Best Ever Irish Sportsman ...

I've learned a lot from this thread - in particular that viagra is best taken with a pinch of condiment. I’ll store that titbit away for later in life.

The question is about a "sportsman" i.e. how these people defined themselves through sport. You don't have to like someones off the field behaviour to think they are a great sportman.

Jim, do you dismiss Oisin McConville as a degenerate gambler?

JimWexford wrote:
whats the difference again all this crap about idolising another drunk, sorry all i can see is what he was a drunk
He was what he was a drunk

The irony of it all....

mossbags wrote:

JimWexford wrote:
whats the difference again all this crap about idolising another drunk, sorry all i can see is what he was a drunk
He was what he was a drunk

The irony of it all....

Thomas Clarke wrote:You're a great man for the assumptions Jim. I don't support Man Utd, or Northern Ireland for that matter. I just rate George Best as a fabulous footballer. He was brave as a lion and had a great will to win, but sure it's easy for someone to put him down given his off-the-field failings.

Still haven't heard you explain your comment about him only being talked about because he was from the 6 counties.

TC, yes its easy cause its a fact!.
Never assumed anything
I said "you may have".
As I have stated all the press coverage I ever saw about him or read about didn't paint him as anything other than a drunk.
No I didn't see him play. before my time and all you ever heard about him was he didn't fulfil his potential due to drink.

Moss, I can take the jest no problems, but no way am in or will I ever be in Best league when it comes to drink maybe in the same league as you but not him.

JS, whatever, if I said black you will say white but at least I will try answer you.
McConville at least fulfilled his potential (again different people will have different views, if I said he didn't you would hop on me regarding AI wins club and county as well as 13 county medals in a row and he played in every game of every campaign a fair feat by any ones reckoning, but at least McConville recognised and acknowledged his "flaw" and went to rehab to address his problems, the other lad took a liver and killed that with him instead of it going to a more worthy donor).
As TC stated we all have flaws but it is how stars attend to these flaws it what separates great sport-persons from others.
As regards comment regarding the 6 counties,you can take this or leave it but its a view point I share with a few others anything of worth that came out of there during the troubles was totally over hyped,because of where they came from and they got to hide behind there flaws eg Higgins, Best as misunderstood souls.
Again I didn't live up there but those two as examples didn't come from poor backgrounds or where they even mixed up in the troubles.
Did Best even have an Irish passport, if he didn't can he even be classed as Irish is he not British!.

Seem to on my own as regards great sport persons having a high moral compass but I have asked people to define what they think makes a great sports person and as of yet this hasn't been answered.
all that people will say is private life is private without an explanation, sorry all public figures are fair game and its up to them to live the holier than thou lifestyle if not fair game.
My opinion of Best he was a woman beating drunk who was adored by people more for his failings than for his successes just the same as Paul McGrath is still loved nearly as much as for his failings as his successes.

JimWexford wrote:so to be the best sportsman you need to play the most "popular" game/sport.
That TC is a lame argument.
Regardless of the sport, size, creed etc what the title is looking for is the best we have produced.
Choosing Best are we saying ya is ok to self implode and fcuk up your family in the process.
I never saw him play but all I have heard is about the damage he caused to his family afterwards through his excessive indulgences.
A sports person is some one who excels at there given field and are a role model as well.
Best might of been a goodish soccer player but he was no role model.

Could I nominate the bloke down the street from me. Played a bit of soccer when he was banged up, but absolutely fcuk up his family.

Or are we talking about sporting talent here?

The Puke wrote:Best wouldn't lace Cryuff's boots, washed up and finished at 27....A waste of a good liver

Cruff? When George was "finished" he came back and got enough motivation to make Cruff look exactly what he was, a very good player, no Puskas or Di stefano or Messi or Zidane or Platini or Ronaldo (the real one) but a very good player.

But no where near as good as a pissed up, past it George.

Watch the video I posted.

[quote="The Puke"][quote="Thomas Clarke"]

The Puke wrote:Best wouldn't lace Cryuff's boots, washed up and finished at 27....A waste of a good liver

, he is around the same level as the likes of Kevin Keegan, Michael Owen, Gary Linekar and Alan Shearer...



Can I nominate me? I was around that level at soccer. maybe not as good as Shearer, but certainly a lot better than Keegan.

Mind you, between the women and drugs, well.................maybe not.

Hang on, lets get serious here.

Did any of you see George? If not go into You Tube and get educated.

Some of the comments here are laughable. Does anyone here think Eamon Taffe was as good as DJ? Lewis Francis as good as Usain Bolt?

Now there have been many, many great Irish sportsmen. For achievement you would have to say Harrington, as many majors as Mickelson and Els, and yet not a natural, Michelle Smith with her magnificent feats at the olympics, kelly and Roche at cycling, Gibson, Kyle and O'Driscoll at rugby,obviously Christy Ring from our own sports, countless athletes who won umerous gold medals for the USA in the early olympics, a fair few boxers, Tony McCoy and a load of other jockeys.

However in a MAJOR widely played sport Ireland has had ONE undoubted, unrivalled genius.

His name was George Best, they called him the Belfast boy.

patrique wrote:

The Puke wrote:Best wouldn't lace Cryuff's boots, washed up and finished at 27....A waste of a good liver

Cruff? When George was "finished" he came back and got enough motivation to make Cruff look exactly what he was, a very good player, no Puskas or Di stefano or Messi or Zidane or Platini or Ronaldo (the real one) but a very good player.

But no where near as good as a pissed up, past it George.

Watch the video I posted.

So a four minute youtube video proves that Best was better, nutmegging Cryuff if hardly proof that he was a better player....What exactly did Best win as a footballer one European cup and a couple of league titles IIRC, he was a fine footbaler but to say he is up there with Maradonna as the greatest of all time is fallacy....I think the Michael Owen/Keegan comparision is apt, both also won European footballer of the year once.....Georgie didn't do too much at international level, surely to god if he was as good as you say he would at least have done some bit of damage with them

Thomas Clarke wrote:

JimWexford wrote: Regarding Best also think he blown out of all proportion because he came from the 6 counties as well.

And what is that supposed to mean? Many people all over the world rate George Best as being among the greatest footballers ever because he came from Belfast???

Sheer unadultered jealousy, begrudgery, call it what you will, but that is what it is.

Best was carrying Man United on his back when they finally won in Europe, and as for his team mates at N.Ireland......

The Puke wrote:

patrique wrote:

The Puke wrote:Best wouldn't lace Cryuff's boots, washed up and finished at 27....A waste of a good liver

Cruff? When George was "finished" he came back and got enough motivation to make Cruff look exactly what he was, a very good player, no Puskas or Di stefano or Messi or Zidane or Platini or Ronaldo (the real one) but a very good player.

But no where near as good as a pissed up, past it George.

Watch the video I posted.

So a four minute youtube video proves that Best was better, nutmegging Cryuff if hardly proof that he was a better player....What exactly did Best win as a footballer one European cup and a couple of league titles IIRC, he was a fine footbaler but to say he is up there with Maradonna as the greatest of all time is fallacy....I think the Michael Owen/Keegan comparision is apt, both also won European footballer of the year once.....Georgie didn't do too much at international level, surely to god if he was as good as you say he would at least have done some bit of damage with them

WIN. WIN. Is Gary Neville the best ever then?

Win my hydraulics.

The Puke wrote:

patrique wrote:

The Puke wrote:Best wouldn't lace Cryuff's boots, washed up and finished at 27....A waste of a good liver

Cruff? When George was "finished" he came back and got enough motivation to make Cruff look exactly what he was, a very good player, no Puskas or Di stefano or Messi or Zidane or Platini or Ronaldo (the real one) but a very good player.

But no where near as good as a pissed up, past it George.

Watch the video I posted.

So a four minute youtube video proves that Best was better, nutmegging Cryuff if hardly proof that he was a better player....What exactly did Best win as a footballer one European cup and a couple of league titles IIRC, he was a fine footbaler but to say he is up there with Maradonna as the greatest of all time is fallacy....I think the Michael Owen/Keegan comparision is apt, both also won European footballer of the year once.....Georgie didn't do too much at international level, surely to god if he was as good as you say he would at least have done some bit of damage with them

Sorry about that, I fell for it, hook line and sinker.

George never won the world cup, at least twice, with N.Ireland..............


LUV it.

patrique wrote:

The Puke wrote:

patrique wrote:

The Puke wrote:Best wouldn't lace Cryuff's boots, washed up and finished at 27....A waste of a good liver

Cruff? When George was "finished" he came back and got enough motivation to make Cruff look exactly what he was, a very good player, no Puskas or Di stefano or Messi or Zidane or Platini or Ronaldo (the real one) but a very good player.

But no where near as good as a pissed up, past it George.

Watch the video I posted.

So a four minute youtube video proves that Best was better, nutmegging Cryuff if hardly proof that he was a better player....What exactly did Best win as a footballer one European cup and a couple of league titles IIRC, he was a fine footbaler but to say he is up there with Maradonna as the greatest of all time is fallacy....I think the Michael Owen/Keegan comparision is apt, both also won European footballer of the year once.....Georgie didn't do too much at international level, surely to god if he was as good as you say he would at least have done some bit of damage with them

WIN. WIN. Is Gary Neville the best ever then?

Win my hydraulics.

The players who you have mentioned that George Best is equal to or better than have far more individual awards and medals in their **** pockets...I am not denying that Best was a very talented footballer but to say he is up there as one of the true greats of all time is wide of the mark....

Last couple of things. I am a Manchester CITY fan.

Secondly I was at Windsor Park in 1967 when George single handedly destroyed Scotland in perhaps the finest individual performance ever on a soccer pitch. Scotland had just beaten the World champions at the World champions home ground at the time. they were a very useful team.

Maradona was not the all round player George was, as George had two feet, could tackle, and head the ball. Maradona however certainly made the best of one foot and was a genius, albeit playing with better sides than George.

Picking between them is a matter of choice, drink or cocaine.

patrique wrote:Last couple of things. I am a Manchester CITY fan.

Secondly I was at Windsor Park in 1967 when George single handedly destroyed Scotland in perhaps the finest individual performance ever on a soccer pitch. Scotland had just beaten the World champions at the World champions home ground at the time. they were a very useful team.

Maradona was not the all round player George was, as George had two feet, could tackle, and head the ball. Maradona however certainly made the best of one foot and was a genius, albeit playing with better sides than George.

Picking between them is a matter of choice, drink or cocaine.

Your more that entitled to your opinion on him pat but I think we will have to agree to differ on this matter me thinks.....

Couple of boys getting badly rattled by this whole George Best thing.. He was a good player in what was one of the better English league clubs of their era. Law, Charlton, Crerand, Stiles and our own Tony Dunne amongst others were all team mates and all top quality players in their time. Best was a cog in the great wheel of things.
Talented and plucky, he had a few years, where between his looks and his lifestyle, he was all the rage...a sort of precursor of Beckham and his ilk. This was the swinging 60's, rebellious years and tabloid journalism was on the rise. The proletariat were gagging for an icon to attach themselves to and Best proved to be the man....

Yours in seeing reality for what it is,
Boxty....


No word at all about Ronnie Delaney, strange....

Tony McCoy

Boxtyeater wrote:

Not even te best O'Brien to train horses

Not fit to lace the boot's of either of Oxx or Weld.

Thomas Clarke wrote:[Look at John Hayes, for example. 100 caps, and only took up the game when he was 20.

Sorry TC - will pick up the Best argument later but just pointing out that Kevin Kilbane has about 1,000 caps at this stage ....

mossbags wrote:Not fit to lace the boot's of either of Oxx or Weld.

It's a wonder you didn't nominate them so......

Boxtyeater wrote:

mossbags wrote:Not fit to lace the boot's of either of Oxx or Weld.

It's a wonder you didn't nominate them so......

Who did I nominate

Eh..Nobody yet as far as I can see.