Maurice Fitgerald

[lynchbhoy]

Quality, but maybe could have used a wee bit of 'badness/competitiveness' in him.

Stylists like matt connor and Fitz don;t need it. Fitz like Matt Connor was so good- words don't do either of them justice.

completely agree.
Played against him in college/uni level and he was a stylish midfielder for ucc at that point - before he got called up into the senior kerry squad.
His reading of the game and had more pace that he got credit for meant he could win his own ball and finish it too. He dispelled that myth that he was soft or lacking aggression when he got sent off for 'boxing' a couple of cork players who were 'at him' all game long. No soft touch.

Spent a great new years eve chatting to him most of the night in waterville a few years back.
Nice fella. Loves football.

FOSB - diff kind of footballer to canavan, would have said the two would have been some combo in a FF line as their styles would have blended well !

[Donnellys Hollow]

Quality, but maybe could have used a wee bit of 'badness/competitiveness' in him.

Fitzgerald was well able to look after himself. Just ask poor Billy O'Shea. He ended his All-Ireland Final after 10 minutes by breaking his leg!

[AbbeySider]

Maurice was a class act.

Ill never forget Pat Holmes puffing and panting chasing Maurice around Croke Park in 1997. Kennith Mortimor would have been rated as one of the best backs in the country at the time, people were up in arms about him not being picked to mark Maurice. It would have been some dual. It could have been a different outcome.

Our club went on a trip down to Cahersiveen in 2005 after we won an U21 and Minor league and championship. We played a couple of games and on the last day Maurice came in to meet us and have a chat. He is a true gentleman.

[INDIANA]

Quality, but maybe could have used a wee bit of 'badness/competitiveness' in him.

Stylists like matt connor and Fitz don;t need it.

Sorry Indiana, but would respectfully disagree there. You can have all style in the world, but if you don't have either of the work ethic or the team ethic you're of limited value. For example, would a fit Canavan ever have been left on the bench like a fit Fitzgerald was?

That's not to say, of course, that Fitzgerald wasn't a sublimely skilled footballer, but that alone is not enough, especially today.

Canavan was often taken off and put back on FOSB.  And Maurice hadn't the luxury of the players Canavan had around him from 2003 to 2007. i honestly can't see the difference- there wasn't much teamplay with Canavan in 1995 when he nearly won an All-Ireland on his own. Didn't pass to his team-mates much then. Simialr to Fitz in 1997.
Why pass when you can do it yourself? Every team needs one of these players. I wish to Christ we had one.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Quality, but maybe could have used a wee bit of 'badness/competitiveness' in him.

Stylists like matt connor and Fitz don;t need it.

Sorry Indiana, but would respectfully disagree there. You can have all style in the world, but if you don't have either of the work ethic or the team ethic you're of limited value. For example, would a fit Canavan ever have been left on the bench like a fit Fitzgerald was?

That's not to say, of course, that Fitzgerald wasn't a sublimely skilled footballer, but that alone is not enough, especially today.

Canavan was often taken off and put back on FOSB. 

True, but never when he was fully fit.

The rest of your points are valid though, I didn't really understand myself how he could ever have been left on the bench when fully fit; perhaps it was more a case of such was his outstanding flair that the automatic assumption was that it must have been expense of the harder edged areas of the game, and he therefore constituted something of a luxury in the harder battles.

The one pass that Canavan did make in the '95 final, and which Seanie Mc Laughlin converted,  the fecker of a ref had to go and disallow 

[lynchbhoy]

Quality, but maybe could have used a wee bit of 'badness/competitiveness' in him.

Stylists like matt connor and Fitz don;t need it.

Sorry Indiana, but would respectfully disagree there. You can have all style in the world, but if you don't have either of the work ethic or the team ethic you're of limited value. For example, would a fit Canavan ever have been left on the bench like a fit Fitzgerald was?

That's not to say, of course, that Fitzgerald wasn't a sublimely skilled footballer, but that alone is not enough, especially today.

Canavan was often taken off and put back on FOSB.  And Maurice hadn't the luxury of the players Canavan had around him from 2003 to 2007. i honestly can't see the difference- there wasn't much teamplay with Canavan in 1995 when he nearly won an All-Ireland on his own. Didn't pass to his team-mates much then. Simialr to Fitz in 1997.
Why pass when you can do it yourself? Every team needs one of these players. I wish to Christ we had one.

tell that to alan brogan indy !!

[muppet]

Very tight call between Fitz and Canavan for the best I've seen. Both of them were different players with different qualities but were well above anyone else IMHO. Both can be assessed for their performances with poor teams & with decent teams & neither comes up short.

Fitz probably the better player for the purist while Canavan had better leadership/inspirational ability to add to his many other qualities. Fitz being dropped is not an argument against his ability, it's merely a demonstration of how being insane does not disqualify you from being a manager.

However I can definitely say that Fitz was the best striker of a ball that I've seen.