6 out of 10 Cats; 'Babs' slams Kilkenny

September 09, 2014

"Babs" Keating

Michael 'Babs' Keating rates Kilkenny's All-Ireland final performance at 6/10.

Meanwhile, the Tipperary hurling legend - who won two All-Irelands as a player and two more as manager - believes his native county are worthy of a 9/10 rating, even though the sides finished all-square after 70 minutes.

"I thought the mistakes that they made [have been] part and parcel of this Kilkenny team all year," he told RTE's Radio Today. "The scores that they missed in the Leinster final: they beat Dublin by 12; it should have been 24.

"In the first 20 minutes against Limerick the last day in the semi-final, they had seven bad wides in the first 20 minutes where Limerick had none.

"No two players should go for the same ball, at that level. Now the amount of times it happened Kilkenny - and when two players go for the same ball, they don't win; the breaking ball is there for the loose player. It happened to Kilkenny a few times.

"The miss of Richie Power at that level, when they were three points up, wasn't on.

"No players should be hooked or blocked down at that level. Jackie Tyrrell threw up the ball to be blocked down in the area: a point for Tipp.

"Paul Murphy came through - now Jackie Tyrrell and Paul Murphy were the two best players in the Kilkenny back line - yet he came through, caught the ball and threw it up to be hooked."


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