I will get to the point with this post.

I am getting verry annoyed lately for the congratulations Kilkenny are receiving for there county hurlers. If people gave the situaton a quick review they would, as I have, come to the conclusion that the situation is disgraceful.

It really occured to me at the Dublin/Cork semi final.

If all counties, either hurling or football, adopted Kilkennys approach and had only one code...in 10/15/20 years there would be many great teams like the current Kilkenny team.

imagine if cork only played hurling? imagine if canty/o neill/shiels played hurling cause it was all the county promoted? imagine the same for dublin??? across the country players are being 'lost' to both codes because there is an option there. it may be only a player or 2 in some cases but it is still players lost. except for kilkenny.

counties like dublin are actually losing a foothold in both codes to the top tiers because they try to promote both codes and are pillared every year they bow out. yet Kilkenny win only promoting one code and are hailed as heros and legends of gaa???

here's hoping for a Tipp win.

bloom (Kildare) - Posts: 13 - 23/08/2010 17:22:00    753940

here here this is what i call a 5 star post
be interesting to see what the kilkenny lads say

pidge (Cork) - Posts: 543 - 23/08/2010 17:46:41    753981

You won't get anywhere with that argument bloom. It is a fact that both Aiden Walsh and Ciaran Sheehan are extremely good hurlers but were pulled from the Cork Under 21 Hurling panel by the Football Management. Also Cadogan won't be able to continue his dual representation for too long, he will eventually have to opt for one or the other. One code will lose out re the above 3 but thats the way it is, its much the same as losing players to the AFL (In our case Setanta) or indeed like Tomas O Leary to Rugby. Its a fact of life you have to respect people's choices, in Kilkenny every kid seems to choose hurling that is their good luck, no point complaining.

corkcelt (Cork) - Posts: 4388 - 23/08/2010 17:53:59    753991

I actually wish my own county board would adopt the same approach with Football. You can't argue with results and Kilkenny have them

pplocal (Tyrone) - Posts: 5878 - 23/08/2010 17:55:10    753993

You are correct to a point Corkcelt, but the question is, do they have any option? The reverse is true in Tyrone. I don't expect the level of support that football gets, but to get a fair crack of the whip would be nice. Our minors won the C All Ireland in hurling yesterday, so obviously there is some ability there, but if you go over to our forum and see some of the points made on the thread relating to this you will see what I mean

omaghredhand (Tyrone) - Posts: 3656 - 23/08/2010 17:59:01    753998

I agree that the kilkenny county board could do more to promote football but there are obstacles.
Kilkenny are defined by their greatness in hurling and their main objective will obviously be to stay at the top in their chosen sport.
Kilkenny,unlike cork and dublin is a small county with a small playing population.
Kilkenny's history in hurling means kids grow up dreaming of emulating their heroes.
The kilkenny football team has become almost irrelevant outside the county.
Also most people in kilkenny dont care enough about football to want to be competitive at it and as they are currently going for a record 5 in a row do you really expect them to feel the need to prove themselves in another code.

mikeoc (Kerry) - Posts: 567 - 23/08/2010 18:00:22    754002

Case in point with PP. I would suggest that our own county board already do what he suggests, strangely though we are nowhere near as successful as Kilkenny, in fact we have only won 2 more football All Irelands than they have despite promoting only one code. I wonder how PP would have justified the one code approach in 2002 when Kilkenny had won more football All Irelands than Tyrone?

omaghredhand (Tyrone) - Posts: 3656 - 23/08/2010 18:02:32    754005

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

jonny1951 (Mayo) - Posts: 1431 - 23/08/2010 18:11:36    754022

great post well put bloom. totally agree

catch_it_wil_ya (Galway) - Posts: 541 - 23/08/2010 18:12:11    754023

Bloom, Kildare have just lost a fan for such a silly post.

If you knew the situation within Kilkenny you wouldn't have posted that message. Kilkenny's county board is by and large known to be one of the best in the country; they work so hard at promoting the 3 main GAA games (unlike most other counties). Kilkenny have a fantastic history in both Hurling and handball. The county board also do a lot of work on football within the schools and in the youth of the club system too!

You used the words if and imagine.... imagine if players like DJ Carey played in a dual county and was forced to play both codes, (would have been possible because he was a very good footballer).Do you think he would have been such a good hurler? Would he have enjoyed his hurling as much?
Kilkenny are 22 of 32 counties in terms of population with roughly 80,000 people. For a county that size to be competitive in both codes you are talking about having a basis of 300-400 players per code playing at a decent level. Do you think it is feasible to have say 600 players playing a game when there are so many football teams in the county, including to very good amateur teams in Freebooters and Evergreen. The work that is being done at the moment is trying to get young people playing football, however as common sense would dictate the more successful you are at one code the weaker the second code becomes due to the youth trying to following their hero's footsteps.

What might happen over time is we continue to work on football in the younger people, they don't see us being beaten by London (a poor poor team) by 20 points in the league and they might be a bit more competitive underage. The minors pulled out of the championship this year due to a lack of players after getting WHIPPED by Meath (I think). As a 17 or 18 year old getting beaten by 40-50 points was humiliating so the work that IS BEING DONE by the county board is going to take time. It's unfair to brand us a poor county because we do not play at your level when so few counties play at the full senior level in hurling.

Me personally I am a football fan but it's a bit rich to attack us for not playing 1 sport at a proper level when you struggle at the other.

KKid (Kilkenny) - Posts: 421 - 23/08/2010 18:16:28    754026

get over yourself

abhainn (Galway) - Posts: 1000 - 23/08/2010 18:16:48    754027

There is a fatal flaw in your argument when you compare Dublin to Kilkenny & that is you fail to take population into account. The pick of players that Dublin has exceeds Kilkenny's.

Also, Dublin have an influx of hurlers like Maurice O'Brien (Limerick) and previously Eamon Morrissey (Kilkenny) who declared for Dublin due to working there. Are these not advantages Dublin GAA has over Kilkenny GAA?

counties like Limerick, Dublin, Galway, Cork, wexford, Tipp, Clare, etc choose to promote both codes, that is their choice. Kilkenny have a football team, it's the poorest in the competition, what should they do, stop playing hurling until they win the football All-Ireland?

I respect your post, it's well thought out & written, but I don't agree with it.

slayer (Limerick) - Posts: 6627 - 23/08/2010 18:17:06    754029

Bloom I have debated this KK football thing before,I will ask you a question,do you seriously think that even if KK were strong in football that any of the present KK team would opt for football,I think its a foregone conclusion that they would be hurling,if Kildare put in place the underage structures and coaching in football and won an AI would you be on here complaining about the hurling in Kildare,another thing, as another poster pointed out,the population of KK is under 90,000,I think we are doing very well for such a small county,we are priveliged to be around at the same time as one of the greatest teams of all times and I for one am glad that none of those great players are playing football,and Bloom it is a religion down here,put the same efoort into football as we do hurling and you might win an AI and then you wouldnt be on here giving out about KK

mooncat (Kilkenny) - Posts: 543 - 23/08/2010 18:19:56    754037

people in kilkenny dont want to play football get over it, what should the county board do, force people to play a game they dont want to ?

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4678 - 23/08/2010 18:28:32    754044

I actually wish my own county board would adopt the same approach with anything.

Fredthered (Donegal) - Posts: 1144 - 23/08/2010 18:39:03    754059

agreed very unfair on other counties

moddy91 (Tipperary) - Posts: 226 - 23/08/2010 18:49:14    754067

You keep mentioning our lack of football success but what relevance does this have to your argument? If we had a competitive Hurling team we'd be even less successful at football. Let people play whatever sport they wish, I don't see why this concept alarms you

pplocal (Tyrone) - Posts: 5878 - 23/08/2010 18:53:28    754068

Definitely, I think all their All-Irelands should be taken off them. What have the done for GAA in this country?/ An absolute disgrace!! ....... Get a grip

KKInDub (Kilkenny) - Posts: 39 - 23/08/2010 18:58:35    754075

The Kilkenny minors nearly beat the great Laois minor team in the late 90's. A chap called Shefflin bagged 1-2 and there was plenty of other players who would go on to be inter-county hurlers on the team. Similarly the Kilkenny minors beat Louth in 2005. The fact is that none of these lads will ever choose football over hurling. There was a great piece on this by Christy O'Connor in the Sunday Times a few years back. Sadly the link seems to be broken on the times website but is also posted on the Kilkenny Cats forum if you're interested. It's good reading:
Kilkenny footballers in need of a level playing field

doublehop (Kildare) - Posts: 4172 - 23/08/2010 19:04:02    754087

They already do Pomeroy Plunkett. But thankfully everyone in Tyrone are not as norrow minded as you.

wise_guy (Tyrone) - Posts: 1584 - 23/08/2010 19:10:01    754098