Football's Lesser Lights

keane2097

Having a chat with a few mates (again!) and we got to talking about Shane Brick's return to the Kerry hurling team. I'll be the first to admit to not knowing much about hurling, but I remember hearing when he was in his prime that there wouldn't be many county teams he wouldn't have walked into.

We then got to talking about footballers in the same vein, i.e. guys from "lesser" counties who might not be as well known, but who but for an accident of birth might have several provincial or even All Ireland medals in their back pockets.

Ones that immediately sprang to mind from Munster were obv John Galvin of Limerick and Declan Browne of Tipperary who would have strolled onto any team of the last decade IMO.

Anybody care to put together a team of "lesser lights'" players?

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????

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Charlie Harrison (Sligo) --- Barry Owens (Fermanagh) --- Ciarán Hyland (Wicklow)

James Loughrey (Antrim) --- Shane Redmond (Carlow) --- ???

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John Galvin (Limerick) --- Paddy Keenan (Louth)

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???

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???

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???

???

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??? --- Leighton Glynn (Wicklow)

Mountainlad

Declan Browne won an all-star, and everybody knows who John Galvin is.

keane2097

I see you've cleverly seized upon the one place in three paragraphs where I mistakenly used "lesser known" as a euphemism for "from a lower quality team" and used that to deliberately miss the fairly obvious point of the thread. Well played.

If you really wanted to stick it to me you should have pointed out that Barry Owens has two All Stars and Harrison and Keenan have one each as well. Cheers.

deisedude

Gary Hurney from Waterford is a serious player. Would have a few All Stars if with Kerry

Mountainlad

keane2097 wrote: »

I see you've cleverly seized upon the one place in three paragraphs where I mistakenly used "lesser known" as a euphemism for "from a lower quality team" and used that to deliberately miss the fairly obvious point of the thread. Well played.

If you really wanted to stick it to me you should have pointed out that Barry Owens has two All Stars and Harrison and Keenan have one each as well. Cheers.

In fairness, I mean no offense by pointing it out. I'm just saying you can't draw the same parallels between someone like Shane Brick or say Murtagh from Westmeath in Hurling, as somebody who has been nationally recognised for their outstanding abilities.

That's where I initially picked it up from, not so much your use of words. Harder to find players people don't already know about in football because lesser teams get far more exposure than the hurling equivalents.

Anyway, apologies for annoying you, wasn't my intention.

I dunno how highly Westmeath would be ranked, I suppose they did win that Leinster title back in 2004, but I've always admired Dessie Dolan. Matty Forde at the height of his ability was something special too. Both well known players too of course.

I wouldn't know of too many lesser known players outside of my own County (hence them being lesser known) but the O'Gorman twins from Waterford have both represented Munster, and been spoken highly of several times.

Fireball07

Limerick have had a lot of good players in recent years- Johnny McCarthy is an excellent player, as was Tommy Stack back in the day. And Stephen Kelly is one of the liveliest forwards you'll see plus Ger Collins and Ian Ryan on their day are as good as most.

I always liked Shane Briggs from Waterford, David Russell from Clare.

Phillip Greene from Sligo is one of the best goalies of the last 10 years imo, always rated him. Of course Sligo have had loads of good players too- O'Hara, Harrison, Sloyane, Durkin, the 2 Daveys.

keane2097

Mountainlad wrote: »

In fairness, I mean no offense by pointing it out. I'm just saying you can't draw the same parallels between someone like Shane Brick or say Murtagh from Westmeath in Hurling, as somebody who has been nationally recognised for their outstanding abilities.

That's where I initially picked it up from, not so much your use of words. Harder to find players people don't already know about in football because lesser teams get far more exposure than the hurling equivalents.

Anyway, apologies for annoying you, wasn't my intention.

I dunno how highly Westmeath would be ranked, I suppose they did win that Leinster title back in 2004, but I've always admired Dessie Dolan. Matty Forde at the height of his ability was something special too. Both well known players too of course.

I wouldn't know of too many lesser known players outside of my own County (hence them being lesser known) but the O'Gorman twins from Waterford have both represented Munster, and been spoken highly of several times.

Cheers, I get antsy at times - apologies as well

Those O'Gorman lads play in the full back line yeah?

keane2097

deisedude wrote: »

Gary Hurney from Waterford is a serious player. Would have a few All Stars if with Kerry

Yeah Hurney is a guy you hear about alright - he's a full forward right?

deisedude

keane2097 wrote: »

Yeah Hurney is a guy you hear about alright - he's a full forward right?

Yes but often brought out the field if needs be.

lala88

There was a keeper from Cavan got a few All Star nominations forget his name though

Fireball07

lala88 wrote: »

There was a keeper from Cavan got a few All Star nominations forget his name though

James Reilly, good player.


Cavan have had a few fairly decent players in the past 10 years too- Seanie Johnston obviously, Jason O'Reilly, Finbar O'Reilly, Anthony Forde and Dermot McCabe were all pretty good too. Maybe not best fifteen of the 'lesser lights' good though.

Mountainlad

keane2097 wrote: »

Cheers, I get antsy at times - apologies as well

Those O'Gorman lads play in the full back line yeah?

Yep, Thomas is the full back, Maurice plays corner, sometimes further up the field.

Kerrydude1981

John Quane was a great player for Limerick,himself and Daragh O Se had many a great battle,When I was growing up Louth had a forward in the early 90s Seftan White,he was a great man to get a goal I think he played full forward for them at the time

JimmyR

Dessie Barry from Longford. While he would have been well know in the 80's, early 90's its a shame he didn;t get to play in the era of the qualifiers as more games and exposure would have surely saw him win an all star.

lala88

For alot of his playing days you would have to say Mattie Forde was playing with a ''lesser light''. Padraic Davis from Longford i always taught was a great player as good as anyone ealse in Lenister in his day. Brian Kavanagh would be the same. Rory Gallagher from Fermanagh is another as were the Brewsters

premierstone

Peter Lambert and Derry Foley of Tipperary would be two not as well known as Declan Browne but neither would have looked out of place in a top team.

Martin Daly of Clare was another from a lesser light that had the ability to play with any county.

keane2097

Anyone else want to take a stab at a first 15 of guys playing at the moment? Or fill in some more of my effort?

Gary Hurney at full-forward?

premierstone

keane2097 wrote: »

Anyone else want to take a stab at a first 15 of guys playing at the moment? Or fill in some more of my effort?

Gary Hurney at full-forward?

Well for starters you have Declan Browne in your team, he retired 4 years ago!!

Oh and Mountainlad Declan actually has two Allstars

keane2097

premierstone wrote: »

Well for starters you have Declan Browne in your team, he retired 4 years ago!!

Oh and Mountainlad Declan actually has two Allstars

Illustrates my lack of knowledge of some of these guys - even a guy like Browne that you hear all about!

Mountainlad

premierstone wrote: »

Well for starters you have Declan Browne in your team, he retired 4 years ago!!

Oh and Mountainlad Declan actually has two Allstars

Haha, fair enough. Quality footballer back in the day, he's retired from Moyle Rovers as well hasn't he? Or has he just been injured?

premierstone

Mountainlad wrote: »

Haha, fair enough. Quality footballer back in the day, he's retired from Moyle Rovers as well hasn't he? Or has he just been injured?

Injured, did he's cruicate, there was rumors he would make an apprarance in the County Final but he didnt and as a North Tipp man all I can say is thank god - He didnt make hes comeback against us now not that he got injured.

JimmyR

Its a wonder Declan Browne didn;t make a comeback to intercounty when John Evans took over and the fortunes of the team increased including playing in Division 2.

Why did he retire from Intercounty

hardybuck

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Gary Connaughton (Westmeath)

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Charlie Harrison(Sligo)--Barry Owens(F'managh)---Ciarán Hyland(Wicklow)

Johnny Davy (Sligo) -- Shane Briggs (Waterford) Leighton Glynn (Wicklow)

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John Galvin (Limerick) --- Brendan Murphy (Carlow)

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Kevin Niblock (Antrim) -- Gary Hurney (Waterford) -- Ger Collins (Limerick)

Niall McNamee (Offaly)

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Ian Ryan (Limerick) ---- Barry Grogan (Tipp)


I've gone for a selection of players who may not necessarily be lesser lights, but many of whom are playing in Div 3 & 4 in the league, and/or counties who haven't done much in championship in a while.

I think this XV would take a lot of beating.

premierstone

JimmyR wrote: »

Its a wonder Declan Browne didn't make a comeback to intercounty when John Evans took over and the fortunes of the team increased including playing in Division 2.

Why did he retire from Intercounty

He had an awfull lot of miles on the clock tbf, he played senior intercounty for 11 years, he's club were always involved in the latter stages of the championship every year, he played Fitzgibbon for 4 years and international rules twice I assume he was burned out, oh and he played intercounty hurling from 17 to 22 years old aswell.

John Evans record is very good and hes CV looks impressive, I have met him a few times and find him ok and he has done good work but he has made quite a few enemies in Tipp and there are a lot more people doing good work in Tipp football, that Evans gets all the credit for.

Mountainlad

premierstone wrote: »

He had an awfull lot of miles on the clock tbf, he played senior intercounty for 11 years, he's club were always involved in the latter stages of the championship every year, he played Fitzgibbon for 4 years and international rules twice I assume he was burned out, oh and he played intercounty hurling from 17 to 22 years old aswell.

John Evans record is very good and hes CV looks impressive, I have met him a few times and find him ok and he has done good work but he has made quite a few enemies in Tipp and there are a lot more people doing good work in Tipp football, that Evans gets all the credit for.

This thread is kind of going all ove the place, but I must say you've hit the nail on the head there!

aidan24326

Paul Taylor was another one from Sligo, great footballer.

Kevin O'Brien from Wicklow aswell.

GoldFour4

hardybuck wrote: »

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Gary Connaughton (Westmeath)

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Charlie Harrison(Sligo)--Barry Owens(F'managh)---Ciarán Hyland(Wicklow)

Johnny Davy (Sligo) -- Shane Briggs (Waterford) Leighton Glynn (Wicklow)

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John Galvin (Limerick) --- Brendan Murphy (Carlow)

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Kevin Niblock (Antrim) -- Gary Hurney (Waterford) -- Ger Collins (Limerick)

Niall McNamee (Offaly)

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Ian Ryan (Limerick) ---- Barry Grogan (Tipp)


I've gone for a selection of players who may not necessarily be lesser lights, but many of whom are playing in Div 3 & 4 in the league, and/or counties who haven't done much in championship in a while.

I think this XV would take a lot of beating.

+1 on Barry Grogan from Tipp. Great player

Say Your Number

Declan Maxwell was very good for Leitrim.
Suprised David Kelly from Sligo hasn't been mentioned yet, he would walk onto most intercounty teams.
Also Ken Killeen was very good for Sligo throughout the 90's.

castletownman

Apart from Matty Forde from my own county, other players that would definitely fit into the "lesser lights" category for Wexford would be Redmond Barry, David Murphy and Colm Morris. Phillip Wallace was a serious full-back who retired from inter-county football two seasons ago, while the footballing public would be getting more familiar with the likes of Graeme Molloy and Adrian Flynn following Wexford's upturn in fortunes over the last few years.

hardybuck

Mulligan - one good season in by book. Has struggled with injuries of late. Still young, so may well return to his best.

Kelly I think he has also gone back slightly. No doubt the lad is quality though. More than capable of making it into most intercounty forward lines.

Wexford - I consider them to have pushed on to a different level from the likes of Westmeath, Offaly, Antrim etc.

aidan24326

Good call on David Kelly, excellent forward.