RTE Greatest Irish Sports Person

jefferson73

Think we all know who to vote for......

http://www.rte.ie/sport/greatest_poll.html

Unfortunately some of my work colleagues haven't a clue,
comments like "anyone can ride a bike" annoy me so much
that i have to dedicate this as a thread and hope you all
vote.

Chips Lovell

But Eoin "The Bomber" Liston isn't on the list

ednwireland

so whcih one of the 2 am i supposed to vote for (i know which one i will vote for though)

sneaky RTE putting 2 cyclists on the list trying to split the vote

mloc123

Kelly ftw

SACH Central

Interesting to see they have Michelle 'whiskey' De Bruin on the list :rolleyes:

Btw tried to vote twice, but it wouldn't let me

RobFowl

mloc123 wrote: »

Kelly ftw

+1 thought it would have been obvious !

mloc123

RobFowl wrote: »

+1 thought it would have been obvious !

as for Roche :rolleyes:

RobFowl

mloc123 wrote: »

as for Roche :rolleyes:

Aye that Nicholas fella has potential

ROK ON

I can understand some of those mentioned, but am surprised not to see the likes of Jack Lynch, Pat Spillane, Liam Brady.

ednwireland

RobFowl wrote: »

+1 thought it would have been obvious !

thats what i thought but not been irish .............

thought the dubs supported roche and everyone else kelly

stands back.................

RobFowl

ednwireland wrote: »

thats what i thought but not been irish .............

thought the dubs supported roche and everyone else kelly

stands back.................

Only the Southsiders ............

ROK ON

ednwireland wrote: »

thats what i thought but not been irish .............

thought the dubs supported roche and everyone else kelly

stands back.................

As a kid growing up in the 80's I was always of the impression that society viewed Kelly as a legend, whereas Roche - he was a bloke that did a triple in one year.

mloc123

ROK ON wrote: »

I can understand some of those mentioned, but am surprised not to see the likes of Jack Lynch, Pat Spillane, Liam Brady.

tbf Liam Brady was one of the best international players we had.

austinbyrne21

Let's not be silly here lads. As someone above said - you only get one vote. And we all know who should get that...

GEORGE BEST!

He's generally regarded as been one of the best 3 footballers ever, along with Pelé and Diego Maradona. Come on dudes, it's a no-brainer!

Get voting!

ednwireland

austinbyrne21 wrote: »

Let's not be silly here lads. As someone above said - you only get one vote. And we all know who should get that...

GEORGE BEST!

He's generally regarded as been one of the best 3 footballers ever, along with Pelé and Diego Maradona. Come on dudes, it's a no-brainer!

Get voting!

sean kelly it is then

Tawfee

ROK ON wrote: »

As a kid growing up in the 80's I was always of the impression that society viewed Kelly as a legend, whereas Roche - he was a bloke that did a triple in one year.

I remember the day Roche won the Worlds, i was watching a hurling match on the box with me Dad & at the end of the match, the commentator said something like,

"a great day in Croke Park for Galway/Cork...and a great day too for the Irish in Austria..."

I'm thinkin:

"YES!!! Kelly's won it!!".

The commentator continues:

"... and a great day for Stephen Roche in particular..."

I roared "AH SH!TE" or something similar.

Got a clip on the ear for me troubles! (I was 10 at the time:)).

Reginald P. DuM

Roche and Kelly did indeed accomplished much for Irish cycling.. The fact that Michelle Smith De Bruin is on the list tells us RTE are not too bothered about honour among their nominees. I am sure I'm not the only one to question the legitimacy of Roche's wonder year in '87. For that reason my vote, without question went to AP McCoy.

Vélo

http://www.rte.ie/sport/greatest_poll.html

How come RAAM isn't on the list?

My vote went to Aidan O'Brien - Pure genius!!!

What he does year after year in unbelievable.

Hungrycol

Can't believe Lance Mooneyham isn't on the list.

George Best isn't even Irish...

stands back even further.....

To be at the top of his game for so long it has to be Kelly.

Vélo

Hungrycol wrote: »

Can't believe Lance Mooneyham isn't on the list.

George Best isn't even Irish...

stands back even further.....

To be at the top of his game for so long it has to be Kelly.

George Best IS Irish, the Brits just claim him as being one of them.

KerranJast

SACH Central wrote: »

Interesting to see they have Michelle 'whiskey' De Bruin on the list :rolleyes:

Btw tried to vote twice, but it wouldn't let me

Don't be surprised if she finishes top. There's an orchestrated campaign on various forums to screw up the poll result.

petethedrummer

I think it should be Alex Higgins given that he was probably drunk when he won his world titles.

Reginald P. DuM

KerranJast wrote: »

Don't be surprised if she finishes top. There's an orchestrated campaign on various forums to screw up the poll result.

I read that alright, if it happens RTE will have no one but themselves to blame for the egg on their mugs. She should be nowhere near that list, cheating filth merchant that she is, and it's a massive insult to the great and honest people who join her on the list. Actually the list of nominees could easily have been minus 4 or 5 names and still be a proper poll.

petethedrummer

I can't believe Ronnie O'Brien isn't on that list.

dub_skav

austinbyrne21 wrote: »

Let's not be silly here lads. As someone above said - you only get one vote. And we all know who should get that...

GEORGE BEST!

He's generally regarded as been one of the best 3 footballers ever, along with Pelé and Diego Maradona. Come on dudes, it's a no-brainer!

Get voting!

He might be one of the best 3 Irish (/Northern irish) footballers of all time but he is not "generally regarded as been (sic) one of the best 3 footballers ever"

O'Driscoll or Kelly, O'Driscoll or kelly. I'm so torn. Or maybe Paul Mcgrath......

DirkVoodoo

If Roy Keane or Brian O Driscoll organise a soccer/rugby tournament in Cork/Dublin where I get to play with them for even a second, they will get my vote.

How come Lance isn't on the list? Surely he deserves the award after his cycle in the park demonstrated his athletic superiority. I'm sure he has some Irish blood in him somewhere (ho ho).

m83

Has to be ALI!!! ALI BUMA YE!!

Nova_era

Few Irish sportsmen have been as consistent on an international level as our greatest ever cyclist, the man from Carrick. Roche's triple was great for the country, and for the reputation of a "classy cyclist" like himself, but Kelly delivered the goods time and time again, and kept the head down in doing so.

I daresay it'll come down to Brian O' Driscoll and Roy Keane, probably our two biggest names on the global stage.

kincsem

austinbyrne21 wrote: »

Let's not be silly here lads. As someone above said - you only get one vote. And we all know who should get that...
GEORGE BEST!
He's generally regarded as been one of the best 3 footballers ever, along with Pelé and Diego Maradona. Come on dudes, it's a no-brainer!

Get voting!

Eh, no.


France Football's Football Player of the Century

1. Edson Arantes do Nascimento "PELÉ" (Brazil) 122 pts
2. Diego MARADONA (Argentina) 65
3. Johan CRUYFF (Netherlands) 62
4. Alfredo DI STEFANO (Argentina/Spain) 44
5. Michel PLATINI (France) 40
6. Franz BECKENBAUER (Germany) 35
7. Ferenc PUSKAS (Hungary) 12
8. Marco VAN BASTEN (Netherlands) 11
9. Artur Antunes Coimbra "ZICO" (Brazil) 7
10. Gerd MÜLLER (Germany) 5
10 Lev YASHIN (Soviet Union) 5
12. Enzo FRANCESCOLI (Uruguay) 4
12 Manoel Francisco dos Santos "GARRINCHA" (Brazil) 4
12 George BEST (Northern Ireland) 4

He was known for not turning up for work, drink, women, clothes, hairstyle - a bit like David Beckham.

kincsem

The French weekly magazine France-Football consulted their former "Ballon D'Or" winners to elect the Football Player of the Century.
Among the 34 former "Ballon D'Or" winners (from 1956 to 1999) only 30 of them voted: Matthews, Sivori and Best refused to vote, and Yashin is dead.

CheGuedara

http://www.paddypower.com/bet?action=go_type&novelty=1&ev_class_id=58&ev_type_id=12169

50/1 on Kelly with 40/1 for Roche!!!

Make what ye will of those running the shortest odds, at least De Bruin is 500/1...

Captain Havoc

I think we should bet on michelle smith and then send out viral emails so she wins

crashoveroid

King Kelly all the way

Reginald P. DuM

Best never even played in a World Cup, how can they claim he is worthy of this acolade. He can win all he wants at that price. O Driscoll maybe the most likely value bet, my vote went to McCoy. Not my money though!!

austinbyrne21

We all know a cyclist is never gonna win this award - it's the same any time something like this comes up. It's a glorified popoularity contest. And generally, as a rule of thumb, football is regarded as the most popular sport and therefore will usual collect the acolades... So that would imply it's either gonna be Georgie's or Roy Keane's to lose. Although maybe with the year that Ireland had in the rugby Brian O'Driscoll could be in with a shout - he's in vogue at the minute. That's not a slight on O'Driscoll, just don't know that much about rugby. Although if it was last year, Harrington would be a firm favourite.

paddy's hill

Best was a drunk who had talent but wasted it.

Michell smith and Sean Kelly have doping convictions.

All GAA should be eliminated as no one outside Ireland gives a toss.

Snooker is not a sport, it is a game like darts or tiddlywinks.

For me that leaves Vincent O'Brien or Joey Dunlop. Both were at the top of their chosen sports for decades.

Captain Havoc

paddy's hill wrote: »

Best was a drunk who had talent but wasted it.

Michell smith and Sean Kelly have doping convictions.

All GAA should be eliminated as no one outside Ireland gives a toss.

Snooker is not a sport, it is a game like darts or tiddlywinks.

For me that leaves Vincent O'Brien or Joey Dunlop. Both were at the top of their chosen sports for decades.

I think that's the idea of a poll so it's up to the majority to decide. Just because GAA is unknown outside of ireland does that make it any more unskilled? I think it will go to the fashionable though.

CheGuedara

Kelly won all around him between 1978 up to 1994 with something like 190 professional races to his name.

Until anyone else on that list wins 190 odd anythings they're not even on the radar for greatest sports person IMHO.

pprendeville

Roy Keane all the way I'm afraid. What he did for Utd and Ireland will never be repeated again, i.e. leading them to so many league and cup successes.

petethedrummer

Giant Haystacks FTW.

pprendeville

jerseyeire wrote: »

I think that's the idea of a poll so it's up to the majority to decide. Just because GAA is unknown outside of ireland does that make it any more unskilled? I think it will go to the fashionable though.

Never knew Sean Kelly had a doping condition.

CheGuedara

petethedrummer wrote: »

Giant Haystacks FTW.

pprendeville wrote: »

Roy Keane all the way I'm afraid. What he did for Utd and Ireland will never be repeated again, i.e. leading them to so many league and cup successes.

He also gave us the 'Roy Keane handshake' and other spectacular examples of sportsmanship over the years you might expect outside a chipper at 3am on a bad side of town and not on a sports field though

Captain Havoc

I think they should have put in the man who's commentated on boxing, football, cycling, athletics and probably more. For his genius check-out John Treacy winning silver in 1984 marathon. I'm talking about Jimmy Mcghee

Reginald P. DuM

CheGuedara wrote: »

Kelly won all around him between 1978 up to 1994 with something like 190 professional races to his name.

Until anyone else on that list wins 190 odd anythings they're not even on the radar for greatest sports person IMHO.

McCoy with 3000 and counting winners qualifies him unquestionably. The 66-1 about him amazes me even if jockeys don't traditionally win these type of polls.

petethedrummer

CheGuedara wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Ruane

I'm not sure he ever won a title but he did have rivalries with Kendo Nagasaki and Big Daddy.

Bikerbhoy

Without being bias here...... is it not the case to say that Sean Kelly would have probably had the longer career at top level than any other person in the poll........... , and , AND been consistantly sucessfull during this time at the top
... for that reason unless I am told otherwise Mr Kelly will rightfully get my vote

Now if I was to pick a number 2...... I would be in bother......!!!!! plenty of star talent to choose from in fairness

RobFowl

petethedrummer wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Ruane

I'm not sure he ever won a title but he did have rivalries with Kendo Nagasaki and Big Daddy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DSro4l_0cE

paddy's hill

pprendeville wrote: »

Never knew Sean Kelly had a doping condition.

Kelly was twice caught in drug tests. He failed tests after Paris-Brussels in 1984 and the Tour of the Basque Country in 1988

RobFowl

Bikerbhoy wrote: »

Without being bias here...... is it not the case to say that Sean Kelly would have probably had the longer career at top level than any other person in the poll........... , and , AND been consistantly sucessfull during this time at the top
... for that reason unless I am told otherwise Mr Kelly will rightfully get my vote

Big fan of Kelly but Joey Dunlop was winning TT races at the Isle of man from 1977 until 2000.

pprendeville

CheGuedara wrote: »

He also gave us the 'Roy Keane handshake' and other spectacular examples of sportsmanship over the years you might expect outside a chipper at 3am on a bad side of town and not on a sports field though

If you had a clown of a manager I rekon you'd be giving the same handshake.

paddy's hill

RobFowl wrote: »

Big fan of Kelly but Joey Dunlop was winning TT races at the Isle of man from 1977 until 2000.

Vincent O'Brien won his first Grand National in 1953 and retired in 1994.