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Team Of The Decade ( Eir Sport ) Style

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I've been one of Cillian O'Connor's biggest critics on here for years, but he is definitely warrants discussion for a place on the team of the decade. He's certainly in the top 10 forwards.

Breffni40 (Cavan) - Posts: 12116 - 06/01/2020 16:32:21    2257802

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The first criteria to make this team should be having an All-Ireland won. The only difference between Mayo, Monaghan and Donegal in the last decade was Michael Murphy. When he was needed most in the big games he pulled Donegal through. The same cannot be said for McManus and certainly not of any Mayo players. When All-Irelands were there to be won Lee Keegan was sitting on the sideline or too busy throwing his GPS tracker at Dean Rock, O'Shea was hiding and Higgins was MIA while his marker was putting up big scores.

Mailman98 (Galway) - Posts: 319 - 06/01/2020 16:47:25    2257808

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Replying To Pericles:  "I'd say Kerry's Sean O'Shea has a fair chance of overtaking him eventually Mes... just 21 and his haul this year was pretty phenomenal. Won't happen in a hurry though!"
You're right about Seán O'Shea, could maybe catch him.

It'll be interesting to watch O'Connor setting the target over the next few seasons in anyways.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13707 - 06/01/2020 19:38:57    2257839

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Replying To Mailman98:  "The first criteria to make this team should be having an All-Ireland won. The only difference between Mayo, Monaghan and Donegal in the last decade was Michael Murphy. When he was needed most in the big games he pulled Donegal through. The same cannot be said for McManus and certainly not of any Mayo players. When All-Irelands were there to be won Lee Keegan was sitting on the sideline or too busy throwing his GPS tracker at Dean Rock, O'Shea was hiding and Higgins was MIA while his marker was putting up big scores."
Nonsense. An All-Ireland is won by a team, not an individual. Conor McManus is without a doubt one of the best forwards of the last decade. If he was from Dublin, he would have multiple All-Irelands.
Mayo have also definitely produced some of the best players of the last decade. Keegan is a shoo-in on any team of the 10s.
I wouldn't have O'Shea on the team. There are too many ahead of him and he often faded out of big games at the most critical time.

WanPintWin (Galway) - Posts: 2039 - 06/01/2020 20:01:14    2257845

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sean oshea has potential to be one of the greats superb footballer

lilypad (Kildare) - Posts: 1363 - 06/01/2020 20:54:16    2257856

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Replying To Mailman98:  "The first criteria to make this team should be having an All-Ireland won. The only difference between Mayo, Monaghan and Donegal in the last decade was Michael Murphy. When he was needed most in the big games he pulled Donegal through. The same cannot be said for McManus and certainly not of any Mayo players. When All-Irelands were there to be won Lee Keegan was sitting on the sideline or too busy throwing his GPS tracker at Dean Rock, O'Shea was hiding and Higgins was MIA while his marker was putting up big scores."
Sounds like you're giving murphy all the credit for their AI win. No doubt had a great year in 2012 but you must be forgetting about the other phenomenal talent and leaders Donegal had in their squad, McGlynn, Lacey, McFadden, Gallagher, Durcan all fantastic players who showed real leadership qualities that year in getting Donegal over the line. The same definitely cant be said for the Monaghan teams over the decade and there should be no disputation over McManus' place on the team

boman11 (Antrim) - Posts: 237 - 07/01/2020 07:51:42    2257892

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There is no way the criteria should be having won an all ireland. As many posters point out, teams win all irelands rather than the individual.

There are plenty of players that have all irelands to their names that would not have the quite the qualities of a player like Conor McManus or Lee Keegan.

Monaghan are the fifth smallest county of the 32 and would have a very low player population. We have a very strong football culture that gives us a higher % of players per population perhaps but ultimately much lower than other top 8-10 sides. We have produced a fine generation of footballers but what has pushed us above many other similar counties in recent years is having (IMO) the one of the if not the greatest forward of his generation.

Gator (Monaghan) - Posts: 238 - 07/01/2020 13:19:07    2257965

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Replying To boman11:  "Sounds like you're giving murphy all the credit for their AI win. No doubt had a great year in 2012 but you must be forgetting about the other phenomenal talent and leaders Donegal had in their squad, McGlynn, Lacey, McFadden, Gallagher, Durcan all fantastic players who showed real leadership qualities that year in getting Donegal over the line. The same definitely cant be said for the Monaghan teams over the decade and there should be no disputation over McManus' place on the team"
McManus had as many bad days as good ones and had some seriously mediocre games in Croke Park. The Donegal players you mentioned are great players and some are rightly rewarded with places on the team as All-Ireland winners. Lee Keegan was undoubtedly Mayo's top performer in the decade, head and shoulders above the rest, but the year the All-Ireland was there to be won in 2016 he was in the Hogan Stand for the second half watching a team try and make up for his self-inflicted absence. His kick into Cluxton's hands in 2015 semi which would have put Mayo out of sight just another reason why he has no place among a team of winners.

Mailman98 (Galway) - Posts: 319 - 07/01/2020 14:05:19    2257977

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Replying To Mailman98:  "McManus had as many bad days as good ones and had some seriously mediocre games in Croke Park. The Donegal players you mentioned are great players and some are rightly rewarded with places on the team as All-Ireland winners. Lee Keegan was undoubtedly Mayo's top performer in the decade, head and shoulders above the rest, but the year the All-Ireland was there to be won in 2016 he was in the Hogan Stand for the second half watching a team try and make up for his self-inflicted absence. His kick into Cluxton's hands in 2015 semi which would have put Mayo out of sight just another reason why he has no place among a team of winners."
Not one word of that could be seriously taken. You focus on two reasons for Keegan out of 7/8 years of fantastic performance.

I have seen McManus play poorly but maybe only 2-3 times in about 30 times at games and countless others on TV. Whats more....I have seem him play superbly while being marked for 70 mins by two players at all times.

Gator (Monaghan) - Posts: 238 - 07/01/2020 14:54:21    2257991

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Replying To Mailman98:  "McManus had as many bad days as good ones and had some seriously mediocre games in Croke Park. The Donegal players you mentioned are great players and some are rightly rewarded with places on the team as All-Ireland winners. Lee Keegan was undoubtedly Mayo's top performer in the decade, head and shoulders above the rest, but the year the All-Ireland was there to be won in 2016 he was in the Hogan Stand for the second half watching a team try and make up for his self-inflicted absence. His kick into Cluxton's hands in 2015 semi which would have put Mayo out of sight just another reason why he has no place among a team of winners."
Mate there's just no chance McManus isn't there, I'd say quite a lot of positions on the team of the decade would be up for debate, except McManus and maybe 3 or 4 Dublin players.

I honestly can't see how anyone could leave him out

boman11 (Antrim) - Posts: 237 - 07/01/2020 15:44:03    2258005

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Replying To boman11:  "Mate there's just no chance McManus isn't there, I'd say quite a lot of positions on the team of the decade would be up for debate, except McManus and maybe 3 or 4 Dublin players.

I honestly can't see how anyone could leave him out"
Not only should he be on the team he has arguably been the best inside forward of the decade IMO, although Bernard would run him very close.

Joxer (Dublin) - Posts: 4700 - 07/01/2020 18:31:29    2258031

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how does Murphys scoring record compare with say The Gooch or C O Connor. He plays at full forward and takes frees .

culmore (None) - Posts: 1398 - 07/01/2020 19:37:06    2258044

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Replying To Joxer:  "Not only should he be on the team he has arguably been the best inside forward of the decade IMO, although Bernard would run him very close."
Completely agree, I'd have the 2 at the very top And it's very hard to split them. Maybe McManus slightly shades it but on Brogans day how could you not have him

boman11 (Antrim) - Posts: 237 - 07/01/2020 20:58:56    2258053

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Replying To lilypad:  "sean oshea has potential to be one of the greats superb footballer"
David Clifford has more potential.
Clifford outscored (from play) O Shea in the 2019 championship. No one outscored Clifford (from play) in the two All Ireland Finals.
Clifford's minor career was probably the greatest ever.

Aibrean (Kerry) - Posts: 263 - 07/01/2020 21:27:42    2258067

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Replying To culmore:  "how does Murphys scoring record compare with say The Gooch or C O Connor. He plays at full forward and takes frees ."
Murphy has played at full-forward at times, but he has spent a lot of his career further out the pitch, at centre-forward and midfield. He also doesn't take a many of the close-range frees, with these left to McBrearty now and McFadden in the past.
Cillian has been Mayo's free-taker at all distances, pretty much since he came on to the team.
Sheehan was the main long-range kicker during much of Gooch's career with Kerry.

WanPintWin (Galway) - Posts: 2039 - 07/01/2020 21:37:35    2258070

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Replying To Mailman98:  "McManus had as many bad days as good ones and had some seriously mediocre games in Croke Park. The Donegal players you mentioned are great players and some are rightly rewarded with places on the team as All-Ireland winners. Lee Keegan was undoubtedly Mayo's top performer in the decade, head and shoulders above the rest, but the year the All-Ireland was there to be won in 2016 he was in the Hogan Stand for the second half watching a team try and make up for his self-inflicted absence. His kick into Cluxton's hands in 2015 semi which would have put Mayo out of sight just another reason why he has no place among a team of winners."
The scoring record of McManus is phenomenal; only B. Brogan (of the Eir team) is ahead of him. Who would you replace him with?

As for Keegan, no one has more All-Star Awards than he has and you want to drop him! Of course he has made mistakes; who has not? Again, who is more deserving?

Aibrean (Kerry) - Posts: 263 - 07/01/2020 21:40:59    2258072

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Replying To Aibrean:  "David Clifford has more potential.
Clifford outscored (from play) O Shea in the 2019 championship. No one outscored Clifford (from play) in the two All Ireland Finals.
Clifford's minor career was probably the greatest ever."
as an out and out scoring forward of course clifford is a better player but i think oshea is a better man out the field

lilypad (Kildare) - Posts: 1363 - 08/01/2020 00:32:39    2258111

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It's a ridiculous suggestion imo to leave Keegan or McManus off that team. If you're going down the route of restricting it based on AI medals, then why not just go all out and base the team on the players who have won the most - in which case it would be a pretty easy team to pick.

But it's not based on that, it's about simply a team of the best players of the last decade. And those 2 lads are certainly in that category.

patk (Monaghan) - Posts: 936 - 08/01/2020 11:06:49    2258151

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Replying To lilypad:  "as an out and out scoring forward of course clifford is a better player but i think oshea is a better man out the field"
Of course he is. Better all round player I'd say.

catch22 (USA) - Posts: 2148 - 08/01/2020 11:08:03    2258153

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Replying To Aibrean:  "David Clifford has more potential.
Clifford outscored (from play) O Shea in the 2019 championship. No one outscored Clifford (from play) in the two All Ireland Finals.
Clifford's minor career was probably the greatest ever."
Many players returned the same scoring though in the finals. I watched them both back over Xmas, if you delve a little bit deeper though i think you would find he would have a lower successful conversation rate to many of the other forwards over the games as well, certainly the Dublin ones on the second day. I was struck over the two games how many wides he he hit and how often he took a shot on.

Before people go start the Dublin Vs Kerry thing, that is very understandable because he is very young and hes a decent talent and to be expected in his second full year. but there are a couple of rough edges to knock of his game, in shot selection, bringing others in to play, being less selfish - all understandable.

Like many id be a paid up member of Sean O Shea fan club, think hes the real gem the south west, always surprises me how revered and how many fans he has outside Kerry and not as much as young David in Kerry, they watch more then most of us mind, so i suppose that fair enough.

Hopefully both go on now and young David fulfills all his potential, its a great and exciting time to be starting out with a fair chance the Dubs could be on the wain.

TheUsername (Dublin) - Posts: 4445 - 08/01/2020 11:23:48    2258160

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