The Hurling Pod
THE HURLING POD: Walsh Park Thriller! | Rebels Beat Limerick As Lynch Sees Red | TJ On Top
27 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
off the ball gaa and the most important thing for hurling is not necessarily money it's a space to breathe as a game because there are brilliant volunteers all over ireland trying to promote the game but you can't promote the game if you haven't got the time to play it join in the obsession subscribe now at offtheball.com forward slash join the hurling pod on off the ball with apple green making every journey better
Welcome along. This is slightly a brave new world that we've stepped into here where we're bringing you the podcast. We're not necessarily doing this as a live pod in the way that we would, uh, stick the comments up on screen and kind of hand it all over to the listeners in the one go. But basically this is our recording session and welcome along. You can watch on in.
Uh, it's not that we won't take questions from the floor. I see a whole lot of them already come in from the Facebook and YouTube, even before we started this as live recording. And we will go through some of them. The best ones will have a screen through as we do our chat, but generally You're here, you know, it's like a fireside conversation.
You get to see us record the pod live as we would normally. So, decent day all in all. Decent weekend. Great weather, good second weekend of championship. We're given high drama, two really good games in the Munster Hurling Championship, particularly this afternoon. Kevin Mahoney, very, very late on, striking to the net to earn a point for Waterford.
The Waterford fans are out in force on social media saying, right lads, what do you think about Waterford now, after what happened today? They were 11 points down against the All-Ireland Champions Tipperary at a point, but they got back to get a share of the spoils. Alan Connolly, Shane Barrett, they got 2-10 between them. Cork edging out Limerick eventually at Porky Queave.
The league champions now face a trip to Clare without Keane Lynch and Aaron Gillan. And Paul Murphy's not having it that Daylow turns around the TV and goes, do you know what, that might be a different type of pressure that's on Clare now with those two lads missing for Limerick. TJ Reid, he got one ace on Saturday night. Paul Murphy was there in person watching it in the sunshine in Kilkenny.
He is back at the top of the All-Ireland scoring charts. He's gone on to 41 goals and 657 points. So he's gone ahead of Patrick Horgan who of course is now retired. So TJ will be setting the record himself this summer. And the Cats shown a bit of character to see off Wexford in the end after we'd all questioned the way they played in Salt Hill the week before.
In Salt Hill, Galway beat Offaly today and Fergal Whiteley got two goals. Dublin seeing off Kildare in the other games in Leinster. The Hurling Pod here on Off the Ball is with thanks to Apple Green helping you relax, recharge and enjoy the journey ahead. Yeah, it was a really good day. I think very enjoyable. I think we'll kick off the two games in Munster.
But Murph, I wanted to ask you first, because last night you were putting in really positive messages to the group. We were wondering where you were with Kilkenny after what happened last week. And you were going, hmm, do you know what? The smell of chips around Nolan Park, the freshly cooked grass and the nice sunshine. I'm in a different mood this week.
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Chapter 2: How did Waterford perform in their match against Tipperary?
They showed great bottle too with the likes of Stake and Corrin and Tobin. They did, in fairness, they put their shoulder to the wheel as well. So I can say it was a full Tipperary collapse. They'd be extremely disappointed. I think that's obvious. I think they probably had that one. They probably felt they had enough done during the 74th minute to see that one out.
But just the game of Hurling, folks, and that's Munster Championship in particular. you know, like, you'd one ball to the square, you'd go a bit off, and it ends up in the net. So, it's hard for me to say it was a fair result.
Chapter 3: What are the implications of Cork's victory over Limerick?
I didn't know.
I thought Tickle were the better team, you know, marginally throughout, but you can get what you deserve. And I walked about a pint and Tickle lost to him. So, I think... That's what it deserves.
Yeah, I was listening to both Liam Kyle and Peter Quealy, which you can get in the Off the Ball social media now. It went up just a few minutes ago. Their reaction after the game, Peter Quealy was a bit more frustrated. He kind of said, a point doesn't really do anything for either team because, you know, you want to be winning games with the nature of this championship.
And Liam Kyle was very much of the feeling that because of the way the Waterford have played second half, he thought it was a fair result for both teams. Because with the way the second half went as well, Waterford come back into it, Tip still kind of nudged themselves back in front and Waterford had that guile to go and get the goal at the end of the game.
So I think as a neutral, a draw seems a pretty fair result overall. If you don't mind, Scallion, can I go to Goalkeepers Union straight away? Because Gary was on very early doors in the comments and I got a couple of tweets about it as well. basically Billy Nolan now being the form goalkeeper in the country. We talked about how well he played last week, made some crucial saves against Clare.
He was all action today. And to quote Tommy Walter, perhaps to misquote him slightly, he says he'll save the really, really hard shots to save, he'll save the easier ones to save. It just seems at the moment that when he comes out, he's a very difficult man to beat.
I agree with you. And I only had this conversation on my couch earlier on today. We're trying to, in current form, not in historical form, not in the past, you know, not in what you've done with the tank. In current form, what's the top five goalies in the country at the moment? And I still have Nicky Kuwait as number one. Again, I thought he was excellent again today, but I'd be number two.
So what Nolan has done over the last number of weeks is everyone will look at the shot stop and say, that's fantastic. And it is, right? But he's become a pivotal player for Watford's tech. Whether that be short balls, even when a ball drops into an open play, he's starting from 40-yard passes, 60-yard passes. He's always on the run, open nearly as a sweeping defender. You know, he's an option.
He's a seventh defender. And I see the Waterford backs turn to him, like, rigidly, a bit like they do for, you know, what are you going to do for a Keefe? Like, if they don't have something in front of them, they turn back, give it to Nolan, and he'll pick a good option. And, like, as well as that, he handles so well. He doesn't drop anything. He's calm under pressure.
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Chapter 4: What are the key takeaways from the refereeing performance?
It's like John McGrath nearly down the far end. It's not that either of them are blessed with light and pace, but their hurling brain is outstanding and their ability to get scores from nothing is outstanding as well.
So I would be hesitant to call it anything like a bottle job or a collapse, even though I know people with their blood up today and wanting maybe to brand the team or whoever, Tipperary, whoever it be, as bottling it or whatever. No, they dropped off their standards a small bit and what happened was...
once water got momentum it's very hard to kill that momentum and lean cal will be saying to the boys now and she was nice lads we were in the driving seat there and we can't be given the momentum to that team like we we have when we have the momentum and we're in the ascendancy and we're getting scores we need to keep pushing on pushing on pushing on you can't open the door and it's not a case of if water run this game and temporary were up by three or four points being cal wouldn't be saying that when you're
you're up by 11 points Liam Kyle has to turn around and say lads there was plenty of opportunities there where we got warning signs and all we had to do was maybe carry the ball a little bit more pop a score over the bar and like if you remember as well Walford left a few scores behind them in terms of last if I'm thinking of the last 5 or 10 minutes they were dropping balls in around the 14 where their full forward line weren't in there because the full forward line were coming looking for the ball and they were striking these long balls in
And Reece Shelley was just picking them up and going, working it back out. So Watford were even wasteful in the last five or ten minutes. So there was opportunities there for Tipperary to really slow it down, stem the pace, and pop over a few scores that would just keep it to that three or four.
Like, Will, you were saying, I think, before we went on here like that, Galway with Offaly kept it to three or four. Even though Offaly were there and thereabouts, and you're thinking maybe they could do something, Galway just kept it out. They just kept it at arm's length. And that's something I just think Liam Cahill will go. And it's funny because...
you look at the two managers afterwards, Peter Creeley and Liam Cal, and Peter Creeley is understandably annoyed and upset because I think he looks at the first half and goes, like, 1-7 is just not good enough at any stage. And if we just had a 1-11 or a 1-12 or we hurled for 20 minutes in the first half like we did for 35 in the second half, we would have won that game.
Whereas Liam Cal is going, we took our foot off the gas and we're lucky to get out of here with Anthony Dahl. So that's So fully enough, the manager that was up by 11 points at half time is relieved at full time. And the lad who's down by 11 points was going, we brought it so close and we could have got over the line. So it's interesting the emotions that are around it.
But like I said, the question was, is it a bottle job or a collapse? I could just give full credit to Watford here that they lifted themselves up for this game after the back of losing by six points up in Ennis. They could have had 11 points at half-time inside. I saw Jack Fagan gave an interview saying they were so disappointed. They could have dropped their heads, and they didn't.
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Chapter 5: What are the key performances from the Kilkenny vs Wexford match?
It will go into the machine that is off the ball, which I don't know if it'll end up getting back to us at some point. But don't do super chats. You can ask us for free. We're scanning through them as we go through them here, but thank you for getting in contact. Kilkenny then. We were very, very hard last time around. His contribution scale is at the top. We weren't that hard at all.
Chapter 6: How did the panel assess Wexford's performance against Kilkenny?
I thought people were quite hard on him because they were trying to argue. And the only reason he's brought up Arsenal is because he doesn't want to talk about Kilkenny.
That was hard.
I know, but the funny part was you ended up talking about Kilkenny for...
a considerable period of time i would say it's nine or ten minutes we just didn't do like eric canton on the wimbledon fan straight away just going studs up from the start because i think what did we talk about last week was a tip and uh cork first which i think was probably the natural one i don't think we started call wickley kenny i think we started monster uh walter claire whatever anyway but we obviously got back to it and obviously talked loads about it so i
Rush Ladd, who is a Dublin fan, who will often pop up in our old comments, and he's here live tonight. Wexford were atrocious. That was very much the feeling I got from two Wexford friends of mine who texted me after the game as well. They were really disappointed. And I think that's because, Murph, they were going there, obviously having beaten Kildare,
maybe not having shot the lights out but still did enough and that's like the record's really good against Kilkenny you were bringing it up last week only three wins against Galway and Wexford in the round Robin had beaten Kilkenny three times recently in the championship and you know hope springs eternal that Kilkenny maybe there's a bit of blood in the water with the way they played against Galway but before we talk about how good Kilkenny were Wexford weren't good
No, they weren't.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of Kilkenny's victory for future matches?
But, like, one of the things I thought for myself was that after about 40 minutes, I think it was, it was about 1.14 to 1.10, it wasn't very high scoring for about that 40 minutes. Like, can you really put their foot in the gas after that?
Like, once Lee Moore kind of got the goal and they started popping over a few points then, like, the goals, like, four goals in the second half, like, that kind of says itself. The dam burst, really, for Wexford. But, yeah, like...
when when when wexford got their goal like mossy kyon gets the goal and then was it simon roach i think got the goal for us kevin foley got the goal for wexford foley wasn't it foley yeah kevin foley got the goal straight away you're thinking going in a half time you're like fairness now they might come out in the second half and there's only a score in this wexford might really go at them and that's kind of what we even we spoke about the build-up we expected wexford to do they just didn't seem to have that kick in them now
from a Kenny point of view something I was really happy with was that Kenny seemed to have much better structure than they did against Galway in that like Lee Chin at full forward don't worry I'm not actually trying to make money out of this but go on Lee Chin at full forward was matched up with Mikey Carey straight away they're saying well if Wexford go and win this match Lee Chin has to dominate that area and Mikey Carey has to lose out Mikey Carey had a great game on Lee Chin but regardless
Mikey, for a few balls that Lee Chin had to win, Mikey was just breaking them and the Cavalry were coming running back. So Paddy Deegan was coming running back, Derek Corker and Liam Blanchard. They did that really, really well. And it was something you could see deliberately that once the ball was going over their head, they were tracking back hard.
Once they had that platform, they worked it out really well. So it was kind of a double-edged sword where you're really happy that And I spoke to a few Kilkenny fans afterwards, like, welcome back to the car. You're chatting to people. And they're really heartened by, A, you know, the big score and the five goals.
Like, because when teams kind of aren't getting goals, you're going, are we able to get a goal or what's the story? And the five goals kind of came differently. They were all a little bit different to the next.
um like you had your tradition mossy's one was or mossy's goal was was outstanding like the catch hits the deck up takes on could have popped it off to lean more hits the back of the net lean moore's one then to start the second half which really again gave kenny i think to push it out to about seven points at that stage it was a porter's one he waited for the ball come in ball broke pull on the ground
great goal and then they have likes tom feeling tom won the ball i was 45 near the sideline could have went for a score and decides to take on the wexford defense keen uh kenny's off the shoulder pops it to him another goal like what's his name patty deegan picked out tj for a great score then as well in terms of the goal squared it across so the goals the variety was different but there was two things at play once kenny got the few goals and they got the scores wexford did collapse and you could see that they just didn't have the lads to to maybe come in off the bench and to keep up with the pace so it
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Chapter 8: What predictions are made for the upcoming Clare vs Limerick game?
See, even some of the commentary I listened to today, let's say in my own house, we had visitors over, and they were saying the fact that Ling took Warren Murphy out of the goals was a crazy decision. And for me, my perspective is, I'm not a trainer. I don't see what Aidan Tellis has brought in the training field.
I don't see what plans Ling has in terms of a game plan or what he thinks Tellis can bring to Kenya's game plan. So for me, I'm siding with the manager in that instance because sometimes you can get guilty of looking at... you know, the form of players in the past and that they dictate if they play in the future. You know, now look at, come here, I said all that, Owen Murphy's top class.
He was brilliant yesterday. There's no doubt about it, right? He's fantastic. But I have to put value on the fact that Ling put Talis in for a reason. So I'm putting that over here. I'm stating that for, or naturally said that, right? And I don't want that to be done to the internet either.
You know, obviously he's a hard task in the sense that he's got to try and unseat Owen Murphy, which is going to be probably one of the most difficult jobs to do in Ireland. And he did it, right? So I just don't want the public to turn around and bash him. you know, and say he shouldn't be in there. Like, he deserved to get in there for some reason.
And the reason he's in there is because the manager saw something in him, right? So, from my perspective, I think they can name two goalies, probably two goalies at this point. And like, just from my perspective, it's Murphy and the short game, short bookouts, today's type of game, I think is very important. Like he's top class shot stopper, top class from open play.
The 30 to 60 range put goes that you need to launch attacks when teams set up really well at the back from you. That was the only thing I had. That's the only thing I had, right? And maybe from Tal's perspective, he showed a bit better in the league and at the point at which the championship begun. That's all.
And I'd say even Murph, your perspective, you're probably good friends with Owen Murphy, you know, top class fellow, top class goalie, but just there's a reason Telus is put in. And so don't, I'm saying don't use that against Telus. Don't do that. You know, like Owen's back in, is there a chance Telus is back in? Probably a bit less now at the moment, right?
Because now there's, like, not even opinion, but there's a bit of sway behind the way Owen played yesterday. Played really well. Like, really well. Kenny got a victory. That's the most important thing. Now you keep going. If you change the mix and change the formula from a defeat and you get a victory, you keep going with that formula after that.
You know, like, again, I, I want to, I want to reiterate the fact that tell us top class goalie and probably future for, for Kenny, when the time comes, like in the longterm. But for the minute, it looks like the owner is going to keep, keep the space.
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