Ray Cosgrove retires.

[mattockranger]

ha honestly

because i can't believe the man trained hard all winter and retired on the cusp of the championship!

there has to more to it than that!

[his holiness nb]

ha honestly

because i can't believe the man trained hard all winter and retired on the cusp of the championship!

there has to more to it than that!

Maybe, maybe not.

Perhaps he realised himself after struggling desperately against Westmeath that he just cant cut it anymore.

Then again maybe he refused to box the head off someone at Pillars instruction and was cast away 

[heffo]

ha honestly

because i can't believe the man trained hard all winter and retired on the cusp of the championship!

there has to more to it than that!

You find it hard to believe that a player who realistically would play no part in the championship, is 31 and has two small kids, can decide travelling across the city in rush hour traffic three times a week and going to the gym three nights a week, is not worth the effort?

Yet you have no difficulty believing that five Louth players would train all winter (including three of your clubmates) and jump ship for the dollar when knocked out of Leinster...

[mattockranger]

here we go another childish dig........

i'll defend myself......
and actually it was 4 players from my club who left the panel all together........

2 of them took up the marvellous opportuity went to the states for the summer for a trip of a lifetime otherwise they wouldn't have left

i very much doubt ray's reasons for leaving were clear cut or as ideal as that pillars troops are crumbling the truth about rays departure will be come out can't wait for his autobiography!!!

[heffo]

here we go another childish dig........

i'll defend myself......
and actually it was 4 players from my club who left the panel all together........

2 of them took up the marvellous opportuity went to the states for the summer for a trip of a lifetime otherwise they wouldn't have left

i very much doubt ray's reasons for leaving were clear cut or as ideal as that pillars troops are crumbling the truth about rays departure will be come out can't wait for his autobiography!!!

Jaysus, I'm dizzy with all the spinning - five Louth players leave their county in the lurch when the going gets tough and they're leaving for the 'trip of a lifetime', yet fringe player leaves panel and it's awful sinister...

[cavan4ever]

here we go another childish dig........

i'll defend myself......
and actually it was 4 players from my club who left the panel all together........

2 of them took up the marvellous opportuity went to the states for the summer for a trip of a lifetime otherwise they wouldn't have left

i very much doubt ray's reasons for leaving were clear cut or as ideal as that pillars troops are crumbling the truth about rays departure will be come out can't wait for his autobiography!!!

Jaysus, I'm dizzy with all the spinning - five Louth players leave their county in the lurch when the going gets tough and they're leaving for the 'trip of a lifetime', yet fringe player leaves panel and it's awful sinister...

It's a pointless thread anyway players leave panels all the time with no mention here.

[mattockranger]

it was actually 7 players who left get your facts right
4 of them were fringe players
3 went to america

louth knocked out of the championship qualifiers was something like 5or6 weeks away

big difference between that and a player leaving before the championship begins!

[INDIANA]

if you can't stick to the thread title mattock - piss off. get yourself a summer job picking strawberries or something. You'r eonly a wum.

[The Real Laoislad]

here we go another childish dig........

i'll defend myself......
and actually it was 4 players from my club who left the panel all together........

2 of them took up the marvellous opportuity went to the states for the summer for a trip of a lifetime otherwise they wouldn't have left

i very much doubt ray's reasons for leaving were clear cut or as ideal as that pillars troops are crumbling the truth about rays departure will be come out can't wait for his autobiography!!!

Jaysus, I'm dizzy with all the spinning - five Louth players leave their county in the lurch when the going gets tough and they're leaving for the 'trip of a lifetime', yet fringe player leaves panel and it's awful sinister...

It's a pointless thread anyway players leave panels all the time with no mention here.

Couldn't agree more.
Cosgrove should have retired 2 or 3 years ago anyways

[his holiness nb]

Lads, its a GAA website. If any intercounty player retires, I wouldnt moan about them getting one measly thread on here. Whether he is past his best or not (he is) is irrelevant, its a forum for guys to wish him the best and recall his best moments. I certainly dont think its appropriate to turn this into a slagging match or have a go at him.

That said, freedom of speech and all, ye can say what ye like, I just think its bad form.

[SouthArmaghBandit]

Good player who never quite lived up to his potential despite a great 2002. I'd wish him all the best in his retirement from county football.

[Hound]

because most of the media reside in dublin mattock, you won't have to read to far into media theories to get your answer to that.

best of luck ray tremendous natural talent - that carr wasn't bright enough to exploit. thankfull lyons was and he had very good 2002 and 2003 seasons but wasn't as consistent after that. he's just another player who's left the panel due to differences with caffrey(he ain't the first). he realised he was down the pecking order and being put on and taken off when the whole team were playing shite in navan, well i wouldn't have been happy with that so his departure was inevitable.

That's unfair on Carr. Carr gave him plenty of league runs and he flopped every time. He was too young and hadnt developed the bottle to play intercounty at that time. His performances in the Leinster championship for Kilmacud around that time was very poor too. 

He was magnificent in 2002, and ironically his performance in the semi was probably the best of his career - he really rose to the occassion and led the forwards superbly, just unlucky that he set that final kick a tad too far off to the right.

He can have no complaints about Navan. Everything he touched went wrong. A clear example of somebody trying to hard and nothing going for them.

[INDIANA]

he can have a lot of complaints about navan because the rest of the team were playing absolutely shite and were just as viable canditates for being taken off so no i don;t agree with you on that- he was humiliated. Why didn't caffrey do the decent thing and cut him from the panel when it was cut 10 days previously?
at the time Carr was in charge left both o keefe and cosgrove who were the two most natural forwards in the county were on the bench at regular intervals when the dublin forward line had all the knockout punch of bernard dunne. It was an incredible gaffe that none of us involved at club football at the time could ever understand as they were by far the best prospects in the county at the time. Ray had no more bottle in 2002 than he had in 1999, it's a skill called man-mangement something that's sadly missing from the current setup as well.

[rrhf]

I think the Dubs have treid every trick in the book and its finally dawned they are still not good enough.  Expect whelo, jayo, shocko and co. to follow Cozo.  Even rhino might have had enough too.
Consgrove was a top class act in 2002 - did he get an all star that year? 

[Canalman]

Ray was very dignified in his article in the Evening Herald wishing the rest of the panel the very best of luck in the future. Described his career (correctly imo) as a mirror of most inter county players ... ie  containing highs and lows. Was very impressed with its contents.

All the best in the retirement.