Best Team of the last 25 years - The Results

The votes have been cast and counted, and the Best Team of the last 25 years has been determined.  Thanks to everyone who took the time to participate in the debate.  The top 15, as selected by users of this forum, is as follows:

1.  John O'Leary  (Dublin)
2.  Bobby O'Malley  (Meath)
3.  Darren Fay  (Meath)
4.  Karl Lacey  (Donegal)
5.  Tomas O'Se (Kerry)
6.  Kieran McGeeney  (Armagh)
7.  Martin O'Connell  (Meath)
8.  Anthony Tohill  (Derry)
9.  Dara O'Se  (Kerry)
10. Trevor Giles  (Meath)
11. Ciaran McDonald  (Mayo)
12. Declan O' Sullivan  (Kerry)
13. Colm Cooper  (Kerry)
14. Peter Canavan  (Tyrone)
15. Maurice Fitzgerald  (Kerry)


An outstanding side, that surely would have put it up to any side from any era.  Here are a few interesting notes on the selection:

-  O'Leary tied with Stephen Cluxton for GK on 1st ballot.  GaaFan, who had originally voted for Declan O''Keefe, chose O'Leary over Cluxton as his 2nd preference

-  Fay tied with Seamus Moynihan for FB on 1st ballot.  Bald Eagle, who had originally voted for Lyons, chose Fay over Moynihan as his 2nd preference

-  Anthony Tohill was the only 'perfect' nominee, with every poster voting for him

-  Tomas O'Se, Dara O'Se, Colm Cooper & Peter Canavan were selected by all bar 1 of the voters

-  Martin O'Connell just pipped Philip Jordan by a single vote for LHB.  Outside of the ties, this was the closest ballot

-  CHF was the only position where all 6 nominees received at least 1 vote.

So, there we have it, the Best Team of the last 25 years.  Did we get it right?  Any glaring omissions?  Let's have your views!

Thomas Clarke wrote:So, there we have it, the Best Team of the last 25 years.  Did we get it right?  Any glaring omissions?  Let's have your views!

 Team is as per voted for me with two exceptions. O Leary for Cluxton no complaints on that front as even
My own call was marginal. Seams Moynihan loses out to Darren Fay. Moynihans exlusion is only facet that I would contend.
I had him ahead of Fay. In a free pick FB line possibly some would have picked O malley, Moynihan, Fay. Though I personally would not have excluded Lacey under any scenario. 

Had Moynihan been in HB line I would pick him ahead of Mcgeeney or O Connell but not T o Se. 

So all in all if only one player from 15 falls out - hard to complain too hard.

It would be much harder to pick a captain out of all them

Statistically, Cork, Tyrone, Down and Galway are the big losers here - those counties totalled 10 all Irelands over the last 25 years (or 40%, if you prefer), but have only 1 representative between them (Canavan).

By contrast, Kerry and Meath won 9 AI between them, yet have 9 players represented.

"Bullshit selection" & "Kerry fawning" is how one twitter described the team, mainly due to Cork not having anyone on it.

I thought the selections of McGeeney and McDonald were possibly marginal, but the people have spoken.
In the case of McGeeney, I would have voted for Moynihan had he been an option at 6 as his exclusion is a bit of a disaster really.

With Kerry and Meath harvesting 9 of the statuettes between them, clearly the electorate are fed up of this oul' possession tippy/tappy "football".

Boxtyeater wrote: I would have voted for Moynihan had he been an option at 6 as his exclusion is a bit of a disaster really.

Given free reign, I would have accommodated Moynihan at No.2, as I'm sure that he was well able to play there. However, I wouldn't say that his non-inclusion is a disaster. I'm with former poster Samin regarding Moynihan, in so far as I thought he was brilliant, but not some sort of footballing god. The roastings that he took in the 2002 final (at FB) and 2005 final (at CHB) would be enough to suggest to me that he was not quite in the same league as a Canavan or Cooper when it comes to all-time greatness.

For me, the luckiest player is McDonald, for reasons previously explained. As a direct result, among the unluckiest would be Blaney and Tompkins. Colm O'Rourke and Padraig Joyce were also extremely unfortunate to draw the Gooch and Canavan, and either could have made a real run at LCF if nominated there. Although popular with the voters, Declan O'Sullivan wouldn't be on my team - an excellent footballer, but I'd prefer Sean Cavanagh there.

In my opinion, the very best players not to have made the cut were: Tompkins, O'Rourke & Moynihan, followed by Blaney, Scullion & Cavanagh.