Tyrone Retirements

[tonto1888]

ONeill was a terrific player. One of those rival players who you gave begrudging respect to

[rosnarun]

A very good player but would not be seen as a top top player mind you they are only h a hand ful and evey one would have their favorites
only people i would have would be (leaving out all the mayo names) its a bit kerry centic but they semm to have won about half the All Ireland since i was born
canavan
Maurice fitzgerald
Gooch
Jack o'shea
Trevor Giles

[rrhf]

No Pony?

[supersarsfields]

O'Neill was a class act, for outrageous point scoring alone. A compilation of his finest scores would be up there with anyone who played the game. And in my opinion he suffered a little for his size, in that he didn't get some easy frees that other forwards would get. Went through a lot of dragging and pulling throughout the years, when someone of slighter frame may have gotten a free handier. As mentioned it was a shame that his career was so dogged with injuries. Was one of the top players for Tyrone during a golden period.
Penrose was also a good player. Wasn't as classy as O'Neill but put in some serious work for the cause. Should maybe have retired a couple of years ago, but in his peak he was a key player in the Tyrone system and I think was a little undervalued by some Tyrone fans, and certainly those outside the county.

[rosnarun]

No Pony?

' (leaving out all the mayo names)'

[AZOffaly]

A very good player but would not be seen as a top top player mind you they are only h a hand ful and evey one would have their favorites
only people i would have would be (leaving out all the mayo names) its a bit kerry centic but they semm to have won about half the All Ireland since i was born
canavan
Maurice fitzgerald
Gooch
Jack o'shea
Trevor Giles

Maurice Fitzgerald is the best natural forward I've ever seen. Matt Connor is another of the greats in my view. I could easily see Steven O'Neill operating with those guys without looking out of place. Canavan, Maurice Fitz, Matt Connor, Gooch (probably), Steven McDonnell at his best, Padraic Joyce at his best and Ciaran McDonald would be others off the top of my head that I would group him with. Diarmuid Connolly is trending in that direction now too.

[INDIANA]

A very good player but would not be seen as a top top player mind you they are only h a hand ful and evey one would have their favorites
only people i would have would be (leaving out all the mayo names) its a bit kerry centic but they semm to have won about half the All Ireland since i was born
canavan
Maurice fitzgerald
Gooch
Jack o'shea
Trevor Giles

O Neill was a superior player to Giles. It's pointless bringing Jacko into the equation as he's a midfielder. You cannot grade players when they don't play in the same area of the pitch.

In my view O Neill is second only to Fitzgerald and Matt Connor (who I can't split) in the last 25 years. I've never seen another forward kick the sort of scores outside those two that o Neill can kick.

2005 replay versus dublin he kicked a point off his right foot from the right corner with two dublin lads hanging out of him. I  remember just shaking my head thinking this guy just operates a different orbit.

Or the 2011 league game in croker when he kicked about 1-10. he kicked a point off his left foot when directly parallel to the endline. If Cristiano Ronaldo did it they'd still be showing replays of it. But because he did it so often it was just taken for granted.

Very good player? Charlie Redmond was a very good player. O Neill was a genius- there is a difference.

[brokencrossbar1]

A very good player but would not be seen as a top top player mind you they are only h a hand ful and evey one would have their favorites
only people i would have would be (leaving out all the mayo names) its a bit kerry centic but they semm to have won about half the All Ireland since i was born
canavan
Maurice fitzgerald
Gooch
Jack o'shea
Trevor Giles

O Neill was a superior player to Giles. It's pointless bringing Jacko into the equation as he's a midfielder. You cannot grade players when they don't play in the same area of the pitch.

In my view O Neill is second only to Fitzgerald and Matt Connor (who I can't split) in the last 25 years. I've never seen another forward kick the sort of scores outside those two that o Neill can kick.

2005 replay versus dublin he kicked a point off his right foot from the right corner with two dublin lads hanging out of him. I  remember just shaking my head thinking this guy just operates a different orbit.

Or the 2011 league game in croker when he kicked about 1-10. he kicked a point off his left foot when directly parallel to the endline. If Cristiano Ronaldo did it they'd still be showing replays of it. But because he did it so often it was just taken for granted.

Very good player? Charlie Redmond was a very good player. O Neill was a genius- there is a difference.

I completely agree there.  I remember playing against him in a challenge match back in circa 1999/2000 when he was playing with the Tyrone u21's.  They played us in Cross and he gave us the runaround the whole day and embarrassed us.  It was great as it was a real grounding experience for us at the time!

He had everything in terms of pure ability, ball winning, he had lovely balance and was probably pound for pound the most important player of the Tyrone team that won the AIs.  If he had been injury free he would have been one of the greatest players that ever played the game and definitely better than Canavan. 

[Zulu]

Agree, if you're having a discussion about the best footballer of the past 25 years then O'Neill is very much part of that. If injuries didn't curtail him a bit you might not even have to have the discussion. If you're comparing O'Neill with other players then only the undoubtedly elite deserve to be mentioned, the man was a once in a generation player. A pleasure to be able to say I saw him play.

[BennyHarp]

A very good player but would not be seen as a top top player mind you they are only h a hand ful and evey one would have their favorites
only people i would have would be (leaving out all the mayo names) its a bit kerry centic but they semm to have won about half the All Ireland since i was born
canavan
Maurice fitzgerald
Gooch
Jack o'shea
Trevor Giles

Its a game of opinions and its extremely difficult to compare players of different eras and especially different positions but Stephen O'Neill could regularly hit scores which literally left the crowd speechless, a skill that very, very few players have matched in my lifetime, in terms of the angles and regularity of hitting them - whether this enables him to be included in some random list of great players, I don't know, but its a sight that will be sorely missed from our game. Its a shame that when a great player retires some people feel the need to say - "yes, but he wasn't as good as...(insert any random list of players here)."

[INDIANA]

A very good player but would not be seen as a top top player mind you they are only h a hand ful and evey one would have their favorites
only people i would have would be (leaving out all the mayo names) its a bit kerry centic but they semm to have won about half the All Ireland since i was born
canavan
Maurice fitzgerald
Gooch
Jack o'shea
Trevor Giles

Its a game of opinions and its extremely difficult to compare players of different eras and especially different positions but Stephen O'Neill could regularly hit scores which literally left the crowd speechless, a skill that very, very few players have matched in my lifetime, in terms of the angles and regularity of hitting them - whether this enables him to be included in some random list of great players, I don't know, but its a sight that will be sorely missed from our game. Its a shame that when a great player retires some people feel the need to say - "yes, but he wasn't as good as...(insert any random list of players here)."

But there isn't a random list of players in this case to insert.

It's not about opinions either. O Neill was a certified genius on a Gaelic Football pitch.

There is a youtube almanac of him displaying gifts that only the top 0.0000000001% of GAA players are ever gifted with.

Its like saying Matt Connor wasn't a genius because he only had a short career.

The facts are Connor displayed more ability in that short period of time then any other forward at that time . And that includes Sheehy, Spillane, Power et al. Just because they won eight all -ireland medals doesn't make them a better player then Connor.

Because they weren't

[BennyHarp]

A very good player but would not be seen as a top top player mind you they are only h a hand ful and evey one would have their favorites
only people i would have would be (leaving out all the mayo names) its a bit kerry centic but they semm to have won about half the All Ireland since i was born
canavan
Maurice fitzgerald
Gooch
Jack o'shea
Trevor Giles

Its a game of opinions and its extremely difficult to compare players of different eras and especially different positions but Stephen O'Neill could regularly hit scores which literally left the crowd speechless, a skill that very, very few players have matched in my lifetime, in terms of the angles and regularity of hitting them - whether this enables him to be included in some random list of great players, I don't know, but its a sight that will be sorely missed from our game. Its a shame that when a great player retires some people feel the need to say - "yes, but he wasn't as good as...(insert any random list of players here)."

But there isn't a random list of players in this case to insert.

It's not about opinions either. O Neill was a certified genius on a Gaelic Football pitch.

There is a youtube almanac of him displaying gifts that only the top 0.0000000001% of GAA players are ever gifted with.

Its like saying Matt Connor wasn't a genius because he only had a short career.

The facts are Connor displayed more ability in that short period of time then any other forward at that time . And that includes Sheehy, Spillane, Power et al. Just because they won eight all -ireland medals doesn't make them a better player then Connor.

Because they weren't

I agree, my point is that people shouldn't be comparing him to a random list of players.

[macdanger2]

On the general point about career length, of course it makes a difference - not on the "talent" side of a player but in terms of displaying the hunger to keep going year on year, possibly reinventing oneself to account for different opponents in a different era. If a player gets injured or whatever early in his career, you can't simply extrapolate his talent over the length of his expected career.

[blewuporstuffed]

2005 was one of the very rare years where there was absolutley no debate on who was POTY, it was O'Neill , hands down. Its not very often a player has  year like that where he is so far ahead of everyone else playing the game.

[orangeman]

I'm glad to see O'Neill is getting the recognition and that credit he is due. He was a special talent alright and will rightly go down as one of the greats.