Latest news with #GAAHurlingSeniorChampionship
The Irish Sun
27-05-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Offaly GAA boss Johnny Kelly insists controversial split season ‘not working' and reveals why it's ‘time to review it'
JOHNNY KELLY reckons the split-season experiment has not worked out. His Offaly side beat Antrim to retain their Leinster SHC status last Sunday but their season is over, with their next game eight months away. Advertisement 2 Offaly manager Johnny Kelly before the Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 5 match against Antrim Credit: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile 2 Oisin Kelly of Offaly in action against Eoghan Campbell of Antrim Credit: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile Kelly led his native Portumna to All-Ireland club glory in 2009 and reckons this calendar is a failure. He said: 'I was an advocate of the split-season. But it's not working. I was down in Portumna, watching the boys train, and they're gone since last January without any club games, league games. 'We've one set of players playing five games in six weeks. We've another set, club players, ambling around since January, waiting for the thing to finish. 'Clare are out of the Championship. Leinster is finished for three teams. I don't think it's right, maybe it's time to review it. Advertisement Read More on GAA 'That's it now. What do we do tomorrow? 'If you were a professional set-up, you'd be saying, 'OK, take your break, we'll go back into it and look at some of your strength and conditioning, the physical work, look at the injuries'. That's not really possible. It's an amateur game. But that's the way it's gone at inter-county level. It's so professional.'
The Irish Sun
18-05-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Derek Lyng takes pop at critics of Leinster SHC after Kilkenny book place in final with thrilling win over Dublin
DEREK LYNG says Kilkenny deserve credit for holding back Dublin's blue wave to book their Leinster SHC final place. Critics will hit out at the Cats for coughing up a 16-point lead and making life needlessly difficult on themselves. Advertisement 2 TJ Reid of Kilkenny after the Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Championship match against Dublin 2 Chris Crummey of Dublin in action against TJ Reid, below, and John Donnelly of Kilkenny Credit: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile They looked to be cruising through to the June 8 final, with a game to spare, when 14 points up at half-time. And they stretched the gap to 16 after the restart as travelling Dublin fans wondered just how low things could go. But three second-half Dublin goals, and 2-4 without response between the 50th and 56th minutes, turned a near lost cause into a contest again. Seán Currie netted two of Dublin's goals and Cian O'Sullivan got the other as the 2013 champions rallied superbly. Advertisement Read More on GAA It was eerily similar to the 2020 Leinster semi at Croke Park when Kilkenny had a 16-point lead wiped out then too. Kilkenny eventually escaped on that occasion and did the same this time thanks largely to Billy Ryan's 69th-minute goal. That brought Ryan's tally to 2-3 for the day and capped a brilliant showing while veteran TJ Reid contributed 1-9. Kilkenny manager Lyng said it is wrong to complain that the great Kilkenny teams he played with would never have let such a lead slip. Advertisement Most read in GAA Hurling Lyng said: 'I think a lot of that stuff, where we're comparing all the time to the past teams, we have to stop doing that. 'We have a team here that's competing really well and competing hard. And we have got the two points. Are we happy that somebody else got back into the game? We're not at all. Limerick GAA fans troll RTE pundit Donal Og Cusack after win over Cork 'But at the same time, I think there's probably a narrative that we're going to be the team that was there ten or 15 years ago, whatever it was. 'That's not the case. This is Kilkenny of 2025 — and these lads are working really hard. We have a lot of injuries. We've got lads coming back. Advertisement 'We're balancing that and the attitude and the spirit in there is really good. 'This gives us something to keep working at and for sure we'll do that.' Lyng had a pop too at those criticising the Leinster Championship for not being as good as the Munster one. He said after the eight-goal thriller: 'That commentary has been there for a long time. It was there since I was playing as well. Leinster was always kind of the poor relation. Advertisement 'I think today showed the quality that's there. Dublin and ourselves had six points coming in. And I thought a lot of the hurling was top quality.' SILVER LINING Dublin manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin argued that his team did not actually play that badly in the first half. But they still trailed by a whopping 14 points at the break. The goals were killers with two of those coming from long balls into the danger area that broke kindly. Adrian Mullen got Kilkenny's first goal that way, capitalising when Cian Kenny's long free broke loose. Advertisement Martin Keoghan's 32nd-minute strike came in much the same manner. Ryan and Reid also fired first-half goals though those were more about two in-form players displaying their individual ability. Both players soloed in from either wing before blasting home. O'Sullivan was Dublin's main man up front and sniped five points from play in the opening 20 minutes. But as the Kilkenny goals rained in, all hope of a fourth Dublin win in the campaign seemed to evaporate. Advertisement Jordan Molloy and Reid stretched Kilkenny's lead to 16 points early in the second-half, 4-14 to 0-10. The five-in-a-row champs have looked vulnerable at periods this year though. They had to come from behind at half-time to beat Antrim. So Dublin were not about to give in — and Conor Donohoe at midfield exemplified that belief. The Erin's Isle man has been one of their best performers this year and dug deep here. Currie's first goal energised Dublin, another little victory for route-one hurling as big John Hetherton engineered it with a great catch. Advertisement Dublin really got it going between the 50th and 56th minutes when they reeled off 2-4 without response. Ronan Hayes had a chance to cut the gap to just one in the 63rd minute but his shot was saved. Still, Dublin got it back to a two-point game when AJ Murphy pointed twice after coming on, 4-19 to 3-20. But just as they dared to dream of a landmark win on Kilkenny soil, Molloy tore through the centre and teed up Ryan for the match-winning goal. Advertisement KILKENNY : E Murphy; M Butler, H Lawlor, P Deegan; D Blanchfield, R Reid, M Carey; C Kenny, J Molloy 0-1; A Mullen 1-0, J Donnelly, B Ryan 2-3; M Keoghan 1-3, TJ Reid 1-9, 9f, S Donnelly 0-1. Subs : K Doyle 0-1 for Blanchfield 24-25 mins blood, L Hogan 0-1 for Mullen 45, Doyle for Kenny 48, F Mackessy for Hogan 59, L Connellan for S Donnelly 71, T Walsh for Blanchfield 72. DUBLIN : E Gibbons; C McHugh, P Smyth, J Bellew; P Doyle, C Crummey 0-1, P Dunleavy; C Burke, C Donohoe 0-4; C O'Sullivan 1-5, B Hayes, D Power 0-1; S Currie 2-6, 1-4f, 1 65, J Hetherton, C Currie. Subs : F Whitely 0-1 for Dunleavy h-t, R Hayes for C Currie h-t, R McBride 0-1 for Burke 49 mins, A Jamieson-Murphy 0-2 for Power 65. REFEREE : M Kennedy (Tipperary).
