More to matching Cats than just muscle

This is Kilkenny. Kilkenny win things. Kilkenny lift heavier weights and hit harder than any other team. Kilkenny are smart. Be like Kilkenny.

We’re not paraphrasing Michael Jordan’s “Be Like Mike” advertisement for Gatorade from the early 1990s but the recent social media meme fade featuring a drawn stick man called Bill. Kilkenny may be masters of sticks but they are far from it in stature.

In last year’s All-Ireland final, the average height of their starting team was just over 6ft as it was the year before but their average weight was almost a kilogram heavier, at 85.7kg (and would have been more, if Jackie Tyrrell had been fit).