John Galvin Limerick footballer question/request

Kingdom

I don't post here very often, but really enjoy reading some of the threads. Like a lot of you I'm on a few different forms of social media, including WhatsApp. One guy loves telling us what's right and wrong, who's good and bad, blah blah blah.

A random comment on John Galvin lead to a bizarre discussion on how good he was, or how well-known he was. My contention is that he's in the discussion for one of the best midfielder's of his generation/post Millennium generation, and that he'd be well-known throughout Ireland. My foe's contention is that he isn't well-known outside of Munster.

Anyone care to enlighten me?

bucketybuck

I'm from well outside Munster, if that counts.

My view is that I heard of him yes, one of those cases where you hear of a player who is supposed to be really good but sure isn't it a shame that he plays for a small county and won't win anything, etc etc.

Best of his generation? Nah. He had some profile for a few years but sure there are loads of players that did that. Paddy Keenan, Marty McGrath to throw out 2 random examples.

I'm also relatively informed when it comes to football, I'd say the average fan doesn't know who he was at all so I would be very dubious about the "well known throughout Ireland" part.

PARlance

Not a big fan of his fashion range tbh.

CrabRevolution

Kingdom wrote: »

I don't post here very often, but really enjoy reading some of the threads. Like a lot of you I'm on a few different forms of social media, including WhatsApp. One guy loves telling us what's right and wrong, who's good and bad, blah blah blah.

A random comment on John Galvin lead to a bizarre discussion on how good he was, or how well-known he was. My contention is that he's in the discussion for one of the best midfielder's of his generation/post Millennium generation, and that he'd be well-known throughout Ireland. My foe's contention is that he isn't well-known outside of Munster.

Anyone care to enlighten me?

I think himself and the forward (Ryan if I remember correctly) were popular go to names for people to name drop when talking about players from "weaker counties" who deserved more recognition. As a result of this it was in their interest to make them out to be better than they really were. See Mattie Ford, Declan Browne, Emlyn Mulligan etc.

I remember Galvin and Ryan tearing us (Meath) a new one down in Portlaoise one year, but over the course of their careers I'd say they were good, but not quite in the "best of" lists.

Stationmaster

Declan Browne was a class apart and would have made any inter county team.

I'd say John Galvin was well known with most fans who have a decent interest. A very good footballer.

castletownman

CrabRevolution wrote: »

I think himself and the forward (Ryan if I remember correctly) were popular go to names for people to name drop when talking about players from "weaker counties" who deserved more recognition. As a result of this it was in their interest to make them out to be better than they really were. See Mattie Ford, Declan Browne, Emlyn Mulligan etc.

I remember Galvin and Ryan tearing us (Meath) a new one down in Portlaoise one year, but over the course of their careers I'd say they were good, but not quite in the "best of" lists.

Whatever about the rest, Forde deserves all the plaudits he has received (and I would include Browne in his company as well).

To put his brilliance into context, in the course of researching stats for a DVD marking his career, I discovered that Matty is the only player to have been top-scorer in the championship despite his team not reaching at least a provincial final, or an All-Ireland semi-final that year (2004). His average of 9.4 points per game that year has only ever been beaten once (from what I can gather), by Matty Connor the year he scored a tonne vs Kerry.

He also is the only player in modern times to have kicked 0-9 from play in a championship game in Croker, and I doubt that record was beaten before statistics became reliable either.

Coming as someone from his biggest rivals, it's hard not to acknowledge his greatness.

As for the original question, I always thought John Galvin was a tour-de-force of a midfielder. In a similar mould to Fenton today. Darragh O'Se was probably the most dominant midfielder of that era, yet Galvin always seemed to outshine him in battle which is as good an indication of his status as any.

Bonniedog

Galvin was a very good player. Probably the main factor in Limerick being on the verge of becoming a contender about ten years ago. Should have beaten Kerry on at least one occasion.

Forde was brilliant. Virtually unmarkable and highly consistent. Would say that Dublin would have won All Ireland several years before 2011 if they had Mattie in his prime.

Motivator

Bonniedog wrote: »

Forde was brilliant. Virtually unmarkable and highly consistent. Would say that Dublin would have won All Ireland several years before 2011 if they had Mattie in his prime.

Wexford would have beaten Tyrone in the 2008 All Ireland Semi if Forde hadn’t gone off injured. He was magnificent that year, some of the scores he put over on their run to the Semi were ridiculous - was some footballer.

Deskjockey

Kingdom wrote: »

I don't post here very often, but really enjoy reading some of the threads. Like a lot of you I'm on a few different forms of social media, including WhatsApp. One guy loves telling us what's right and wrong, who's good and bad, blah blah blah.

A random comment on John Galvin lead to a bizarre discussion on how good he was, or how well-known he was. My contention is that he's in the discussion for one of the best midfielder's of his generation/post Millennium generation, and that he'd be well-known throughout Ireland. My foe's contention is that he isn't well-known outside of Munster.

Anyone care to enlighten me?

Darragh O'Se named him as the toughest opponent he had faced in his book if memory serves me right. So if the definitive best midfielder of the last 25 years says that, he was a bit of a big deal.

Boom__Boom

Deskjockey wrote: »

Darragh O'Se named him as the toughest opponent he had faced in his book if memory serves me right. So if the definitive best midfielder of the last 25 years says that, he was a bit of a big deal.

His family had links to Kerry - I can't remember exactly what it was but I think it was that they had a farm/some land in Kerry and Galvin might have lived in Kerry for a few years as a kid. There was definitely "what might have been" talk of him playing for Kerry at some points during his career and I would definitely have said the overall consenus in Kerry was that he would have been an automatic pick alongside Darragh. He was a serious serious operator for a good stretch of years.

As to how well he was known, it's a bit of a how long is a piece of string question. I can't imagine any serious GAA fan of that era not knowing his name. Just looking at the records - he was an All-Star nominee 3 years 2004, 2009 and 2010 so I think his name would be known nationally by anyone into football.

Bonniedog

Well, of course, like the Brogans, Galvin's talent would have to be in some way attributable to the Kerry gene :-)

BOSTIK

The_Honeybadger

Galvin was very well known in football circles in kerry anyway given we faced limerick often and he was so good. I think he would have made any team in the country during his prime. It’s hard to imagine that Limerick put a very good Kerry side to the pin of their collar back then and were very unlucky not to beat them a couple of times.

I’m not sure how well known he was further afield, difficult question to answer. I’d say a lot of casual fans probably wouldn’t know much about him as he didn’t have the profile of say Daragh O’Se or Kieran Mcgeeney back then