Kilkenny Legend Suggests Radical Move To Overhaul Hurling In County

On the back of their early exit from the Leinster Championship over the weekend, it is likely that quite a bit of soul searching will be done in Kilkenny over the coming months.

The county last won an All-Ireland in 2015, but they had still competed at the highest level over the decade that followed. However, they now look further away than ever from challenging for the Liam MacCarthy.

Questions will no doubt be asked Derek Lyng’s future on the back of this season, although some feel they are much deeper rooted issues in Kilkenny.

Kilkenny Legend Suggests Radical Hurling Move

Recommended

Andy Comerford has been outspoken on Kilkenny’s lack of success this season, criticising both their big name players and some of those who opted out of the panel for 2026.

The three-time All-Ireland winner is now questioning the structure of hurling within the county itself.

Speaking on Community Radio Kilkenny City, Comerford suggested that Kilkenny need to abandon underage development squads in an attempt to bring through more emerging talent over the coming years.

Development squads, they’ve gone by their sell-by-date now. I’m after ringing 15 or 16 lads there to know what their opinion is on development squads. It’s just not working.

Let these lads go back to their clubs at 14 years of age. Put in a team, enter a team in Tony Forristal (tournament). By all means, enter a team but release them to a manager five days prior to that.

Lads are getting browned off. Players are getting sick of it. Mentors are getting sick of it.

I’ve heard they’re receiving 29, 30 phone-calls from parents. ‘Why isn’t my young lad on a development squad?’ ‘Why isn’t he on this?’ ‘Why isn’t he on that?’ It has to stop. End of story…

Players are coming back with egos, back into their clubs and they’re untrainable. I’ve often heard players are coming back after being with county teams and they’re not producing the goods for their clubs.

Development squads have been a fixture of underage player pathways across the country for quite a few years now, with squads put together at various age groups in both codes in order to give the best young talent in a county exposure to a higher level of training.

It seems such structures have not hurt other counties and it is unclear why Kilkenny would in particular be struggling because of their presence.

Still, it is likely that some difficult conversations will be on the agenda over the coming months as a result of their failings this season.

Tags: