Noughties not nice

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:The chasing pack were not all that average and if we take Cork this year as being your typical All-Ireland winning team, then you could certainly argue that some above-average teams existed in the same era as Kerry and Tyrone.

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Well you will see it through rose tinted spectacles - as you are absolutely entitled to do - and rightly so! Personally, I didn't like the way football was going for much of the 00s and some of the stuff in the early to mid part of the decade did not float my boat. Tyrone have had some fine players - many you listed - but a good few of those names did not do it consistently - and I would have to include McGuigan in that (though injuries did him no favours, Cavanagh was awesome a couple of years back but has become a pretty ordinary player in recent seasons, McMenamin while a player I would like to have in my team would not grace any 'best of' selection - nor Harte either.

whiterbananas wrote:Seeing the likes of mcdonald, The Mort and dillon in full flow .......... was a sight to behold

whiterbananas wrote:i do think the mayo team from 04 - 06 rescued the decade in many ways. Playing exciting, free-floowing football, it was so refreshing after the dour machine-like performances we had to endure from the like of tyrone and armagh and to a lesser extent kerry. Seeing the likes of mcdonald, The Mort and dillon in full flow was a sight to behold and will be the outstanding memory of the decade for many people

whiterbananas wrote:i do think the mayo team from 04 - 06 rescued the decade in many ways. Playing exciting, free-floowing football, it was so refreshing after the dour machine-like performances we had to endure from the like of tyrone and armagh and to a lesser extent kerry. Seeing the likes of mcdonald, The Mort and dillon in full flow was a sight to behold and will be the outstanding memory of the decade for many people

Thomas Clarke wrote:

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Well you will see it through rose tinted spectacles - as you are absolutely entitled to do - and rightly so! Personally, I didn't like the way football was going for much of the 00s and some of the stuff in the early to mid part of the decade did not float my boat. Tyrone have had some fine players - many you listed - but a good few of those names did not do it consistently - and I would have to include McGuigan in that (though injuries did him no favours, Cavanagh was awesome a couple of years back but has become a pretty ordinary player in recent seasons, McMenamin while a player I would like to have in my team would not grace any 'best of' selection - nor Harte either.

Injuries have completely debilitated McGuigan, but from 2003-2005 he was consinstently Tyrone's most important player. Cavanagh has gone completely off the boil since 2008 but, playing as he did from 2003-2008, what side of any era would he not have made? I never made a case for Harte, aside from to say that he was a fairly good player. If I was picking my best Tyrone 15 of the last 8 years, he wouldn't be on it.

O'Neill, Jordan, Gormley, Cavanagh, Dooher, Canavan would all have made any side I can think of except Kerry in the late '70s. I could argue a couple more, but it may be bias.

patrique wrote:
O'Neill, Canavan and for a few years Cavanagh, I would agree with.

I love Jordan but have seen many identical. Gormley? What position does he play?

Dooher, wonderful workhorse with skill, but would not have got on any team in another era as people simply played with six backs, two mid field, and 6 forwards.

Thomas Clarke wrote:

patrique wrote:
O'Neill, Canavan and for a few years Cavanagh, I would agree with.

I love Jordan but have seen many identical. Gormley? What position does he play?

Dooher, wonderful workhorse with skill, but would not have got on any team in another era as people simply played with six backs, two mid field, and 6 forwards.

Jordan has been one of the 2 outstanding wing-backs of the last 10 years. 4 All-stars. I can't think of any side that had 2 better wing-backs than him.

As for Gormley, so versatility, and being able to play equally well in any defensive position is a weakness now?

And Dooher, well, his game was exactly the same as Pat Spillane's (though not quite as brilliant as Spillane), so you could consider him for any side since 1975.

I stopped at those 6 players, for fear of being accused of being biased.

patrique wrote: Right I admit I was needling a bit, so I hope you were as well, mentioning Pat Spillane in the same sentence as Dooher.

Gormley doesn't do it for me, certainly not like say McGeeney, Downey, or Loughman of recent Ulster memory. Solid but limited.

Thomas Clarke (Thu Dec 16, 2010 8:21 am) wrote:

patrique wrote: Right I admit I was needling a bit, so I hope you were as well, mentioning Pat Spillane in the same sentence as Dooher.

Gormley doesn't do it for me, certainly not like say McGeeney, Downey, or Loughman of recent Ulster memory. Solid but limited.

Gormley was not as good a CHB as McGeeney or Downey, although I should put that into context by saying that I rate those two as the best CHBs of the last 30 years, just ahead of Stephen O'Brien. Gormley, however, could play equally well at Full-back, centre, wing, corner - throw in his leadership qualities and I can't think of any side that had 6 better defenders, and that he wouldn't be worthy of making.

The comparison between Dooher and Spillane is one that I have made before, and one that you have agreed with. Spillane was a much more gifted and better footballer, one of the greatest half dozen ever perhaps, but their style of play and licence to roam was extremely similar.

Royal_Girl2k9 wrote: No Martin O'Connell on that list of wing backs no..?

mullins wrote:

whiterbananas wrote:i do think the mayo team from 04 - 06 rescued the decade in many ways. Playing exciting, free-floowing football, it was so refreshing after the dour machine-like performances we had to endure from the like of tyrone and armagh and to a lesser extent kerry. Seeing the likes of mcdonald, The Mort and dillon in full flow was a sight to behold and will be the outstanding memory of the decade for many people

06 is best forgotten..

whiterbananas wrote:I can understand why you would feel this way mullins. 7 points up is not enough against the mighty mayo

whiterbananas wrote:

mullins wrote:

whiterbananas wrote:i do think the mayo team from 04 - 06 rescued the decade in many ways. Playing exciting, free-floowing football, it was so refreshing after the dour machine-like performances we had to endure from the like of tyrone and armagh and to a lesser extent kerry. Seeing the likes of mcdonald, The Mort and dillon in full flow was a sight to behold and will be the outstanding memory of the decade for many people

06 is best forgotten..

I can understand why you would feel this way mullins. 7 points up is not enough against the mighty mayo

Royal_Girl2k9 wrote:

Thomas Clarke (Thu Dec 16, 2010 8:21 am) wrote:

patrique wrote: Right I admit I was needling a bit, so I hope you were as well, mentioning Pat Spillane in the same sentence as Dooher.

Gormley doesn't do it for me, certainly not like say McGeeney, Downey, or Loughman of recent Ulster memory. Solid but limited.

Gormley was not as good a CHB as McGeeney or Downey, although I should put that into context by saying that I rate those two as the best CHBs of the last 30 years, just ahead of Stephen O'Brien. Gormley, however, could play equally well at Full-back, centre, wing, corner - throw in his leadership qualities and I can't think of any side that had 6 better defenders, and that he wouldn't be worthy of making.

The comparison between Dooher and Spillane is one that I have made before, and one that you have agreed with. Spillane was a much more gifted and better footballer, one of the greatest half dozen ever perhaps, but their style of play and licence to roam was extremely similar.

No Martin O'Connell on that list of wing backs no..?

patrique wrote:

Royal_Girl2k9 wrote:

Thomas Clarke (Thu Dec 16, 2010 8:21 am) wrote:

patrique wrote: Right I admit I was needling a bit, so I hope you were as well, mentioning Pat Spillane in the same sentence as Dooher.

Gormley doesn't do it for me, certainly not like say McGeeney, Downey, or Loughman of recent Ulster memory. Solid but limited.

Gormley was not as good a CHB as McGeeney or Downey, although I should put that into context by saying that I rate those two as the best CHBs of the last 30 years, just ahead of Stephen O'Brien. Gormley, however, could play equally well at Full-back, centre, wing, corner - throw in his leadership qualities and I can't think of any side that had 6 better defenders, and that he wouldn't be worthy of making.

The comparison between Dooher and Spillane is one that I have made before, and one that you have agreed with. Spillane was a much more gifted and better footballer, one of the greatest half dozen ever perhaps, but their style of play and licence to roam was extremely similar.

No Martin O'Connell on that list of wing backs no..?

If I need someone to stamp on the heads of players lying on the ground McDermott's in Belfast have at least 30 exponents of this fine art better than O'Connell.

I can think of TWO Antrim players in the last 15 years better number 7s than the "stamper".

patrique wrote:

Royal_Girl2k9 wrote:

Thomas Clarke (Thu Dec 16, 2010 8:21 am) wrote:

patrique wrote: Right I admit I was needling a bit, so I hope you were as well, mentioning Pat Spillane in the same sentence as Dooher.

Gormley doesn't do it for me, certainly not like say McGeeney, Downey, or Loughman of recent Ulster memory. Solid but limited.

Gormley was not as good a CHB as McGeeney or Downey, although I should put that into context by saying that I rate those two as the best CHBs of the last 30 years, just ahead of Stephen O'Brien. Gormley, however, could play equally well at Full-back, centre, wing, corner - throw in his leadership qualities and I can't think of any side that had 6 better defenders, and that he wouldn't be worthy of making.

The comparison between Dooher and Spillane is one that I have made before, and one that you have agreed with. Spillane was a much more gifted and better footballer, one of the greatest half dozen ever perhaps, but their style of play and licence to roam was extremely similar.

No Martin O'Connell on that list of wing backs no..?

If I need someone to stamp on the heads of players lying on the ground McDermott's in Belfast have at least 30 exponents of this fine art better than O'Connell.

I can think of TWO Antrim players in the last 15 years better number 7s than the "stamper".

mullins wrote:

patrique wrote:

Royal_Girl2k9 wrote:

Thomas Clarke (Thu Dec 16, 2010 8:21 am) wrote:

patrique wrote: Right I admit I was needling a bit, so I hope you were as well, mentioning Pat Spillane in the same sentence as Dooher.

Gormley doesn't do it for me, certainly not like say McGeeney, Downey, or Loughman of recent Ulster memory. Solid but limited.

Gormley was not as good a CHB as McGeeney or Downey, although I should put that into context by saying that I rate those two as the best CHBs of the last 30 years, just ahead of Stephen O'Brien. Gormley, however, could play equally well at Full-back, centre, wing, corner - throw in his leadership qualities and I can't think of any side that had 6 better defenders, and that he wouldn't be worthy of making.

The comparison between Dooher and Spillane is one that I have made before, and one that you have agreed with. Spillane was a much more gifted and better footballer, one of the greatest half dozen ever perhaps, but their style of play and licence to roam was extremely similar.

No Martin O'Connell on that list of wing backs no..?

If I need someone to stamp on the heads of players lying on the ground McDermott's in Belfast have at least 30 exponents of this fine art better than O'Connell.

I can think of TWO Antrim players in the last 15 years better number 7s than the "stamper".

But O'Connell only stepped on nordiestyronies

Jayo Cluxton wrote:I was thinking about the Noughties over a few home pints over the Xmas and came to the conclusion that the decade will not be fondly remembered. I was trying to look at it from the eye of the neutral. There is the neutral whose teams ran close - Dublin, Mayo (well ...), Meath - and then the GAA loving neutral whose team never has a chance (Leitrim, Sligo, Louth, Donegal etc) - so will they remember it as a good decade?

I reckon not. Some of the stuff in the early to mid 00s was - lets face it - shocking. The game evolved a bit in the latter part of the decade with teams learning to deal a little better with the negativity.

Tyrone people will naturally and rightly eulogise about their teams this decade. But the majority of people honestly won't. While Tyrone had some great players not many will be called to mind by those outside the county. They will get as much credit as recent Meath teams. Kerry will also look on it as a successful decade but nowhere near their most stylish - Kerry folk will take the Sam count but largely refer to previous generations when talking about greats. Armagh fans will recall it fondly - again neutrals will struggle to name 3 of that winning team. Galway will remember 2001 and probably be best remembered by neutrals for the football they produced in winning Sam - even if Meaths semi display may well have been in the top 3 of the decade.



I would agree with much of the above.

The "back door" however did provide memorable days for less successful counties such as Sligo, Westmeath, Limerick, Antrim for a year, and memorably Fermanagh who should have made the final in 2004. That increased interest in those counties. Alas we do live in thje X factor generation and success is judged weekly, so success in 2004 comes to haunt you in 2005.

I fear this generation will never understand the history and ethos of the GAA.

Jayo Cluxton wrote:I was thinking about the Noughties over a few home pints over the Xmas and came to the conclusion that the decade will not be fondly remembered. I was trying to look at it from the eye of the neutral. There is the neutral whose teams ran close - Dublin, Mayo (well ...), Meath - and then the GAA loving neutral whose team never has a chance (Leitrim, Sligo, Louth, Donegal etc) - so will they remember it as a good decade?

I reckon not. Some of the stuff in the early to mid 00s was - lets face it - shocking. The game evolved a bit in the latter part of the decade with teams learning to deal a little better with the negativity.

Tyrone people will naturally and rightly eulogise about their teams this decade. But the majority of people honestly won't. While Tyrone had some great players not many will be called to mind by those outside the county. They will get as much credit as recent Meath teams. Kerry will also look on it as a successful decade but nowhere near their most stylish - Kerry folk will take the Sam count but largely refer to previous generations when talking about greats. Armagh fans will recall it fondly - again neutrals will struggle to name 3 of that winning team. Galway will remember 2001 and probably be best remembered by neutrals for the football they produced in winning Sam - even if Meaths semi display may well have been in the top 3 of the decade.



I would agree with much of the above.

The "back door" however did provide memorable days for less successful counties such as Sligo, Westmeath, Limerick, Antrim for a year, and memorably Fermanagh who should have made the final in 2004. That increased interest in those counties. Alas we do live in thje X factor generation and success is judged weekly, so success in 2004 comes to haunt you in 2005.

I fear this generation will never understand the history and ethos of the GAA.