Replying To BostonGuy:  "My point is thats what happens when fan bases abandon teams, saw it first hand with Hartford Whalers in hockey, they had the ability to move and rebuild elsewhere, but Galway hurling does not. If Galway keep getting hammered by teams at all levels who are not top 3 and I dont think this KK team is THEN disinterest WILL set in. We don't have to win AIs every year but we need to have that goal and be at least competitive. We have neither right now, these things don't collapse overnight nor can they be rebuilt that way either. Need to look at the whole structure and make changes to stop this from happening, my point is start at the academy and work from there."

Replying To katser:  "Still absolutely gutted over our performance Sunday. I expected much more and was confident We would win.
From speaking to many Galway hurling people they couldn't give a hoot about the Leinster title and if I'm honest I don't care about either only for its a gateway to the All Ireland Semi Final.
Galway v Tipp games are 50/50 and I know for a fact they hate playing Galway....We can definitely beat them."

Replying To BostonGuy:  "My point is thats what happens when fan bases abandon teams, saw it first hand with Hartford Whalers in hockey, they had the ability to move and rebuild elsewhere, but Galway hurling does not. If Galway keep getting hammered by teams at all levels who are not top 3 and I dont think this KK team is THEN disinterest WILL set in. We don't have to win AIs every year but we need to have that goal and be at least competitive. We have neither right now, these things don't collapse overnight nor can they be rebuilt that way either. Need to look at the whole structure and make changes to stop this from happening, my point is start at the academy and work from there."

Replying To Trump2020:  "We will never know unless we beat who's next. Assuming it's Tipp it'll take a mighty effort to win. After that who knows?"

Replying To CillTormoir:  "There's more of a snowballs chance in hell than us beating Tipp. And that's a fact"

Replying To Trump2020:  "I agree Tipp should be hot favorites but again you have be in it to win it. Clare, Waterford, etc are gone home yet we are still alive to fight another day. We have to clamp down on the SOFT GOALS we allow. No team could survive that. Also be SMARTER with the puck outs."

Replying To Viking66:  "I don't think the Academy is your problem. You have been very competitive at minor all millennium. Its what happens after that. You have no county player pathway looking in from the outside. Apart from the League game against Tipp how many starts did players 22 or under get? Or even 23 or under? How many starts or minutes off the bench did players who hadn't started before this year get? There's nearly no such thing as a ready made Senior starter in any county these days. Most good Senior starters in the 25-29 age group, peak age so to speak, in any county needed plenty of Senior starts when they were younger before they were considered good. They got better with experience. Not all lads will get better with experience I know, but none or very few will get better without any experience."

Replying To Viking66:  "I don't think the Academy is your problem. You have been very competitive at minor all millennium. Its what happens after that. You have no county player pathway looking in from the outside. Apart from the League game against Tipp how many starts did players 22 or under get? Or even 23 or under? How many starts or minutes off the bench did players who hadn't started before this year get? There's nearly no such thing as a ready made Senior starter in any county these days. Most good Senior starters in the 25-29 age group, peak age so to speak, in any county needed plenty of Senior starts when they were younger before they were considered good. They got better with experience. Not all lads will gwt better with experience I know, but none or very few will get better without any experience."

Replying To BostonGuy:  "You just made my point for me, Academy does not stop at 17 or 20, the goal is to have senior ready players and they are failing and have been for 5+ years. How may 23 YOs are on the Galway team? We are not seeing success at underage either and few players from the academy getting onto a very average and aging Galway senior team. I agree that most hurlers peak in 25-29 which is a short window and by 30 they have lost a step. Dosen't mean they are finished but need to be managed differently. So we need a good supply of 21 YOs getting onto the panel and vying for places. Heres where I see the academy lacking 1) Fielding and retention haven't seen anyone besides CW field a ball and he SLIPS ALOT after collection. 2) Defense: Defense wins games and are the foundation for offense and our defensive strategies are brittle 3) Sport Psychology: We are beaten in some games before we go out on the field 4) Tackling (including dark arts) Limerick are masters of this 5) Game strategy: playing to our strengths if we are small and fast with ball skills play to that, if we are bigger and more physical use that to our advantage. Puck outs are a perfect example of this going wrong. Limerick bringing on Diarmuid Byrnes on with 30 seconds left in extra time to take a penno..brilliant! 6) Frees We need designated free takers(s) for the future, Mannion is a superb player, average free taker and is now 30 years old. Niland brilliant free taker, not much else 7) Fitness, cant turn a workhorse into a racehorse but a workhorse has a place if used correctly. S&C has to be done well its not a matter of everyone picking up weights and doing lifts. Different body shapes, age and positional play need to be taken into account. 8) Diet and Nutrition: You are what you eat 9) DATA look at results and feed it back into the machine to make it better, KPIs, performance measurements, game management, player profiles (ours and oppositions). 10) Dont be afraid to make changes cut staff and recruits if its not working and realign.
I can almost 100% guarantee you that Limerick sat down and looked at some of their shot taking in the second half against Cork, their selection was terrible and lost them the game. I would say they also analyzed the "lack of frees" that they could usually count on to get their score tally up, the ref in charge was not "normal" and that normal free allocation was restored when the ref went off injured. I would have a profile on the major refs, what you can get away with and what they typically pull for. None of these will win you a game on their own but a combination of them will give you a chance of at least competing."