Veteran players who are still hugely influential

johnnog

After all the talk about players in the recent Dublin/Meath matches I had a thought. Now, without getting into peoples personal opinions of the charachteristics/temperaments of individual players , on a pure footballing basis, what veteran players are still out there playing inter-county football on a regular basis and winning matches. Looking at the list of previous football All Star winners,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAA_All_Stars_Awards_Past_Winners_%28Football%29 ,
The earliest All-Star that I can spot, that is still there or thereabouts is Kevin O'Neill from Mayo (1993) . I don't know when he made his senior debut but it would probably have been a year or two beforehand. If anybody knows when he made his debut I'd be interested to find out. There's also the a certain Mr. Geraghty who won his first all-star in 1994 and made his senior intercounty debut in October 1991 (See http://hoganstand.com/Meath/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=42434) . The oldest All-Star that a current dublin player has won was Ciaran Whelan 1999. Sherlock has been knocking around the Dublin panel for longer although is no longer as influential or guaranteed a starting spot. Tyrone had Peter Canavan from 1989 to 2005 but he's retired. I'm asking about current players .

I was just wondering are there any other similar county players in football who are still so influential. There may be a few oldies knocking around who play bits of games here or there (Sherlock from Dublin made his debut in 1995 and I doubt he'll match Geraghty by stilll playing matches in 3 or 4 years) but I'm interested in players that make their place on the starting 15 and generally last the full match unless injured.

Are Geraghty and O'Neill the current longest serving intercounty players and if so did O'Neill make his debut before October 1991. There may be certain "obscure" (For want of a better word) players who've held down positions for longer in some of the more less well known counties. I think Louth had a man who retired last year who'd played for about 20 years or something. I can't remember his name off hand.

On a slightly related matter, does anyone know who is the oldest intercounty player still playing?

blackbelt

A great veteran and is still hugely influential....Brian Dooher springs to mind first

cruiserweight

Just football or hurling as well? Damien Fitzhenry, Declan Ruth and Rory McCarthy have both been playing for Wexford for over 10 years. Fitzhenry made his debut for Wexford in 1993, and has played outfield for the team. Ken McGrath and Paul Flynn are getting on a bit for Waterford. Mark Foley for Limerick.

There was a recent article in the Independent about a cull in older intercounty goalkeepers

http://www.independent.ie/sport/hurling/2007-the-year-of-the-cull-704757.html

Irish Independent wrote:

THEY started the year as vastly experienced goalkeepers in four of the strongest hurling counties, but through a variety of circumstances, none has held onto their position as number one.

Indeed, 2007 has turned into the 'Year of the Cull' for goalkeepers, with Clare's Davy Fitzgerald, Kilkenny's James McGarry, Tipperary's Brendan Cummins and Galway's Liam Donoghue all losing out.

Davy Fitzgerald (Clare)
Age: 35

C'ship debut: 1990 (v Limerick)

C'ship games: 60

Goals conceded: 65

Average per game: 1.08

Clean sheets: 20

All-Irelands: 2

All Stars: 3

Current status: Off panel

Brendan Cummins (Tipperary)
Age: 32

C'ship debut: 1995 (v Waterford)

C'ship games: 47

Goals conceded: 61

Average per game: 1.3

Clean sheets: 13

All-Irelands: 1

All Stars: 3

Current status: Sub

James McGarry (Kilkenny)
Age: 34

C'ship debut: 1999 (v Laois)

C'ship games: 34

Goals conceded: 30

Average per game: 0.9

Clean sheets: 14

All-Irelands: 4

All Stars: 0

Current status: Sub

Liam Donoghue (Galway)
Age: 32

C'ship debut: 2003 (v Clare)

C'ship games: 14

Goals conceded: 24

Average per game: 1.7

Clean sheets: 2

All-Irelands: 0

All Stars: 0

Current status: Off panel

cournioni

Dermot McCabe, still one of the best footballers in Ireland when he is on form. Unfortunately he (along with one or two others) is too influential, and more or less bullies players and management.

gustavo

Purely biased of course but in my opinion Eamon O'Hara is still one of the finest footballers in the land , in his 14th championship season he is still hugely influencial to the Sligo team and can still grab games by the scruff of the neck

johnnog

blackbelt wrote:

A great veteran and is still hugely influential....Brian Dooher springs to mind first

Yeah, he'd come to mind alright and I'd looked him up on wikipedia before posting but they list him as 1995 to present.
Still a long time and highly influential as evidenced at the weekend against Donegal.

Dermot McCabe is listed as making his debut in "National League v Antrim - Division 3 1994" according to
http://www.hoganstand.com/Cavan/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=44066

I can't find a date for Eamonn O'Hara but the poster above says this is his 14th Championship season which would have had him making his championship debut in 1994 . He may have made his league debut earlier.

I was sort of more interested in football than hurling, purely because as hurling is more of a skillful game, older players can still produce the goods even if their "engines" as such slow down a fraction. But it would be interesting to bring hurling in too. There are probably a lot more cases of older players in hurling though. I'd imagine maybe that the "weaker" counties might have one or two older players who just haven't got the competition coming behind them to push them out. (Just a random stab in the dark, but I'm thinking the likes of Mayo/Monaghan/Wicklow. If you're a talented hurler in these counties you could probably hold onto your place longer than you could in the Tipps or Corks)

I'm not too interesting in debating who is or isn't more influential or whatever, like whether Dooher is more influential now than Sherlock (both 1995 debuts). (Sherlock isn't currently starting and finishing matches, more of an impact sub anyway so he's not really what I'm asking about). Just any intercounty player who is still more or less still guaranteed his place on his county team.

So, I've still got Geraghty at 1991 being the longest at present , (with a question mark over Kevin O'Neill until I find out his debut). I'm sure that there are others though there just as long or maybe longer.

There are probably loads of possible variants to this question anyway, like who has played the most championship/league matches or whatever but I'd imagine that it would be much harder to find that out unless someone out there keeps a database.


Kieran McGeeney is listed here as making his senior football debut in 1992.
http://www.vodafone.ie/aboutus/company/press/2002/release_14102002.jsp

kevmy

Along with O Neill in Mayo you have Jimmy Nallen and Mac
As far as I know both made there league debut in 1995, Jimmy Nallen played Championship that year but Mac shagged off to America. However I suppose Mac is alot more influential than Nallen at this stage.

What about Ja Fallon back on the Galway team at his age.

Kojak

Padraic Joyce would probably be considered a veteran at this stage. He may not be as good as he was a few years ago, but when he is taken out of the Galway full-foward line, they are in serious trouble.

Utopia Parkway

Kojak wrote:

Padraic Joyce would probably be considered a veteran at this stage. He may not be as good as he was a few years ago, but when he is taken out of the Galway full-foward line, they are in serious trouble.

In fairness he had a relatively quiet match against Mayo and some of the other forwards did the damage.

Still a class player though.

kevmy

According to Wikipedia Ja Fallon made his debut at intercounty level in 91. Ok so he mightn't be as good as he was but he's still got a starting place.

I imagine Joyce made his debut in either 96 or 97

gucci

o'hara is 32, born in 1975 from an article i was reading before the match on sunday. also paul taylor is still on the sligo panel, not sure what age he is, but assume hes older?? although his role last week was water boy!
i cant freaking think of any older players, becoming a rariety these days seeing a guy in his 30s stick it out. Ja Fallon is a legend!!

Smarmore

johnnog wrote:

I think Louth had a man who retired last year who'd played for about 20 years or something. I can't remember his name off hand.

I presume that would be Seamus O'Hanlon you're thinking of. Darren Fay would be a veteran player I'd still consider hugely influential. He was probably more influential than Geraghty over the 2 Dublin matches, just didn't make the headlines for obvious reasons.

gucci

Smarmore wrote:

Darren Fay would be a veteran player I'd still consider hugely influential. He was probably more influential than Geraghty over the 2 Dublin matches, just didn't make the headlines for obvious reasons.

god yes, a great gael, has fantastic pace for his age too, nigel cumerford seems to be playing along time also?

kevmy

Geezer McGeeney pretty auld at this stage I'd imagine along with half that Armagh team.

fuinneamh

Tony Browne still playing and Brian Corcoran till last year

johnnog

Smarmore wrote:

presume that would be Seamus O'Hanlon you're thinking of.Darren Fay would be a veteran player I'd still consider hugely influential. He was probably more influential than Geraghty over the 2 Dublin matches, just didn't make the headlines for obvious reasons.

Fay is only on the scene since 1996 though. A good four and a half years behind Geraghty. He's also almost three years younger, which is significant enough in terms of an inter-county player.
And I think you're right. I think it was O'Hanlon I was thinking of. He played midfield for them I think.

From what I can find, Fallon is listed as making his debut in 1991 and was born in 1973 which puts him on a par with Geraghty. Fallon retired a few years ago only to make a comback last year from what I can remember . (I think he got injured and taken off in his comeback so it was interesting to see him stil involved this year).

Padraig Joyce was on the Galway minor team in 1994 so he wouldn't have predated the above. I can't find when he made his senior debut but guess it wasn't too long after.

I don't know or can't find out about Paul Taylor but if he's been acting as water boy he probably doesn't exactly have a place in the starting 15.

gucci wrote:

god yes, a great gael, has fantastic pace for his age too, nigel cumerford seems to be playing along time also?

Not too sure who you mean by "nigel cumerford" but if you mean Nigel Crawford I think he's only been knocking around since 1998 and only really made his mark on the team in 1999 .

Tony Browne and Brian Corcoran, both born in 1973. Made debuts in 1992 and 1993 respectively. I think Browne is the longest still-serving hurler mentioned so far anyway.