Barry Owens hangs them up

[Jinxy]

Best of luck to Barry in his retirement, he was an outstanding servant for his county.
And you Wobbler, calm down and stop making outrageous statements. 

[moysider]

Such a player.

I honestly doubt there's been a better full back in the history of the game.

What a statement Wobbs. We have had 3 better full backs in Down alone in the last 30 years. Not to mention Lyons, O'Keeffe, the Doc, Shields. His ability was magnified by the fact that he was an All Star from a weaker county.

No ye didn t and I ve seen every Down full-back these last 30 years. Get over yerselves.

Whatever about the best Owens was a fantastic player. The fact that he got 2 All-Stars for Fermanagh says it all. Another fantastic player from a weaker county like Eamonn O Hara only managed to be recognised once and I m sure others like Dessie Barry, Declan Browne, Kevin O Brien would not have fared any better.

I wish him all the best.

[Syferus]

Such a player.

I honestly doubt there's been a better full back in the history of the game.

What a statement Wobbs. We have had 3 better full backs in Down alone in the last 30 years. Not to mention Lyons, O'Keeffe, the Doc, Shields. His ability was magnified by the fact that he was an All Star from a weaker county.

No ye didn t and I ve seen every Down full-back these last 30 years. Get over yerselves.

Whatever about the best Owens was a fantastic player. The fact that he got 2 All-Stars for Fermanagh says it all. Another fantastic player from a weaker county like Eamonn O Hara only managed to be recognised once and I m sure others like Dessie Barry, Declan Browne, Kevin O Brien would not have fared any better.

I wish him all the best.

Sure the ones that get one are the lucky ones. Seanie Mac hasn't got a sniff of one and has watched lesser corner-backs collect All-Stars for fun for the last decade. And what about poor Emlyn? Niall McNamee.. the list goes on.

[ONeill]

Alongside McGinity as the best Fermanagh player in living memory.

[moysider]

Alongside McGinity as the best Fermanagh player in living memory.

Had a lot time for Marty McGrath as well.

[moysider]

Such a player.

I honestly doubt there's been a better full back in the history of the game.

What a statement Wobbs. We have had 3 better full backs in Down alone in the last 30 years. Not to mention Lyons, O'Keeffe, the Doc, Shields. His ability was magnified by the fact that he was an All Star from a weaker county.

No ye didn t and I ve seen every Down full-back these last 30 years. Get over yerselves.

Whatever about the best Owens was a fantastic player. The fact that he got 2 All-Stars for Fermanagh says it all. Another fantastic player from a weaker county like Eamonn O Hara only managed to be recognised once and I m sure others like Dessie Barry, Declan Browne, Kevin O Brien would not have fared any better.

I wish him all the best.

Sure the ones that get one are the lucky ones. Seanie Mac hasn't got a sniff of one and has watched lesser corner-backs collect All-Stars for fun for the last decade. And what about poor Emlyn? Niall McNamee.. the list goes on.

Surely you re not suggesting that he s from a weaker county

Alright Sy. this cannot be another thread that Ros and Mayo take over. You get one reply only.

[haranguerer]

Such a player.

I honestly doubt there's been a better full back in the history of the game.

What a statement Wobbs. We have had 3 better full backs in Down alone in the last 30 years. Not to mention Lyons, O'Keeffe, the Doc, Shields. His ability was magnified by the fact that he was an All Star from a weaker county.

lols

[bannside]

Barry could have played in a dozen positions such was his versatility. I must confess to only having seen him half a dozen times, (apart from occasionally on TV) but on each of those occasions he was standout.

Id say he was the best full back of his era, and if he had been from one of the big footballing counties he would have won a sizeable collection of allstars.

He may be best remembered as a full back, but his memorable display for me was as a corner back in a championship game against Antrim in 2006.  His positioning and man to man marking was perfect, within touching distance of his opponent from the first whistle. When the ball came in his timing was incredible in the tackle or block, and his no nonsense link up play to set defence into attack was top notch.  It was so good I instructed my 12 year old son to study Barry Owens carefully, which he spend the rest of the game doing. 

Barry Owens up there in my book with the very  very best defenders I can ever remember.

[mb80b60]

Such a player.

I honestly doubt there's been a better full back in the history of the game.

What a statement Wobbs. We have had 3 better full backs in Down alone in the last 30 years. Not to mention Lyons, O'Keeffe, the Doc, Shields. His ability was magnified by the fact that he was an All Star from a weaker county.

What is this drivel?

Owens in his pomp was a brilliant full back.  In my opinion Owens and Fay are the two standout full backs since I've started watching football.  Owens was as good as anyone I've seen under a high ball and his swashbuckling style was great to watch.  Great to see him signing off with 1-1 at the weekend too (although the goal will be disputed!)

[DuffleKing]

Exceptional full back in his prime

I honestly doubt there's been a better full back in the history of the game.

Not the place to be in any way disparaging but that's way wide of the mark in my view

[imtommygunn]

What I liked about him ,and I saw a lot of this kind of thing in Quigley on saturday too, was that everything was done so nonchalantly and he didn't look like the train 3 times a day kind of robot football tends to produce now. It was more just raw ability.

[thewobbler]

Exceptional full back in his prime

I honestly doubt there's been a better full back in the history of the game.

Not the place to be in any way disparaging but that's way wide of the mark in my view

Obviously I disagree.

In my mind, the role of a full-back changed forever in 1990, once frees started to be kicked from hands. Before that, a full-back was a big sturdy man with great hands and a greater presence. His principle role was to commandeer dropping balls into the big square. Pace was optional. Man marking wasn't a major factor as most of the traffic came through an aerial bombardment. The ability to get a good block in was a bonus.

With the change to quick frees from hand, the role started to evolve to require sharper man-marking.

With football later evolving to regularly featuring two-man full-forward lines, the role of a full-back meant they have to be every bit as competent at corner-back play as a corner-back, but with better positional awareness. But they still needed to be strong under the high ball, as every once in a while Kieran Donaghy and co come along.

So the full-back is now a 6' 2" man with exceptional pace, brilliant hands, amazing doggedness, superb awareness, and the all-important presence. Basically a freak of nature.

That's why, in my time watching football (mostly from 1990 onwards), I can only think of a half-a-dozen genuinely top-class full-backs. Players who ticked all of those boxes. There's probably been 30+ exceptional corner-backs in that time, which shows (to me) how much more simpler that role is to fulfil.

There might have been wonderful full-backs in the 60s, 70s or 80s. I wasn't around then to gauge if they had the rest of the tools needed to be an exceptional full-backs in the noughties. My guess is that most actually did not have all the tools required. Barry Owens did, Darren Fay did. Hence why I doubt there's been a better full-back in the history of the game.

[DuffleKing]

Owens struggled regularly with pace - most traditional full backs as they are termed did i guess.

For me the best full backs in my time watching county football, in no particular order, were (ulster bias) scullion, gallagher, lyons, fay, lockhart and Hanratty.

I don't put Owens in that class but just below with the likes of moynihan, McCarthy, McNulty (E), Lawn, Shields, etc. Probably not the thread for this debate in deference to Barry Owens

[rrhf]

Exceptional full back in his prime

I honestly doubt there's been a better full back in the history of the game.

Not the place to be in any way disparaging but that's way wide of the mark in my view

Superb post.

Obviously I disagree.

In my mind, the role of a full-back changed forever in 1990, once frees started to be kicked from hands. Before that, a full-back was a big sturdy man with great hands and a greater presence. His principle role was to commandeer dropping balls into the big square. Pace was optional. Man marking wasn't a major factor as most of the traffic came through an aerial bombardment. The ability to get a good block in was a bonus.

With the change to quick frees from hand, the role started to evolve to require sharper man-marking.

With football later evolving to regularly featuring two-man full-forward lines, the role of a full-back meant they have to be every bit as competent at corner-back play as a corner-back, but with better positional awareness. But they still needed to be strong under the high ball, as every once in a while Kieran Donaghy and co come along.

So the full-back is now a 6' 2" man with exceptional pace, brilliant hands, amazing doggedness, superb awareness, and the all-important presence. Basically a freak of nature.

That's why, in my time watching football (mostly from 1990 onwards), I can only think of a half-a-dozen genuinely top-class full-backs. Players who ticked all of those boxes. There's probably been 30+ exceptional corner-backs in that time, which shows (to me) how much more simpler that role is to fulfil.

There might have been wonderful full-backs in the 60s, 70s or 80s. I wasn't around then to gauge if they had the rest of the tools needed to be an exceptional full-backs in the noughties. My guess is that most actually did not have all the tools required. Barry Owens did, Darren Fay did. Hence why I doubt there's been a better full-back in the history of the game.

[Jinxy]

Exceptional full back in his prime

I honestly doubt there's been a better full back in the history of the game.

Not the place to be in any way disparaging but that's way wide of the mark in my view

Obviously I disagree.

In my mind, the role of a full-back changed forever in 1990, once frees started to be kicked from hands. Before that, a full-back was a big sturdy man with great hands and a greater presence. His principle role was to commandeer dropping balls into the big square. Pace was optional. Man marking wasn't a major factor as most of the traffic came through an aerial bombardment. The ability to get a good block in was a bonus.

With the change to quick frees from hand, the role started to evolve to require sharper man-marking.

With football later evolving to regularly featuring two-man full-forward lines, the role of a full-back meant they have to be every bit as competent at corner-back play as a corner-back, but with better positional awareness. But they still needed to be strong under the high ball, as every once in a while Kieran Donaghy and co come along.

So the full-back is now a 6' 2" man with exceptional pace, brilliant hands, amazing doggedness, superb awareness, and the all-important presence. Basically a freak of nature.

That's why, in my time watching football (mostly from 1990 onwards), I can only think of a half-a-dozen genuinely top-class full-backs. Players who ticked all of those boxes. There's probably been 30+ exceptional corner-backs in that time, which shows (to me) how much more simpler that role is to fulfil.

There might have been wonderful full-backs in the 60s, 70s or 80s. I wasn't around then to gauge if they had the rest of the tools needed to be an exceptional full-backs in the noughties. My guess is that most actually did not have all the tools required. Barry Owens did, Darren Fay did. Hence why I doubt there's been a better full-back in the history of the game.

There has.
You just mentioned him there.