High profile county seniors who never played minor

[blanketattack]

Bomber Liston, Tom Sullivan, Aidan Mahoney and Paul Murphy. The last three from the same club.

And all 4 were winners of an All-Ireland final Man Of The Match to boot. Bomber 78, O'Mahony 06, O'Sullivan 09, Murphy 14.

[twohands!!!]

Bomber Liston, Tom Sullivan, Aidan Mahoney and Paul Murphy. The last three from the same club.

And all 4 were winners of an All-Ireland final Man Of The Match to boot. Bomber 78, O'Mahony 06, O'Sullivan 09, Murphy 14.

top trivia that 

[whitey]

Liam McHale, Ronan McGarrity, Patrick Harte, David Brady.

And they are just the midfielders from one club.

McHale was asked to play but turned it down later that year he played for the under 21's.

Pretty sure James Horan did not play minor or 21!

James Nallen Minor?

.

There used to be a lot of political shenanigans when it came to Mayo minors. I heard of a lad who'd been on the panel all year getting released the Friday before the Connaught Final .LO and behold a nephew of one of the selectors was drafted in on the day. If you played for St Jarlaths senior team you were also "guaranteed" a starting role (all anecdotal of course)

[Dinny Breen]

Legend has it that Paul McGinley played Minor for Dublin before knee knack ended his career. The truth is far more interesting:

I loved Gaelic football. I had more of a talent for football than I had for golf. It came easier to me, I could see it. I was playing left half forward. Jim Stynes was our midfielder at Ballyboden and we had an understanding. I wasn't the biggest guy, but I was very accurate, good at passing and great at taking points from distance. But the one thing that was against me was my birth date - I was born on the 16th of December and with the GAA rules, I was underage to play club level but two weeks overage to play for Dublin and I could never get past the trials. I wasn't big enough.
...
I'd like to think I'd have played for Dublin. I'd like to think I would have been noticed at senior level and got a trial.

In short (pun unintended), it's not that surprising that many players slip through the net. Hundreds of young fellas to choose from and no objective way of sorting the wheat from the chaff - it must be so easy to pick the big uns. Then again, if you need evidence of the malaise in Cork hurling, look no further than how they overlooked Séamus Harnedy at both Minor and Under-21. The only way they could have missed him is that they were not looking.

The relative age effect, where kids born at the start of the year will out perform kids born towards the end of the year. Happens in all youth sports and contributes to failing to identify talent properly.

[deiseach]

The relative age effect, where kids born at the start of the year will out perform kids born towards the end of the year. Happens in all youth sports and contributes to failing to identify talent properly.

It's in Superfreakonomics, that among European soccer players "43 percent of players were born in the first thee months of the year, while only 9 percent were born in the final three months". Sorry, July-born son.

[Hardy]

It's a theme in Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, too.

[Maroon Manc]

Damien Comer didn't play minor for Galway yet made the u21 team in his first year that win the All Ireland in 2013, didn't make the Jarlaths team either.

[From the Bunker]

Talked to a former Minor County selector and he said that most players are picked from the best players from strong clubs, then the best players who have played with successful colleges/vocational after that there are a couple who will need to be outstanding to make it. When it comes down to picking the tail end of players who are at an equal level -above average but not brilliant, players from successful clubs and colleges are picked because they are more used to playing in bigger games. He said there are a lot of good to great players from small clubs but it is harder to take a chance on how they will perform on the bigger stages that players from bigger clubs are more used to.

[giveballaghback]

Jayus from the bunker, George Orwell could write a book on that thread of yours alone

[Tiocfaidh Ned]

Peter Withnell.

[redzone]

Aidan mccrory Tyrone corner back at the minute couldn't make the errigal U21 team that's how late he devoloped

[Schkite]

I don't think Karl O'Connell played minor for Monaghan. What about Ross Munnelly, he didn't play minor for Laois?

The thing about Karl O'Connell is that he never played football at all until he was about 18. He was involved in athletics in his youth. Then at about 18, he was persuaded to tog out for Tyholland, a small club – they'd struggle for numbers. And here he is now scoring a point and getting nominated for man of the match in an Ulster Final.

Yeah O'Connell is a great example of a late developer. It's hard to imagine someone who picked up the game so late having such an impact on the championship that he is, I'd say he's made a contribution towards at least 6-7 points in Ulster between what he's scored and set up. He's always been athletic and had pace to burn, but I think his technical ability has really improved over the last year or so, he's obviously been working hard at it which is great to see.

[ONeill]

Socrates.

Came on for Leitrim minors v UCD in 1972.

[rrhf]

myth

[Ciarrai_thuaidh]

Bomber Liston, Tom Sullivan, Aidan Mahoney and Paul Murphy. The last three from the same club.

And all 4 were winners of an All-Ireland final Man Of The Match to boot. Bomber 78, O'Mahony 06, O'Sullivan 09, Murphy 14.

It's decent trivia but O'Mahony DID play minor in 1998. Had a few injuries I think and didn't start the semi final v Laois but did come on in that game.

Tom O'Sullivan never even made a minor panel though which looks amazing now given he won 5 All Irelands, Allstars, AI final MOM etc..

Been mentioned already but Outliers has some interesting discussion on this topic.