Remember him

lala88

After the hurling final i was just thinking what ever happened to Eugene Cloonan? He seemed to disappear off the intercounty seine. I know its been done before but always find it interesting the names that come up in things like this

cormac halpin

lala88 wrote: »

After the hurling final i was just thinking what ever happened to Eugene Cloonan? He seemed to disappear off the intercounty seine. I know its been done before but always find it interesting the names that come up in things like this

Injuries wrote him off. Lacked a bit of pace anyway, but a serious stickman and weapn from dead balls. Burnout didnt help no doubt, but he still brought home a decent medal haul. A sparky last I checked.

MfMan

cormac halpin wrote: »

Injuries wrote him off. Lacked a bit of pace anyway, but a serious stickman and weapn from dead balls. Burnout didnt help no doubt, but he still brought home a decent medal haul. A sparky last I checked.

He had chronic back injuries that done for him eventually. Didn't play in '05 because he and brother Diarmuid didn't get on too well with then management that year; a shame, if we'd had him FF he'd have put manners on the Rock. Could look after himself, so he could. Forget the year, early '00s I think, he beat Sarsfields practically on his own in a county final in Ballinasloe. Helps out a bit now with training underage teams etc.

premierstone

Remember him as a minor in '96, the final of the two Eugene's and tbh neither ever fully fulfilled their potential. Eugene O'Neill still plays with Cappawhite, <mod snip>

buck65

Cloonan was a smashing hurler <mod snip>

Clareman

Folks,

Reminder not to post any conjecture or speculation or negative comments about Mr. Cloonan

Swiper the fox

Savage hurler, great ball striker, besides Paul Flynn he was the best of his era in that department. Where is this thread headed though, I'm sure anyone who comes on the GAA section will "remember" him. He was one of the most famous hurlers in the country up until about 5 years until about 5 years ago.

Keanes Road

Swiper the fox wrote: »

Savage hurler, great ball striker, besides Paul Flynn he was the best of his era in that department. Where is this thread headed though, I'm sure anyone who comes on the GAA section will "remember" him. He was one of the most famous hurlers in the country up until about 5 years until about 5 years ago.

Super player. He was a seriously skilful hurler a nd a am n who knew where the goal was. He torn Waterford asunder in a league game in Walsh Park a good few years back now. He was brilliant that day and I think got 3or4 goals in that game.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Remember Wayne McCarthy former Dublin footballer.He burst onto the scene in around 2001 but disappeared soon afterwards.

What happened to Ger Brady.I remember him being hugely effective for Mayo around 2006 a big bustling centre forward but he seemed to be around for only a short while.

Qwerty Dub

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

Remember Wayne McCarthy former Dublin footballer.He burst onto the scene in around 2001 but disappeared soon afterwards.

What happened to Ger Brady.I remember him being hugely effective for Mayo around 2006 a big bustling centre forward but he seemed to be around for only a short while.

Wayne McCarthy, seriously?

He moved/transfered to a Meath club a good while back. No loss.

washman3

"Redser" O'Grady of Tipp. super hurler and very skillful. cant be that old either?? Thurles Sarsfields club i think.??

DazMarz

Mark Vaughan for Dublin. Had a knack for popping up and scoring some beauties of goals. Dropped off the radar in about 2008 or 2009. He's only about 27/28 now, so I wonder what happened?

cormac halpin

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

Remember Wayne McCarthy former Dublin footballer.He burst onto the scene in around 2001 but disappeared soon afterwards.

Wayne McCarthy was scrap.

washman3 wrote: »

"Redser" O'Grady of Tipp. super hurler and very skillful. cant be that old either?? Thurles Sarsfields club i think.??

Fond of the timber, but a good target man, just didnt have the mentality or hunger for intercounty.

DazMarz wrote: »

Mark Vaughan for Dublin. Had a knack for popping up and scoring some beauties of goals. Dropped off the radar in about 2008 or 2009. He's only about 27/28 now, so I wonder what happened?

See Redser, didnt have the mentality for intercounty, Gilroy gave him the road as he tried to break down the Dublin primadonnas and create a team unit. He'll not be seen again.

hardybuck

cormac halpin wrote: »

He'll not be seen again.

Sure I saw him in O'Donoghue's there the other week!

cormac halpin

hardybuck wrote: »

Sure I saw him in O'Donoghue's there the other week!

Is this what passes for wit here?

buck65

Actually it was better than alot of other "wit".

cormac halpin

buck65 wrote: »

Actually it was better than alot of other "wit".

That doesnt bode well.

lala88

Ger Spillane from Cork is another won an All Star one year and was never really heard of after. Also Conrad Murphy looked very good as a minor did he ever play senior? There was another lad from Cork would have played minor around 92/93 scored 2 lates goals in a Munster semi final around that time

Swiper the fox

lala88 wrote: »

Ger Spillane from Cork is another won an All Star one year and was never really heard of after. Also Conrad Murphy looked very good as a minor did he ever play senior? There was another lad from Cork would have played minor around 92/93 scored 2 lates goals in a Munster semi final around that time

Alan O'Regan and Kevin Harrington (Castletownbere and Bantry I think) were the two outstanding Cork minor footballers of that era.

As regards Spillane that has a habit of happening in Cork football, Philip Clifford and Fionnan Murray being two other high profile ones.

tipptopper

cormac halpin wrote: »

Injuries wrote him off. Lacked a bit of pace anyway, but a serious stickman and weapn from dead balls. Burnout didnt help no doubt, but he still brought home a decent medal haul. A sparky last I checked.

Qualified sparky alright, in fact Eugene is one of me best buddies. He managing his uncle’s filling stations in Athenry for the past 2 years, doing very well.

He just recently started back hurling junior C in the goals for Athenry, was seriously ****ed with a back injury for the past few years, he not near as bad now though.

I know he has had bad press over the years, some of it justified, some not but I can tell you he is a smashing lad, if you didn’t know he hurled, you’d certainly never know it by speaking to him, very modest man considering the medal haul he has, I know 2001 still haunts him to this day, hadn’t his best day against Tipp in the final and still looks back on it with great regret. Turning in to a class trainer, he’ll be a big name trainer yet, guaranteed

Clemon

Cloonan will always be remembered in Galway for some serious performances through out the years. His performance in the 01 semi final against Kilkenny was fantastic. He got League player of the year too one season.

Unfortunately he fell out with management in 05 which ended his inter county career on a sour note. He has a haul of county medals and All-Ireland Club medals from is career unfortunately like lots of Galway hurlers the past 20 years he didn't get his day in the sun with an AI senior medal.

He will still go down as a crowd favourite of Galway fans for his toughness and ball skills and also as Athenry's greatest ever player.

Not a bad career!!

cormac halpin

tipptopper wrote: »

Qualified sparky alright, in fact Eugene is one of me best buddies. He managing his uncle’s filling stations in Athenry for the past 2 years, doing very well.

He just recently started back hurling junior C in the goals for Athenry, was seriously ****ed with a back injury for the past few years, he not near as bad now though.

I know he has had bad press over the years, some of it justified, some not but I can tell you he is a smashing lad, if you didn’t know he hurled, you’d certainly never know it by speaking to him, very modest man considering the medal haul he has, I know 2001 still haunts him to this day, hadn’t his best day against Tipp in the final and still looks back on it with great regret. Turning in to a class trainer, he’ll be a big name trainer yet, guaranteed

Thats good to hear, ya wouldnt mind the bad press much, paper loves ink and its all left back in the archives in time.

lala88 wrote: »

Ger Spillane from Cork is another won an All Star one year and was never really heard of after. Also Conrad Murphy looked very good as a minor did he ever play senior? There was another lad from Cork would have played minor around 92/93 scored 2 lates goals in a Munster semi final around that time

They destroyed Murphy, too much too soon. Not sure he even plays anymore due to injuries.

tipptopper

Clemon wrote: »

Cloonan will always be remembered in Galway for some serious performances through out the years. His performance in the 01 semi final against Kilkenny was fantastic. He got League player of the year too one season.

Unfortunately he fell out with management in 05 which ended his inter county career on a sour note. He has a haul of county medals and All-Ireland Club medals from is career unfortunately like lots of Galway hurlers the past 20 years he didn't get his day in the sun with an AI senior medal.

He will still go down as a crowd favourite of Galway fans for his toughness and ball skills and also as Athenry's greatest ever player.

Not a bad career!!

Funny that you say that Clemon, he actually didn’t fall out with management at all in 05, he fell out with the Galway county board over an unpaid medical bill.

He was told before the 05 league / championship to do whatever it took to get himself right for that year, he had suffered an injury after the 04 season and went for scans, medical advice etc and when it came to paying the bill, the county board refused to cough up, Eugene went cracked over it and management backed the county boards stance, despite umpteen stories that circulated that year, he did ask Conor Hayes several times to get back on the panel but that wish was never granted

Clemon

Interesting tipp I never knew that.

Hayes stood on a lot of player's toes the short few years he was there. One story comes to mind where some players were berated for not turning up to pre-season training despite receiving no texts or communication regarding the matter.

Cloonan was such an inspirational figure for Galway.
Even just thinking of the roar from the Galway crowd when Eugene would take off the helmet and fúck it towards the sideline when the game started to get intense. Legend.

bhdfa

Clemon wrote: »

Cloonan will always be remembered in Galway for some serious performances through out the years. His performance in the 01 semi final against Kilkenny was fantastic. He got League player of the year too one season.

Unfortunately he fell out with management in 05 which ended his inter county career on a sour note. He has a haul of county medals and All-Ireland Club medals from is career unfortunately like lots of Galway hurlers the past 20 years he didn't get his day in the sun with an AI senior medal.

He will still go down as a crowd favourite of Galway fans for his toughness and ball skills and also as Athenry's greatest ever player.

Not a bad career!!

Best game I ever saw him play was the Club Final when he roasted Brian Lohan, who was rated best full back in the country.

WumBuster

tipptopper wrote: »

Funny that you say that Clemon, he actually didn’t fall out with management at all in 05, he fell out with the Galway county board over an unpaid medical bill.

He was told before the 05 league / championship to do whatever it took to get himself right for that year, he had suffered an injury after the 04 season and went for scans, medical advice etc and when it came to paying the bill, the county board refused to cough up, Eugene went cracked over it and management backed the county boards stance, despite umpteen stories that circulated that year, he did ask Conor Hayes several times to get back on the panel but that wish was never granted

If thats wholly acurate well then what a bunch of **** the county board and management were to treat any player like that never mind their best player, I wouldnt blame him one little bit for walking away in those circumstances. If thats the sort of treatment to players within galway its no wonder they have underperformed so much over the years. Cloonan was a class player, there seems to be a lot of players come out of galway who never hit the heights they could have though, Niall healy and Ger farragher come to mind also.

Swiper the fox

bhdfa wrote: »

Best game I ever saw him play was the Club Final when he roasted Brian Lohan, who was rated best full back in the country.

Ya and Seanie Mc was the best centre back, Frank Lohan the best corner back, Doyle and Daly the best wing backs etc. Those Clare lads had a very high opinion of themselves.:rolleyes:

Clemon

WumBuster wrote: »

If thats wholly acurate well then what a bunch of **** the county board and management were to treat any player like that never mind their best player, I wouldnt blame him one little bit for walking away in those circumstances. If thats the sort of treatment to players within galway its no wonder they have underperformed so much over the years. Cloonan was a class player, there seems to be a lot of players come out of galway who never hit the heights they could have though, Niall healy and Ger farragher come to mind also.

Wouldn't put Niall Healy in the same bracket as Cloonan and Farragher.

MfMan

WumBuster wrote: »

If thats wholly acurate well then what a bunch of **** the county board and management were to treat any player like that never mind their best player, I wouldnt blame him one little bit for walking away in those circumstances. If thats the sort of treatment to players within galway its no wonder they have underperformed so much over the years. Cloonan was a class player, there seems to be a lot of players come out of galway who never hit the heights they could have though, Niall healy and Ger farragher come to mind also.

Even worse than that, the Clare defence took their revenge in the '99 semi-final (drawn match). Got a scelping that day so bad he had to be helped off the field at half-time and was unable to come out for the second half; Rory Gantley came on as sub and did fine from placed balls, but if Cloonan had remained on there might have been no replay for Clare. He was later diagnosed with slight concussion so instead of travelling home on the team bus, some friends of mine had to bring him home by car. No-one from the management team even bothered going with them. True story. He even survived an attempted beheading by Noel Hickey in '04 in Thurles, the perpetrator was shamefully allowed stay on the field. KK playing on the edge stretches back that far. I think though that his last game for Galway came in the '06 defeat, also in Thurles. He was brought on way too late in the game when his side were chasing a big lead and made an immediate impact. Think that was it for him.

Diabhal Beag

It's a shame there aren't more characters like Cloonan. As mentioned he was always nice enough to sign autographs for the fans after but he had the unrivalled intensity during the match that even as a young buck I knew few would have such ferociousness in the future. Superb hurler and it would have been interesting to see where he would have fitted in on the 2005 run.

tipptopper

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

It's a shame there aren't more characters like Cloonan. As mentioned he was always nice enough to sign autographs for the fans after but he had the unrivalled intensity during the match that even as a young buck I knew few would have such ferociousness in the future. Superb hurler and it would have been interesting to see where he would have fitted in on the 2005 run.

Had to laugh at 1 particular story he was telling me, after the 2001 semi final against KK, he hurled an absolute stormer that day, got the rte man of the match, was asked to do tv interview after the game which meant he was late getting back to the dressing room, most of the players had gone upstairs for grub and what not, he got in to the lift to go upstairs on his own, just as the door was closing who runs over but Brian Cody, the split second look on Cody's face when he saw who was in the lift was priceless he said.

He hopped in to the lift with him anyway and cody never uttered a single word to him, silence for 10 seconds seemed like an eternity he said Does have great tales about ex managers, ex players, current players, who had the filtiest mouth on a hurling field(which was a tipp man) and so on gas gas man

lala88

Others that could fall into this most of the Laois minor teams from 1996-98, Kerry minor team from 94 and the Limerick Under 21 hurling teams from 2000-02

cormac halpin

lala88 wrote: »

Others that could fall into this most of the Laois minor teams from 1996-98, Kerry minor team from 94 and the Limerick Under 21 hurling teams from 2000-02

Kerry only ever pick up a handful from any minor team given the talent already there and on the way, harder to break in and harder to stay in given what comes after. Think they got Barry and Morgan O Shea and Mike Frank, maybe Denis O Dwyer, Gerry Murphy, thats about par for the course down there. Brian Murphy played with Dublin for a while also.

The Laois minors were caught in a number of ways. Too much too soon, a success starved county, treated like kings. Mismanaged by managers and county board prior to Mickos arrival. Saying that, the back door ruined them to a degree in 2003 and didnt help in subsequent years either. Were robbed in 05 by Dublin of another Leinster and tossed one away in 04. Still, in a county like Laois things could have been far worse.

Limerick U21's could claim much the same as above, but U21's should have been better managed than minors, but again, things point to an inept county board.

aidan24326

DazMarz wrote: »

Mark Vaughan for Dublin. Had a knack for popping up and scoring some beauties of goals. Dropped off the radar in about 2008 or 2009. He's only about 27/28 now, so I wonder what happened?

Gilroy obviously didn't want him. Didn't fancy him as a player. That's all there was to it. With a new manager on board he'll have a chance to stake his claim again. He's one of those players that (imho) would always be a good option to have on the bench, as he's capable of just about anything. But Gilroy required his players to fit into a very well-defined system and Vaughan isn't really that kind of player.

Swiper the fox

aidan24326 wrote: »

Gilroy obviously didn't want him. Didn't fancy him as a player. That's all there was to it. With a new manager on board he'll have a chance to stake his claim again. He's one of those players that (imho) would always be a good option to have on the bench, as he's capable of just about anything. But Gilroy required his players to fit into a very well-defined system and Vaughan isn't really that kind of player.

If Dublin didn't have such a reliable long range free taker as they do Vaughan would be in with a decent shout of a return but I'm sure there are plenty of younger forwards in Dublin with as much to offer as he does.

cormac halpin

Swiper the fox wrote: »

If Dublin didn't have such a reliable long range free taker as they do Vaughan would be in with a decent shout of a return but I'm sure there are plenty of younger forwards in Dublin with as much to offer as he does.

Never struck me as much reliable about Vaughans freetaking. Chap was a liability in everything he done at IC level.

Swiper the fox

cormac halpin wrote: »

Never struck me as much reliable about Vaughans freetaking. Chap was a liability in everything he done at IC level.

Cluxton is the reliable one, Vaughan is quite similar to Cian Ward in that he is capable of putting over some monster frees but won't ever get the opportunity as things stand.
Vaughan played some decent games for Dublin to be fair.

cormac halpin

Swiper the fox wrote: »

Cluxton is the reliable one, Vaughan is quite similar to Cian Ward in that he is capable of putting over some monster frees but won't ever get the opportunity as things stand.
Vaughan played some decent games for Dublin to be fair.

ALways thought he played well when things were going well, but much like his teammates at the time, went missing when the pressure came on. Flat track bully if you will. Gilroy was well rid of him and given the talent coming through, doubt the successor will have any need to return to him or his ilk.