Originally posted by offaly:
Kilkenny hit an enormous amount of hopeful balls into the full forward line and there was no direction to them.It seeme like they were hoping for Richie power to catch a few and pull something out of nowhere, taht iswhere KK lost the game, I have never seen them being so aimless in their build up play

Originally posted by mikehunt:


They didn`t get the time to pick their passes. Tipp hounded them. Kilkenny forwards poor without Shefflin to dictate play.

This message has been edited - 08-sep-2010 @ 21:35

Originally posted by Dick "Drug" Walsh:
Have taken this from another forum but it shows some interesting stats on the match

By the by-fair play Tipp! Long time since I saw kilkenny ouypleyed like that.


Last night`s Evening Herald had a comprehensive stat package on the final.

The conclusions are jaw drop  ping but not as one would expect.
  (So jaw drop  ping that I have emailed the Herald to ask for a copy but the source is the highly respected Denise Martin so I am assuming its spot on  )  

Consensus:
Kilkenny were well beaten on both their own puck out and Tipps.
Fact:
Kilkenny won their own puckouts 15-11
Kilkenny won Tipp`s puckouts 19-5!!!!!

On clean wins across both teams puckouts Kilkenny took 9 catches to just one from Tipp.
Astonishing.

Kilkenny took 37 shots on goal, 95 times out of hundred with the sort of accuracy we possess that would see you home.

So how did Tipp win?
Consensus:
Variously
"Tipp were better in every area of the field and dominated the individual battles"
Fact:
They didn`t dominate possession, they in fact had less of it and indeed far less of it than 2009.
They did crucially however make it count.
They converted 34 scoring attempts   (28 if you excluded shots that fall short  )   into a remarkable 30 points.
What you got Sunday was Tipp operating to efficiency close to Kilkenny`s 2008 final perfection without anything like the same level of dominance.

To emphasize how strange a game hurling can be.
In addition to above if you were told that 3 of Tipp’s recognized scoring threats would be relatively well contained and Kilkenny would dominate possession and puckouts far better than 2009, you’d have put your house on them.
If you were told Tipp would still accumulate 4-17 and win by 8 points against such a back drop  , you’d have been committed.

So Kilkenny deserved to win?
Of course they didn`t, stats only tell part of the story.
Clearly Tipp`s intensity meant a lot of Kilkenny`s possession superiority was converted into poor delivery and poor shooting opportunities.
The ball that was being won by Kilkenny forwards   (and plenty of it was  )   in turn was immediately met by a pack of wolves, that’s to be expected and we should have been ready but here’s the nub.
Derek Lyng or Gorta or Sheff or Larks barreling through the centre looking for the pass didn’t happen.
It didn’t happen because we were tired.
Look how many times Kilkenny players got bottled up and no one within 10 yards of them.
A mental tiredness that said “ah that’s Larks or Power or Richie Hogan he will lash it over from there” but even Christy Ring couldn’t lash it over from the sideline being harried by three backs.
In previous years they were making the runs knowing that if space couldn’t be found for the shot a neat or even a dirty little handpass might still set up the score.

Tipp for my mind deservedly won the All Ireland through three areas, a superior hunger for real hard graft   (Kilkenny’s wasn’t bad, just nota s intense  )   and a freakishly high conversion of chances into scores.
The third factor is probably the most significant.
Tipp got back in spades anything they left behind in terms of bad luck and lack of conversion in 2009.
Tipp create   4 goal chances and convert them into a maximum 12 points
Kilkenny create   2 goal chances and at least three half ones and it yields 3 points   (Richie Power’s goal  )  .
Tipp from memory missed one easy chance all day, a Noel Mc Grath free.
Kilkenny missed at least 3 scoreable frees early on   (this would have massively lifted Tipp spirits  )  .

My core point after all this is that many people driven on usually by media simply draw black and white conclusions from victory and defeat.
A headline stating “Efficient Tipp take their chances to land All Ireland” isn’t half as good as “Marauding Tipp devour Cats to shatter the 5 in a row”
The truth is that winners write history.
Tipp are deserving All Ireland winners but next time we meet the law of averages may dictate that Kilkenny match or beat them for hunger, that if Tipp are lucky enough to create   4 goal chances they will not get a maximum return for it and maybe Kilkenny will be the team to hit nearly a point per shot scoring average”

Originally posted by mikehunt:


They didn`t get the time to pick their passes. Tipp hounded them. Kilkenny forwards poor without Shefflin to dictate play.

Originally posted by Dick "Drug" Walsh:
Tipp v KK a cold hard look

This message has been edited - 09-sep-2010 @ 02:50