Leinster Club Hurling Championship

[kingscounty]

Na Fianna worthy winners, on top for the entire game. Bigger players, more slick, spread the ball better for their forwards and always seemed to have a loose man for a puck out or pass coming out of defence.
KK battled hard but never looked like winning the game, another 2 or 3 years needed to mature and they won’t be far away.

[private joker]

The route one hurling won't work at this level. Went long a lot and lost out. Na fianna/ballygunner final would be some game if they both got there.

[Géill Slí]

Donal Burke made a huge contribution for Na Fianna, and was probably the main difference between the teams, especially in the second half when KK got parity in general play. Na Fianna wothy winners, the better and more physical team throughout. The loss of Cillian Kiely was critical in the end, yes he came in but was clearly nowhere near 100%.
Yes, Charlie Mitchell showed very well tonight, along with Adam Screeney. Colin Spain less influential than in previous matches, and the backs were under constant pressure throughout.
I think in general KK would have wanted to push on a bit more in Leinster after last year’s showing vs Loughlins, but it will take more time for the majority of those young players to mature physically. The hope is that the likes of Slevin, Conor Mahon and others in the older category will still be there when the younger lads come of age.
Well done to KK for representing the county with pride and determination, I hope your day will come in a year of two.

[SearingDrive]

Overall whats the state of the nation

Sometimes wonder are people very hard on offaly club teams

KK ballinagar competing in leinster finals

Tullamore not a million miles off a very good cuala team

Clonbullogue came up short against a team who are probably operating at a level below themselves

Can’t be all bad surely

No, we can learn from tonight. KK will learn from tonight. Ballinagar, a small rural club, are 60 mins away from a provincial junior football title.
Not a bad weekend at all.

[Bord na Mona man]

K-K fought the good fight last night. At times they were under huge pressure, but it was admirable how they stuck to the job. From being 7 points down late in the 1st half to getting back to a single point was unlikely and done against the head. There was a lull in the 2nd half where Na Fianna weren't scoring but equally K-K didn't made inroads.

Kiely was an undoubted loss, Guinan too. Maybe Burke wouldn't have picked 7 points from play with a better organised K-K defence? We'll never know, but Na Fianna were strong all over the field. At full strength, K-K would still be underdogs.

Na Fianna are further down the path of their own journey. They've had setbacks also. This time last year, they were the ones coming up short vs O'Loughlin Gaels.

K-K have time on their side. Going forward, they'll have a team backboned by a 7 or 8 players who were U20 this year.
However, they might need to alter their style a bit. High fielding options like Mahon and Gorman are nearing retirement. After that they'll need to work off a more possession oriented style.

They have serious talent though and that's a great starting point. Making athletes out of hurlers is easier than making hurlers out of athletes. With good player development, there is no reason why K-K can't be contenders for club All Irelands in the coming years.

[biffinbanner]

well said bnm. on the money. na fianna are now 6/5 favs ro win it. if if if. if kiely and guinan were fully fit ? the physicality of the dubs lads was evident but kk fought bravely to the end. if kavanaghs shot had gone it it might have been interesting?. as said. the talent is there to win 1 or even 2 in years to come..

[llkj]

Picking up on a slightly difference aspect of the game the other night was some of the tackles that were on the questionable side. I don't know if it was any worse here than any other hurling game but there were plenty of shoulders to the helmet and cynical tackles that just slid by without any impact.... on both sides.

Let me give some examples -
- last minute of the game: K-K player pulled down while bearing in on goal. The only punishment in the rulebook is a yellow card and a free in. It happened with 50 seconds left. After the free was struck there was less than 50 seconds played, so not only did it kill time, but it also killed the opportunity to bring the deficit down to 3 points and give K-K an outside chance of winning a puckout and scoring an equalizing goal. Definite opportunity for a hurling rules committee to change the rule here; give a penalty, give an automatic goal, give a goal and a 65 to the attacking team... something to properly punish the foul.
- Fast forward 50 seconds and the last play of the game. The Na Fianna number 18 gives a shoulder charge to the head of the K-K player going down on a ball. It would have been a free to K-K for sure, but with the result already a foregone conclusion the ref just blew it up. I think there were 3 such 'tackles' in the game. there was a mandate to eradicate these challenges from the game a couple of years ago, but several of them happened here without much punishment.
- 53.40 mins into the game - ball goes into the corner. Na F number 7, without a hurl, tries to 'cutely' prevent Gorman from getting to the ball. Gorman gives him a forearm to the back of the helmet in frustration. Free out. Probably should have been more.
- Also, tackling/rucks ultimately won the game for Na Fianna. Their 2 goals came from their players coming up with the ball after a scrum/tackle. It left the field wide open in both cases with the K-K players out of position. While it didn't have a feel of a small margins game, it was ultimately small margins that won it.

[private joker]

As you say tackling was a bit suspect from both sides but that's to be expected as the levels go up and the prizes are greater. Don't think the game was lost by small margins. Na fianna, particularly in the first half made kk look very average. Not just physicality wise but speed of hurling 2nd half kk were much improved and rallied very well but na fianna response was pretty immediate by scoring a goal in response to the one they conceded. Had the shot that hit the post gone, who knows what might have happened. For me, donal Burke should have had a man marker on him from word go. Playing long ball was never going to work out well enough to be victorious. Kk almost certainly will be back again but will have to develop a more complete style of hurling and hit the gym with vengeance.

[frankthetank]

Having been in Croke Park the better team on the night clearly won the game. However a lot of K/K's players will be disappointed with their own personal performances.

In the backline James Mahon really grew into the game after a shaky start and ended up having a really good game. The same for Brecon Kavanagh but he had a tough opening 20. The move of Jordan Quinn to centre back helped him in this regard. However in my opinion Enda Grogan was K/K's best player from 1 to 7 and I felt it was a really poor management call to replace him. It smacked of a pre-planned substitution which are a shambles as far as I am concerned. Have a look at what's unfolding in front of you and then make the move.

Na Fianna's midfield were totally on top and while Colin Spain is a joy to watch when on the ball he needs to work on his ability to cover space and track runners from deep. Hopefully this will come with coaching.

In the forward line Conor Mahon gave an absolute tour de force before ultimately and understandably fading out of the game. What a battler. Charlie Mitchell had a decent outing and scored 0-03 while Adam Screeney did Adam Screeney things. His amazing piece of skill to flick the ball over a Na Fianna player on the Hogan Stand side in the second half was mesmeric. Other than those 3, the other K/K forwards and substitutes weren't at the required level.

A poster here made a great point earlier - K/K will probably have to go down the route of a more possession orientated game. For the last 12 to 15 minutes they were entirely predictable. When the main ball winners drift away (Conor Mahon and James Gorman) they will have to move on and adapt. But luckily for K/K they seem to have players that can play this game as it takes a very high skill level.

Time is on their side.

[Gobbler]

I agree with alot of the post match reaction here.

Key points;
1. K/K can be proud of their effort and battled bravely. They were up against a physical and seasoned team who probably left a leinster behind them last year without a key player in that final too. Also it was effectively a home game as NF were just down the road from the ground and thats worth a few points with the commute KK had for a late game.
Ifs again, but the game was in the melting pot and momentum shifting if that kavanagh shot was a few cm's lower. These are the breaks. Small margins. Also prob should of had another goal only for the cynical foul. Plenty of small margins that will be looked back on.

2. I think the slow start was largely down to maybe nerves with the game in croke park (NF had last years experience) and not underestimating the planning and journey up for a game that late on a Sat night. It does disrupt normal routine.

3. Some players overall had very impressive displays after slow start. Wont name individual but some were really impressive and some will know there is more in them and breaks didnt come on the night.

4. I agree with the poster who said the likely pre planned change in many ways unsettled the back line. I thought space opened up and NF players were getting more freedom after Kiely came on. Definitely a man marking job was needed. I think if Guinan had been available it would have given much better options to do some match ups particularly on their couple of pacey forwards. I thought when Kiely came on the structure just wasnt there whatever happened. Some players were playing zonal and this suited NF. I think if a team goes man for man on NF they will get reward.

5. The subs did not have the impact that was needed. Now, none of them played poorly but they just didnt bring anything extra. I think NF had a plan for gorman and really got at him to distract him and putting him of. Nothing mad malicious but they played the ref really well and timed little subtly digs to get a a reaction. They won a few really soft frees and let them off the hook when they were camped in their own 21 on cusack side.

6. I agree on the refereeing and high challenges. I thought they got away with leaving arms in around the neck/shoulder area. Brecon kavanagh looked like he could of had 2 frees before he was blown for over carrying last play before half time. a converted free for NF was a 2 point swing going in at half time. There was a number of these. Some refs let these challenges go and its really hard on the player in possession and frustrates players.

7. KK are so young and they were down 2 huge players too. They will learn from this in particular how to be a bit cute and manage the ref too. Offaly teams are notorious for reacting to digs and being the one caught. Timing is everything and NF had that mastered.

8. NF were the better team on the night. More experienced and mature. They knew how to play to their strenghts and how to disrupt KK. Look at some of their backroom teams sprinkled around the pitch on both sides. Everybody had a role and they were very streetwise.

[The big hill]

Anyone know what this tournament is

[Faithfully]

Anyone know what this tournament is

It's for champions that aren't good enough to go in at Leinster Junior level. That's the Longford senior champions. Meath senior champions go into Leinster intermediate, so that's probably their intermediate/junior champions.

[hamstrings]

Anyone know what this tournament is

I remember clara played Wolfe tones of longdord in this tournament a few years ago when clara had won junior A

[Dodge83]

The Offaly junior A champions go into this competition. Crinkill played Castleknock of Dublin in it a good few years back with a certain Ciarán Kilkenny playing for Castleknock that day. I could be wrong but I don’t think that competition has been played in the last few years for some reason