descent and uses this to exert the max amount of pressure on the referee to get every decision he can his way. This is not as much a Henry problem as a GAA problem. As long as referees can be talked back to without an automatic sanction high profile players will ALWAYS do this

gutless08 wrote:sorry guys for going off topic now.
can anyone explain why tommy walsh wasnt sent off.having just studied the game a second time ,he made 3 bookable offences aswell as sum persistent fouling?did the ref not want to leave the cats with 14 on the day that was in it?

Carding Little Tommy would be as close to blasphemy as you will get on a hurling field.
In hurling and football the small man is usually heavily favoured.
The 6 foot plus ball catcher generally has to have the head pulled off him before the ref blows, whereas the little terrier can get up to all sorts of mischief.

I reckon it all goes back to childhood days when you would get a little lad to stand in and make up numbers in a game.
The understanding was that he would not be subject to the same rigours of the game.

Back to Tommy Walsh, he is dirty little fecker, but it does beg the question - Should 6 foot players be allowing themselves to be so easily pushed around and terrorised by such a small man? If I was marking him, I'd do my best to put his tolerance of timber to the test. Throw in a few late charges and maybe get a team mate to sandwich him and see how he likes it!

I was at the game and Kilkenny hurled at a level I've never seen before and I don't think they will match again.

Tommy Walsh sailed fairly close to the wind alright but his "6 footer" marker started it. Prendergast came up to him before the throw in, refused the offer of a handshake, started a row and pulled off his helmet. Tommy ended up hurling a stormer and Prendergast didn't see the second half after an anonymous opening 35 minutes. Prendergast's brother's carry on was worse. Before the match started he kicked his opponent, Power, in the legs at least 6 or 7 times. You'd wonder what umpires are there for. Eoin Murphy also kneed Eddie Brennan a few times. He looked ridiculous doing it and it would be very out of character, suggesting to me little Davy had a plan to wind up the firier Kilkenny players that backfired badly.

The Kilkenny tactics are excellent but mainly based on the ability of a man to be able to beat his direct opponent and applying severe pressure when not in possession. Winning clean possesion, esp fielding the ball in the air, is a skill that all coaches should be putting huge time into in Offaly now.

under the current format Kilkenny have two chances every year

how will they be beaten twice every year? same as Kerry in the football

I think counties just have to start beating Kilkenny at underage and keep beating them all the way up. And when you're beating them, try and beat them out the gate!

Get as many players to play 3rd level hurling so that they are used of playing top quality hurling before they hit senior.