Time to Read:
Derek Lyng’s tenure as manager of the Kilkenny senior hurling team has come to an end, somewhat of an ignominious end unfortunately, however don’t let that colour your judgement that his tenure was a failure.
Let’s not forget that he had the toughest gig in the history of the sport – being the man to have to directly follow in the footsteps of the force of nature that is Brian Cody.
Although the history books tell us that Cody had not won an All-Ireland since 2015 don’t be fooled into thinking that he clung on for another seven years while standards slipped and that he had gone soft, no absolutely not, he fought with admirable tenacity throughout those seven years to keep the standards he had set and attempt to bring Liam McCarthy back to Kilkenny again.
JJ Delaney had bowed out in glorious fashion in 2015, so getting Kilkenny past the serious challenge of Waterford (via a replay) in 2016 in the semi-final and into another All-Ireland final in itself was an achievement, however with Seamie Callanan running riot in the final Kilkenny didn’t have the strength and guile of old in defence to hold out the old enemy as we were pulled and dragged all over the pitch.
In 2017 Kilkenny were beaten by Wexford in a Leinster semi-final, held off an up and coming Limerick team in a qualifier at Nowlan Park, before succumbing to Waterford in extra time in the next round. The players at Cody’s disposal were not what they used to be, however it still took an almighty effort before they fell on their shield. Even in hindsight, that defeat of Limerick was surely a mighty performance, given what they would go onto achieve.
In 2018 Kilkenny played 3 weeks in a row, against 2017 All-Ireland Champions Galway in a Leinster Final and then in a replay which Galway won sending Kilkenny to Thurles the following weekend to take on eventual 2018 Champions Limerick in an epic tussle that Kilkenny lost in the closing stages by two points. Limerick would go onto beat Galway by a single point in the final.
2019 is without doubt the one that got away, having lost to Wexford in a Leinster Final Kilkenny trumped Cork in the quarter-final and then put in one of Cody’s most defiant performances to overturn Limerick in the semi-final. With TJ Reid having started the final in typical fashion he looked set to lift the Liam McCarthy as captain and be crowned hurler of the year, however a highly dubious red card for Richie Hogan before half time put Kilkenny in a position they could not retrieve, try as they might.
Kilkenny beat Dublin and Galway in tight matches to reclaim their Leinster crown in 2020, however having had Waterford on the canvas at half time in the All-Ireland semi-final, somehow and inexplicably we left Waterford back into it to pull defeat from the jaws of victory in most un-Cody like fashion in an empty Croke Park in Covid times.
2021 saw Kilkenny retain our Leinster title by defeating both Wexford and Dublin heading straight to an All-Ireland semi-final where we would face Cork and despite an Adrian Mullen goal forcing extra-time Kilkenny would go down to the Rebels in that extra-time period.
2022 would be Brian Cody’s last effort at reclaiming Liam McCarthy and what an effort it was, we went down all guns blazing to a Limerick team put to the absolute pin of their collar and forced to pull out all the stops in order to claim their 3-in-a-row.
It was a magnificent performance by a Kilkenny squad that had no right on paper to match this much heralded Treaty outfit, but on the day refused to lie down and kept coming back for more with 15 different scorers on the big day. It would have been a magnificent way for Cody to bow out had we managed to get the win, however even in defeat it was a magnificent way for Cody to depart, given the nature of the performance and the calibre of opponent.
I go through this brief history just to remind ourselves how monumental a task it was to take over from Brian Cody. In the same way that he would encourage every wearer of the stripey jersey to leave it in a better place to where it was when it had been received, there is no doubt he had left his post in a much healthier position to when he’d taken it over, but even though there hadn’t been an All-Ireland title for 7 years it’s not that a rot and serious decline had set in, we had just gone toe to toe with a much vaunted Limerick team and only barely come out the wrong side.
Success was still the expectation of the County Board and of the supporters, talk of transition and anything other than success would not be entertained and Derek Lyng knew this yet still faced up to this challenge head on.
He was the right man for the job, without doubt, I was of the opinion at the time that he was the only man for the job. He had been involved with Brian Cody as a mentor for six years and had proven his own managerial credentials by getting the Kilkenny U-20’s to win the All-Ireland in 2022.
His contribution to Kilkenny hurling started of course as a player. He was one of those players who had been overlooked, for the most part, at underage level that Cody saw something in and brought into the fold. He hurled for Kilkenny in that golden era from 2001 to 2010, surely one of the first names on the team sheet throughout that period, which says something when you look at the calibre of players Brian Cody had to choose from across that decade. Kilkenny probably reached the pinnacle of their powers in 2008 and the fact Derek Lyng played midfield and scored three points against Waterford in the final demonstrates his own credentials as one of the greats in the pantheon of all time Kilkenny hurlers.
2 All Stars, 9 Leinster titles and 6 All-Ireland medals all in a ten year career, not bad for a fella that couldn’t get picked in the first 15 at minor or U21!
Lyng had the characteristics that Brian Cody saw as essential for anyone pulling on the famed jersey; honesty, tenacity, hunger, desire, workrate, selflessness and unwavering commitment to the cause.
My recollection of him as a player was as a powerful presence in the centre of the field with endless stamina, putting himself about the pitch, taking the battle to the opposition, coming out of rucks with the sliotar, using that sliotar with simple effect, popping over a few scores, tracking, covering, reading the game, helping his team-mates, never flashy, always economical, the engine of the team, never backing down, never giving up, never dropping his standards and yet when the Kilkenny greats are listed off, he’s often the forgotten man, the unsung hero.
He had his own style of running, so you would know at a glance without seeing the number, before looking at the colour of the helmet, you would know it was him and I’d say his opponents knew it too and felt it by the end of the game.
Thank you to Derek for his contribution to Kilkenny hurling as a true great of the game.
He wasn’t out of the fold too long before Brian Cody brought him back in as selector, he then answered the call to take on the manager’s job of the U20 team eventually leading them to an All-Ireland title in 2022 where his team showed some grit and determination to get through tight matches.
This led to his appointment to the biggest job of all and true to his character he embraced the challenge and gave it his all.
2023
He led Kilkenny to a Leinster title in his first year in charge in dramatic fashion with Cillian Buckley’s last gasp goal breaking Galway hearts, we toppled Clare in the semi-final leading to a repeat of the previous year’s All-Ireland final against Limerick, however Limerick proved too strong for the Cats on the day.
Winning Leinster and getting to the All-Ireland final in his first year, surely must be regarded as a success, only being turned over by the 4-in-a-row winners, Limerick.
2024
The following year, Kilkenny came through Leinster unbeaten (despite failing to beat Carlow) and had a comprehensive win over Dublin in the Leinster Final, however the manner of the defeat in the All-Ireland semi-final to Clare where the Cats only managed 1-06 in the second half (while Clare scored 16 times) was a bitter pill to swallow.
Clare would go on to win the All-Ireland, however Kilkenny should have had them dead and buried at half-time and then had a major slide in performance in the second half.
It was their only loss of the year, but was enough to end the year.
Success? By Kilkenny standards, unfortunately not, but had the players taken more of their chances in the first half against Clare it could have been oh so different.
Winning Leinster again, is not something to be sneezed at and that has to be seen as a success.
2025
Lyng led Kilkenny through the first four rounds of the Leinster Championship with four fairly comprehensive victories before losing a dead rubber game in Wexford Park.
The Leinster Final saw another comprehensive victory for the Cats over Galway, this being their 6th Leinster title in a row.
The All-Ireland semi-final saw Kilkenny fail to close out a position where they found themselves a point up and a man up with five minutes to go against Tipperary, this was a huge disappointment for all involved. Tipperary of course would go on to win the All-Ireland in sensational fashion, but it didn’t soften the blow to the Kilkenny camp.
Again, winning Leinster has to be seen as a success, however not getting over the line against the 14 men of Tipperary is a blemish on the records and there must have been much deliberation by both Lyng and the County Board in assessing if he was still the man to lead the county for the following campaign.
2026
I don’t think anyone could paint the 2026 campaign as a success and I’m sure Derek Lyng would find it patronising if they did.
We only managed to win 2 of our 5 matches in Leinster and have bowed out of the Championship in May.
Even still, but for an umpire’s decision in Tullamore we would still have progressed to an All-Ireland quarter final, such are the fine margins, however there seems to have been a disjointed feeling to the entire setup this year and true to his nature Derek Lyng has taken ownership of this and stepped aside early, giving the County Board plenty of time to appoint his successor.
Overall Assessment
Looking at Derek Lyng’s four year stint as manager of his county, there were three Leinster titles in a row to follow on from the three in a row Brian Cody had signed off with, but then our abrupt dumping from the Leinster Championship this year.
There was an All-Ireland Final defeat followed by 2 All-Ireland semi-final defeats in games that were there for the taking to no All-Ireland campaign at all this year.
The declining trend is obvious year on year.
This trend is also reflected in Derek Lyng’s record in knockout matches, he won his first, beating Clare in an All-Ireland semi-final, but then lost the final to Limerick.
Lost the next two All-Ireland semi-finals, meaning his overall record in knockout matches is 1 win from 4 and if you count this year’s last round, round robin match v Dublin, which in essence was a knockout game for Kilkenny the record reads, won the first one then lost the next four.
In all, Derek Lyng took charge of the Kilkenny senior team for 27 championship matches, winning 16, drawing 4 and losing 7.
Looking at Derek Lyng’s record by opponent it shows that we’ve beaten both Kildare and Westmeath the one time we’ve played them, however failed to beat Carlow the once we met them, we have a 100% record against Antrim in 3 matches.
We have only won 2 of 4 against Wexford, however both defeats at the hands of the yellow-bellies were last round matches in Wexford Park where the Cats were undefeated in the previous 4 rounds, one of these wins for Wexford saved them from dropping out of the top tier of hurling.
We have one win and one draw from two games with Offaly.
We have one defeat and four wins against Dublin, with one defeat, two draws and 3 wins against Galway. The problem was both of those defeats came this year and then throw in our failure to get a win against Offaly and our demise is crowned.
Outside of Leinster, we have played Munster opposition on 4 occasions, winning once and losing 3.
I was surprised when I looked at Kilkenny’s record across the last 4 years by venue. It revealed that we are 9 wins from 10 with one draw at Nowlan Park, but that our record outside of our home patch is not at all impressive.
We have only won 3 of our 10 Round Robin matches away from home, 2 of those were hammerings of Antrim with the other a hard fought win in Parnell Park.
We beat Antrim and lost to Wexford in 2023.
We drew with both Galway and Carlow away from home and beat Dublin by 2 points in 3 away games in 2024.
Kilkenny again beat Antrim and lost to Wexford in 2 away games in 2025.
In 3 away games in 2026 Kilkenny lost to Galway, drew with Offaly and lost to Dublin.
In 10 home games we have scored 10 goals and 22 points more than we’ve scored in 10 games on our travels, while we’ve conceded 11 goals and 40 points more on our travels in 10 matches than in the 10 matches played at Nowlan Park.
We played 7 matches in Croke Park, winning 3 Leinster Finals and an All-Ireland semi-final, losing an All-Ireland Final and 2 All-Ireland semi-finals.
This is surely an area to target for the County Board and our new management team – how do we improve our results on our travels? What are we not getting right?
Highlights
Preventing Galway from lifting the Bob O’ Keeffe trophy, led by Henry Shefflin dressed from top to toe in maroon and white, in such dramatic fashion with that last gasp goal from Cillian Buckley must rank as the most euphoric moment of the Derek Lyng era.
The follow-up win versus Clare in the semi-final was of course another highlight (with Eoin Murphy’s save to instinctively deny Peter Duggan’s last minute goal bound effort another standout moment), with the two subsequent Leinster Final wins the other obvious highlights of Lyng’s term in office.
Challenges
Directly Following Brian Cody
This had been touted beforehand as the biggest challenge that would face Derek Lyng, however Brian Cody didn’t stand out front casting a long shadow, he didn’t take to the media offering opinion on Kilkenny’s affairs, so with Brian Cody melting into the background this didn’t really become a huge obstacle. Derek Lyng also took ownership and kept looking forward, rather than reminiscing on old times or referencing what Cody used to do, so Lyng handled it well and dealt with this challenge professionally.
Away Form
With a record of 3 wins in 10 away games across four years, this seems to have been a bigger challenge than I would have anticipated it to be.
Take out 2 visits to Antrim and there’s 1 win in 8 away games. This includes failures to win in both Carlow and Offaly.
Ireland’s chances of winning the Six Nations is doubly hard every second year as we have to travel to both England and France, in the same vein Kilkenny have to travel to both Galway and Dublin every second year in the Leinster Championship.
We qualified in 2024 with a win and a draw from these two outings, but on the law of averages we were probably due a defeat in both fixtures and unfortunately they both arrived this year, which was bad enough, but failing to beat Offaly in Tullamore ultimately put Offaly through and the Cats out.
It seems this challenge was not one that Derek Lyng mastered and is an area that the incoming management team must put focus on to address. They will have the benefit of having both Galway and Dublin at home in their first year which will give them time to get things right before the biggest challenges arrive.
Strength of Leinster Championship
In the first three years of Lyng’s reign Kilkenny did win Leinster landing them in All-Ireland semi-finals versus Munster opposition, when Kilkenny were pushed the hardest in the first year to deny Galway they managed to beat Clare in the semi-final.
Kilkenny weren’t pushed that hard the following two years and then had to meet Munster opposition that had been well primed for championship hurling with no easy matches in Munster.
This is not an excuse, but is a serious challenge, if not a serious disadvantage, we’re almost arriving in an All-Ireland semi-final on the back of league matches to face Munster opposition that have had the opportunity to reshape and galvanise their own setup through matches played against top opposition across a number of weeks in proper championship conditions.
Get it wrong and you’re out, as happened in the semi-finals of 2024 and 2025, yet they weren’t that far off in either and probably should have won both, so this disadvantage must have contributed to being overturned to some extent.
Transitioning U20 Players into Senior Squad
Having won the U20 All-Ireland in 2022 it would be fair to expect some of these players to make a successful transition to the starting 15 of the senior setup in the following few years, especially given Derek Lyng wa their manager at U20 Level and would know their qualities.
It is a surprise that only really Killian Doyle has gotten a starting spot, with Timmy Clifford and Aidan Tallis having progressed to the fringes of the first team and that the talisman of that U20 team didn’t prosper when given his chance to breakthrough at senior level.
There’s no doubt Billy Drennan had the skillset to make it at senior level, but what prevented him from making the step up? Was he not ready physically or mentally? Should Lyng and his backroom team have been more patient with him? Should they have worked with him to introduce more steel to his game before putting him on the big stage?
Whatever the challenges, we have failed to properly blood any of these players into the starting 15 for the senior team which is even more disappointing when you see U20’s from Tipperary, Galway and others transition seamlessly into top level inter county championship fare.
TJ Reid Not Getting Any Younger
For over 30 years Kilkenny have had elite dead ball specialists. DJ handed over to Henry who handed over to TJ and these successions were obvious, however the next handover is not obvious and the county seem to be still reliant on the sharp shooting of TJ.
TJ is keeping himself in fine fettle but time catches up with everyone and his contribution is becoming more limited. His free taking was not on point in a windy Tullamore, but was his overall performance that poor that he should have been taken off? Did Kilkenny improve when he went off? On both counts, I don’t think so.
It seemed Billy Drennan was the heir apparent, however that hasn’t materialised.
Are we flogging a dead horse continuing to expect TJ to keep going to the well?
When will there be a handover and to who?
Loss of Huw Lawlor & Billy Ryan
Billy Ryan had been a source of frustration for many supporters for years, flashes of brilliance, but often overdoing things and not delivering on his undoubted promise, that is until 2025.
In 2025, it seemed the perseverance had paid off and Billy had now matured into an inter-county forward who delivers, keeps it simple, works hard, gets around the pitch, distributes the ball well, brings speed, brings leadership, still not faultless, but he had served his apprenticeship and was now one of the go-to men in the Kilkenny team.
That’s when he decides to emigrate! Kilkenny hurling had put so much into him and now he was leaving the country – that was a big loss to Derek Lyng this year.
If that wasn’t enough, the talisman in defence, Huw Lawlor was also off to Australia!
Lawlor has size, speed, aerial power, strength, tenacity, he had been the lynchpin of the Kilkenny defence for years that all other parts were built around, so much so that a big part of Tipperary’s gameplan in the All-Ireland semi-final of 2025 was to move Lawlor out of position and then drop bombs onto the edge of the square.
Not only was Lawlor hugely important defensively, but he was always an outlet for breaking out of defence and breaking the opposition press with bursts upfield and ability to take the ball under severe pressure.
Vacating that No. 3 jersey has left a gaping hole in the Kilkenny team and no disrespect to Mikey Carey or any of the other Kilkenny defenders, but this was a huge challenge for Derek Lyng this year, the most obvious one and although Mikey Carey grew into the role, the experience and know-how that Lawlor had was greatly missed for Kilkenny this year.
Getting Championship Performances
It’s hard to know if the aforementioned poor away form and strength of the Leinster Championship feed into our un-Championship like performances or if this precipitates those issues.
The round robin format means so many matches without the fear of knockout and then when that peril comes into play it’s difficult to change the approach.
Brian Cody had a great record for preparing teams and having them ready to take to the pitch with insatiable hunger. Kilkenny’s defeat of Limerick in the 2019 All-Ireland semi-final and even in his last game, the All-Ireland Final of 2022 against the same opponent are prime examples of how Cody could have his team at the right pitch to deliver a high intensity championship performance, his turnaround to win two All-Ireland Final replays also testament to this fact.
Derek Lyng didn’t seem to have the same knack. From the outside looking in, it’s hard to know why that is, but too often in the last four years we have taken too long to get going, or not got going at all, too often we seem to be playing league hurling while our opponent is competing at Championship intensity.
I would say 2025 was Derek Lyng’s best year in this regard, we seemed to be bringing the requisite effort to proceedings throughout the season and were ultimately undone for other reasons, but this lack of championship intensity has probably been our biggest undoing in 2026.
Getting Right Backroom Team Blend
When Derek Lyng took up the post he brought with him his tried and tested U20 backroom team and they performed well, however it seems to me that in the quest for finding the answers that would bring Liam back to Kilkenny, Derek Lyng has chopped and changed too much.
I think the intention from Derek Lyng was positive, but feel the impact has been negative. Derek Lyng had gotten to the All-Ireland Final in his first season and had been only a puck of a ball from beating the eventual All-Ireland winners the following two years and I think Derek Lyng left no stone unturned in trying to close that gap, but in so doing I feel he may have left himself exposed to too much flux, too many different points of view, introducing too much self doubt in himself which spread to the players this year.
It’s unfortunate and not a criticism of Derek Lyng in any way, he tried his best to find the right blend by trying everything he possibly could, this is most admirable, but the impact of all of that has been detrimental.
It’s akin to when Padraig Harrington was at the top of his sport and started tinkering with every aspect of his practice and game in an effort to eke out that extra few percent to push him further ahead, but instead he lost the essence of what he was all about and ultimately all of the tinkering exposed his game rather than strengthened it.
Adapting In-Play Tactics
In most of the big games there seemed to be periods where we would be completely outplayed. We went from 8 points up going into the last 10 minutes of the 2023 Leinster Final to 2 points down only to be saved by that Buckley goal.
Clare reeled us in point by point the following year in the All-Ireland semi-final as it seemed the inevitable was very slowly creeping up on us and there was nothing we were able to do to change the flow of that whole second half.
Being a point up and a man up against Tipperary in another semi-final the following year with ten minutes to go and five minutes to go is a situation we should have been able to close out. We needed to adapt our tactics quickly in order to do so, but we seemed to adapt them poorly.
Other counties have huge backroom teams with people all over the stadiums watching different facets of the game and different areas of the pitch communicating with one another over head pieces in real time – is this an area of professionalism we are falling behind on?
Whatever the reason this is a challenge that Derek Lyng didn’t seem to have the answers for, answers of course are needed on the spur of the moment in the white-hot heat of battle, under severe pressure in front of huge crowds, so it is impossible to come up with the answers all of the time and very difficult to come up with the answers more often than not, I would have loved for Derek to have been more successful on this front, I think if he was, he may have lifted Liam as manager.
Changing Game
The evolution of the game of hurling is something I’ve already written about. As each year goes by it seems other counties are playing a different sport to the one we are playing.
Without doubt this is a challenge that is bigger than Derek Lyng, but still one Derek Lyng had to contend with for the past few years.
Is it up to the County Board or the new management team or both to determine how Kilkenny evolve to keep ourselves from becoming relics of the past?
To read the article on this subject click here.
For 4 years Derek Lyng has steered the ship for Kilkenny through choppy waters, it was a monumental task, one he did not shy away from and one that he fully embraced and gave his all to, we had some really good days and it’s a pity how things fizzled out this year. Derek can still hold his head high and is a true great of the game. Huge thanks to him for everything he has contributed to Kilkenny hurling.
Thank you Derek and goodbye for now…
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