Messages

In Galway football

The Donnellans
The Joyces
The Meehans

Hurling

The Connolly's
The Canning's

will he write a book I wonder?

Not sure. He's a pretty private individual. Think about how many times he did interviews for the TV or newspapers. Hardly ever. Would be an good read though I imagine.

Yeah Donnellan is gone.

Joyce will probably be back maybe for the league.

Palestine have a fine team this year but a Leinster title might just be beyond them. They have a mighty corner forward in Rahman Abdel-Raouf and a strong presence in midfield in the towering al-Qudwa al-Husseini.

I'm wondering what's going on alright. I haven't seen it confirmed officially anywhere yet and I've been listening to sports reports all day.

I don't think they fulfilled their true potential could have won a few more all irelands

Hard to say really. As Meatloaf said 2 out 3 ain't bad. 2000 was a missed opportunity but they probably wouldn't have won it in 2001 if they won in 2000. Such is the way these things go.

Looking back 1999 was probably the real lost chance considering Ja and Kevin Walsh carried injuries all though the 2000 championship. The Meath team that won it in 99 wasn't fantastic IMO and it was a poor enough championship in general that was there to be won. In fairness after waiting 32 years for an All-Ireland the county went mad so the team probably wasn't as sharp as it should have been that year (some of the players had wintered a little too well) and they ended up getting ambushed in Tuam by Mayo. Had they kept themselves in peak mental and physical condition then 1999 was there for the taking by them.

By 2002 a lot ot them had their 2 celtic crosses and the hunger was diminishing.

I'm Cnoc Mor and so is my wife.

Have to say I'm a bit shocked. I knew it was a possibility but neither of them are particularly old and I thought there would be another 2 years left in them at least. To be fair the milage would be pretty high alright. Pretty much irreplaceable those two and will take us a long time to replace them.

Joyce IMO was up there with Peter Canavan as the best forward of their respective eras. Just one of those players that oozed class on the ball. Donnellan was outrageously talented but I know what people mean when they say he underachieved with the God given talent he had but to be fair to him he suffered terribly from niggling injuries ever since the 2001 All-Ireland. Those injuries robbed him of his coruscating pace. He was still a superb all-round footballer and athlete though. The true mark of great players is when they perform brilliantly when they have to on the big days and both Joyce and Donnellan stamped their class on two All-Ireland finals and virtually made them their own. When Donnellan got the ball in his prime the crowd almost took a collective breath waiting for the fireworks to begin. I had never seen a gaelic footballer before that moved with such speed and grace. He seemed to glide over the ground.

As for Joyce it's well recounted at this stage that at half-time in the 2001 All-Ireland final he apologised to his team-mates for his first half display but said to them to keep giving him the ball and he'd win the game for them in the 2nd half. And he did.

Two legends in Galway. Thanks for everything lads. I can see Padraig Joyce as a future Galway coach. He was always a very clever reader of a game.

Presuming they are not going to retire I don't think they would be involved this time of year anyway so difficult to make any judgment either way about their futures.

Derek Savage not passing to an unmarked Padraig Joyce charging through the middle of the Kerry defence in the dying moments of the drawn 2000 All-Ireland final. Instead he went for the point and dropped it into the keepers hands (if I remember correctly). There was literally dozens of people around me up screaming at him to pass the ball. Game finished level and we lost the replay. Sickener.

Don't think Chel-ski have any need for him now though and he wouldn't go to United (would he?)

I very much doubt it given what he said about United in his autobiography.

Surely it should be.

Liverpool should sell Gerrard at Christmas before people cop on that he's actually not that good/finished

He scored 23 goals from midfield last season (mainly from right midfield) and won a ridiculous amount games for Liverpool. Not even the staunchest Man U fanboy would say that Gerrard is no good at playing association football or that he's finished at 26 years of age. Ferguson would probably paint his arse yellow and walk naked from Manchester to Liverpool to get him in a United jersey.

He's a moody character though and plainly not in good form at present but if every club sold their best players the minute they hit a bit of bad form then where would they be?

Loughrea are a good team. No doubt about it. Have been knocking on the door in Galway for the past 5 years or so. They are big and physical but have some good hurlers too. Very strong defence. Didn't concede a single goal in the Galway championship which is quite remarkable. One thing that might hold them back at the very top is that they don't have a star intercounty forward in their ranks a la Portumna or Athenry. They depend for most of their scores on Johnny O'Loughlin who has just been called up to the Galway squad.

To be honest this year's minor team wasn't as talented as previous years but Mattie probably shouldn't have been in the papers every second week saying how they weren't a patch on the other teams he had. He was probably right and only being honest but it can't have done the players any good to hear their coach coming out with that stuff.

Pity really as Mattie is great with the underage coaching but he's rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way in his time.