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Quote from: longrunsthefox on March 01, 2010, 12:02:24 PM
I see in Irish News that Kevin McGourty is giving out about Usain Bolt getting an honourary degree from Queens rather than it going to a local athlete. He mentions soccer and rowing but says he especially advocates a GAA player as that is his sport. He suggested Sean O'Neill former Down and Queens star as an appropriate choice. I suppose he has a point but... Kevin McGourty...
Quote from: milltown row on August 22, 2009, 02:59:05 PM
Just watched Joe Canning hit a penalty, he scored twenty one yard free earlier in the game, but he hit this thing like a bullet from a gun. is he the best at penalties?
Quote from: GalwayBayBoy on September 09, 2009, 02:05:23 PM
According to de Indo.
We rate them on performances in 2009.
1 Kilkenny
Undisputed champions and No 1 seeds for the fourth successive year, this season surely acclaims Kilkenny as the greatest team of all time.
Opponents are learning to survive in their company that bit better and that's why such challenges have been thrown down to them all season.
Waterford toppled them in the league, but their response was to win their next four games against Galway, Tipperary, Clare and Cork by a cumulative total of 68 points.
Their destruction of Tipperary, by 17 points and Cork by 27 points in particular, before a thrilled Nowlan Park was arguably the apex of their graph as a team to match the peak of the 2008 All-Ireland final.
Living up to those standards subsequently was difficult, but it ignited another side to them __ their ability to win dogfights.
If anything, this is the real measure of Kilkenny's greatness as every championship day produced a different hero.
When last Sunday's All-Ireland final was there to be won, they went and won it.
2 Tipperary
Tipperary have leaped over everyone else and look to have create d quite a gap between themselves and the next best.
That gap could conceivably take time to bridge on the basis of last Sunday.
They lost three league/ championship games, each time to Kilkenny, but introduction of players like Padraic and Brendan Maher and the prodigious talent of Noel McGrath (above ) gives them endless scope for the future.
Back-to-back Munster titles for the first time since 1988 (Tipp won a third Munster title in '89 ) is a significant achievement in a competitive province.
They'll rue their missed chance last Sunday and, as time passes, it may dawn on them that Kilkenny will set themselves up just as ferociously in 2010. Finding two to three players to bolster their bench is a priority.
3 Waterford
The individual performances of Michael 'Brick' Walsh and John Mullane, which will surely yield All Stars, provide some solace as does the development of Noel Connors and Richie Foley among others.
This season was all about recovery and Waterford have achieved that, putting the bed the misery of their 2008 All-Ireland final humiliation by getting to within five points of them in the All-Ireland semi final. As the only team to beat Kilkenny in 2009, they are entitled to third place in a tight call just ahead of Galway.
They're not an old team, but they have suffered more than their quota of heartbreak, which is why more personnel change is required.
4 Galway
The temptation is to place them third, but a chink in their mental armoury clearly still exists after the way they allowed the All-Ireland quarter-final against Waterford to slip away. Pushed Kilkenny almost as hard as Tipperary when they met in Tullamore last June, a game that should really benefit them long term.
At one point during the league they looked to be heading nowhere, but gathered themselves together well. Being over-dependent on Joe Canning is not the issue, serving him properly is a far greater concern.
5 Cork
For a squad that only got together in March and suffered their worst defeat for years in Nowlan Park, their second-half performance against Tipperary in the Munster quarter-final defied the odds.
Lost Joe Deane and Diarmuid O'Sullivan along the way and look set for a period of some sustained transition.
Defeat to Galway suggests they have gone backwards as much as Galway have progressed, but after being two out of the last three years out of the loop their desire to redress that will be high.
6 Limerick
Lacked organisation and fitness in their All-Ireland semi-final implosion to Tipperary and will find it hard to immediately recover from such a humiliation.
Reached the semi-final courtesy of a benign draw that saw them pitted against Wexford, Laois and Dublin along the way. They didn't impress in any of those encounters.
Gavin O'Mahony (above ) looks a prospect despite his inadequacies in the semi-final.
Mark Foley and Ollie Moran may call it a day and, if they do, they may lose ground to Dublin and Clare next season. Then again, they may be persuaded to give it one more season for the cause.
7 Dublin
It's hard to know which achievement Dublin will draw more satisfaction from __ reaching the Leinster final for the first time in 18 years or a league run that yielded seven points from a possible 14.
Emotionally the Leinster final appearance wins hands down, but in pure hurling terms they probably achieved more in the league, beating a dishevelled Cork team, Galway and Waterford, drawing with Clare and losing narrowly to Limerick, Tipperary and Kilkenny.
The graph is rising, though the failure to beat Limerick was a little disconcerting for them.
8 Clare
Played 10 matches and won just one, a relegation play off against Wexford that, in the end didn't matter. They also drew with Dublin in the league, a result that cost them their Division 1 status.
From the progress of 2008, when they reached a Munster final on the back of wins over Waterford and Limerick, 2009 was an 'annus horribilis' by comparison. Mike McNamara pleads a dearth of quality players and he's right.
But, really, Clare should have punched above their weight this season. Their All-Ireland U-21 appearance on Sunday will give them impetus.
9 Wexford
Finally lost their No 2 status to Dublin in Leinster and on the evidence of what they did in 2009, it will be some time before they ever reclaim that. Suffered a setback when losing the Division 2 league final to Offaly in Thurles, a defeat that cost them badly-needed Division 1 status in 2010.
10 Offaly
Won't recall 2009 with any great fondness apart from their Division 2 NHL triumph over Wexford that gives them cherished top-flight status again. Championship losses to Wexford and Cork put their perceived progress into perspective. Have to get back to the drawing board again.
11 Laois
Turning over Antrim against the odds and giving Limerick plenty of food for thought in a qualifier game was about as much as they could draw from the season. Some day, some time they'll catch a break.
12 Antrim
After all the talk what value did Antrim really get from their journey into Leinster? Put it up to Dublin for a while, but not nearly for long enough. The attitude to the qualifiers was poor, inadvertently triggering the chaos over relegation.
Laois turned them over against the odds, but their cause wasn't helped by the decision of some Antrim players to head away at a crucial time.
Quote from: Denn Forever on October 27, 2009, 11:24:04 AM
The save of the James Stephen's goalkeeper from Shefflin on Sunday was brilliant. Any other contenders?
