Royaldunne
Indeed Ollie you are right. The eire og team had won all before them, now the old memory is fading but if I recall correctly it was either 12 or 11 of that team started against Meath that day with the rest on bench. Carlow were fav to win and transfer their club success against a young inexperienced Meath team, who had lost all bar 2 of their leaders, Sean himself was challanged for the management position for the first time at previous AGM. Meath were very much underdogs that day.

Royaldunne..Carlow were 2/1 underdogs that day but a few of the papers tipped Carlow to beat Meath.

It was 12 eire og players started that day but i remember the size of the meath players that day compared
to our lads and it wasnt much of a contest.

Eire og never won the All-Ireland club having being "robbed" down in Limerick with the ref disallowing
a last minute goal for square ball. But the 5 leinster wins were great.

carlovia (None) - Posts: 1517 - 25/03/2016 10:23:19    1837529

carlovia -They were indeed a fine team and unfortunately the underdog usually get the 'bits of the plate' when it goes to some Ref decisions. Was in Navan the day the beat Mullabawn (one of the few teams to beat Cross in Armagh).

browncows (Meath) - Posts: 2342 - 25/03/2016 10:43:46    1837540

Carlovia. Sorry you are right they were robbed of all ire title. However I remember getting Meath @5/4 for that game, perhaps different bookies had different prices, but that was a fine eire og team, and so much so that many people myself included view them as having won all ire, its a travesty that they were robbed in limerick b

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 25/03/2016 11:06:30    1837546

I looked up the 96 championship after seeing this discussion. The Meath game was Carlow's 3rd match in the championship that year. Leinster had a preliminary competition in 96 where 4 teams had to qualify to join the other 7 teams in the quarter finals. The GAA has had some seriously mad formats in its time.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4241 - 25/03/2016 11:28:39    1837552

Rd if you got meath at 5/4 n Carlow were 2/1 then that made meath favourites no matter what way u try to argue it !

rossy15 (Roscommon) - Posts: 619 - 25/03/2016 13:05:10    1837595

Rd if you got meath at 5/4 n Carlow were 2/1 then that made meath favourites no matter what way u try to argue it !

rossy15 (Roscommon) - Posts:137 - 25/03/2016 13:05:10 1837595

Wow those are some odds that bookie was giving. As long as a draw was more than 3-1 you could back everything and lock in a nice little win for yourself.

Anyway let's get back on point.

Sean Boylan's 1996 triumph could be the greatest managerial achievement of the last 20 years, I might even start a new thread to debate that, but to say he's been amongst the most influential people in the game is just patently wrong.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4241 - 25/03/2016 14:54:27    1837618

Rossie my bookie had Carlow @4/5.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 25/03/2016 17:18:08    1837651

I wouldn't think Cody was the cause of ground hurling disappearing if you went back to when Clare came on the seen 1995 the ground hurling was put out the window by Loughnane the possation game was the only way forward with them. When Cody took over Kilkenny when nobody else wanted it there was big problems within like Cork at the moment I think he has done a fair job.

johnwhite12 (Kilkenny) - Posts: 306 - 25/03/2016 17:27:53    1837652

@ Royaldunne

Is your bookie by any chance named Kikfada?

OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12224 - 25/03/2016 17:51:05    1837656

From a Louth point of view I would have to nominate the great Paddy Keenan. He gave twelve great seasons to the Wee County. He was one of the best and probably the best Louth player of this generation to wear the red Jersey. He was the first Louth player to win an All Star and the first Louth player to play for Ireland in the International series against the Aussies. He always gave 100 per cent. He never let down his club or county. He was captain of Louth for five seasons and in his first season as captain he led Louth to their first Leinster final in fifty years. His block alone in the Leinster final just sums up what a player he was. Only for the farcical final moment's of that game he would of been the first Louth captain in Fifty three years to lift the Delaney Cup. A gent on and off the pitch.

OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12224 - 25/03/2016 18:07:19    1837659

Ollie I hope not he owes me a fortune lol.
Wish I had shopped around now looking at some of the odds. Typical:)

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 25/03/2016 18:48:33    1837663

Meath lost 4 players from the previous year. Not exactly a massive change in personnel RD.

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 26/03/2016 11:02:14    1837719

Can't understand all this praise for Cody. He's a great manager no doubt, but certainly not the best ever or most influential. Winning All-Ireland's by default really. The only difference between this Kilkenny team and great one's before Cody is the competition. Kilkenny have maintained their standards, Cork and Tipp have not. If they had, they would still be splitting All-Ireland's between them

32_4_1 (Meath) - Posts: 4122 - 26/03/2016 12:38:56    1837751

Can't understand all this praise for Cody. He's a great manager no doubt, but certainly not the best ever or most influential. Winning All-Ireland's by default really. The only difference between this Kilkenny team and great one's before Cody is the competition. Kilkenny have maintained their standards, Cork and Tipp have not. If they had, they would still be splitting All-Ireland's between them

32_4_1 (Meath) - Posts:4052 - 26/03/2016 12:38:56

I can't agree with any of that really. When Cody took over, Kilkenny hadn't won or been in an AI final in 5 years. Offaly and Wexford had taken over Leinster during that period and no longer feared Kilkenny in the slightest. Since then Cody built the greatest hurling team we have seen with players who would grace any team from any era. You obviously haven't seen too many AI hurling finals if you think that Kilkenny win by default. Yes there were finals that they turned on an irresistible style like in 07 and 08, but they also had hard fought finals like 06, 09, 12 and 14. Even when the pressure was on them they managed to find a way to victory more often than not. As for Cork and Tipp's standards during that period. Cork won 3 AI's during Cody's reign and were going for a 3 in a row in 06 with some legendary players among their ranks. Tipp have won 2 AI's during that period and put in performances in 09 and 14 that would have won AI's against any other team possibly from any other era so I don't get this idea that nobody was there to challenge them. Brian Cody deserves to be on a shortlist on here no question in my mind.

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2386 - 26/03/2016 13:40:51    1837773

Yes Got Milk - unfortunately some posters use spoof to get their message across because it's not actually factual .

I must start doing my betting in Meath : it's impossible to lose in their bookies lol .

TheRightStuff (Donegal) - Posts: 1688 - 26/03/2016 15:04:57    1837789

32-4-1,

I have to disagree.Cody hasn't maintained Kilkenny's standards he has raised them immeasurably , beyond the reach of everyone else it appears to me.Undoubtedly the greatest GAA manager of all time.

Condorman (Dublin) - Posts: 983 - 26/03/2016 15:21:46    1837800

Probably Peter Quinn he was the Brains behind the new Croke park.Also Liam Mulvihill who brought the GAA into modern Ireland.

ifindoubt (Donegal) - Posts: 133 - 26/03/2016 15:38:56    1837806

I think that Cody has had a huge influence on hurling but not in the way people think.

Under his reign, hurling has become far more physical and is nowhere near as skill orientated as it used to be. Hurling is for me the most watchable sport on earth (when a game is competitive anyway) but alot of the magic seems to have disappeared from the game, replaced by raw physicality, and for me the game is slightly the worse for it.

Just my opinion.

joncarter (Galway) - Posts: 2692 - 26/03/2016 16:04:34    1837819

Excellent last post saffron.Agree totally with it.

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 26/03/2016 16:21:13    1837826

Jim Mc Guinness for sure. He has changed the whole style of football. GAA was on a downhill slope and he started to bring more supporters from all round. Alot of gaelic managers have changed they're style of football to Jim's style. Tank ouo ver much

JosefnDongo (UK) - Posts: 66 - 26/03/2016 17:57:45    1837863