What are the biggest “what ifs” in Irish sports?

cj maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120033898#Comment_120033898

Did you ever see the film , Crash and Byrne ?

Pawwed Rig

What if Eamonn Couglan had been at his best in the olympics surrounding his world championship win in Helsinki?

micar

What if the Meath goal vs Louth in the 2010 Leinster Final was disallowed

BK5

What if Barry McGuigan hadn't been miss- managed and didn't fight in the Las Vegas midday sun over 15 rounds against Stevie Cruz. Think they even ran out of water during this fight? And he was leading going into the last round.

McGuigan had a good career but he couldn't have gone down as an all time great if as the champ this fight was organised on his terms.

crossman47

If Cork had beaten Kilkenny for three in a row in 2006, would that Kilkenny team have set all those records? Would Cody have resigned?

In horse racing, if Flyingbolt had not come along at the same time as Arkle, would he now be spoken about in similar terms?

thebaz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120032487#Comment_120032487

100% this - we will never know what would have happened and how far we would have gone - and given how low the Irish football team has fallen now, wonder or if it will ever happen again.

He seams to like the World cup now, given how much he was on the box in Qatar.

thebaz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120032997#Comment_120032997

or if Clarke (I think) made that tackle in '91 against Australia , ther would be no rugby World cup semi final hoodoo.

chosen1

The biggest what if for me is what it the GAA hadn't taken off in this country? Would most promising young athletes in field sports be playing soccer like they do in most other countries? How many all stars in GAA would be Irish internationals and could we actually compete against the best in football tournaments if it didn't exist?

I respect that we have our own cultural identity in Ireland and do enjoy the odd Gaelic or hurling game, but the average person here has serious unrealistic expectations of our international teams prospects when we have GAA dominating and nabbing the best sports people in large swaths of the country. The same could be said for rugby in a few small pockets.

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120034013#Comment_120034013

Ireland had moved up a significant step from 1990 for the euro 92 campaign. We were far superior in that moment than during the 94 World Cup , the Poland game in 91 was a performance that warranted Bonner never playing again

his legendary status reflects both the power of media to create myth and casual fair weather fans to buy into said myth

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120034120#Comment_120034120

That 1-1 draw with England in Wembley in the 92 qualifiers was the best Irish performance I ever saw live , we were really good that time

Manc-Red_

With Keane in 2002 we could have won the World Cup. No joke

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120034770#Comment_120034770

We performed above expectation , we quite possibly wouldn’t have done any better with him there

Manc-Red_

Possibly the word there. No so sure anyone with knowledge of football would agree though.

martingriff

My thoughts on Keane at the 92 WC is he was the one player everything would have went through so if teams marked him tight would be have had a plan B. Would we have got to the Spain match.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120034352#Comment_120034352

He admits he ran a terrible 1500m in 1976 and went into the race in a bad frame of mind. He certainly should have medalled that day anyway (arguably he didn't cope well with the pressure of being fancied).

daithi7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120034111#Comment_120034111

Thanks Speak Now,

I'm not certain now that I've looked up his profile on Wikipedia etc. I see he went out twice in first round in the breaststroke 100m in Seoul & Barcelona. (4th on both occasions)

I remember reading some years later, that all those who had placed ahead of him were subsequently caught for using PEDs. So I presume that was in 88 at Seoul, but I couldn't swear to it. Good spot!!

hynesie08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120034770#Comment_120034770

That was a very good Carlsberg ad.

Downlinz

What if Dublin GAA received the same funding as the other counties for the past 20 years, would they have won anything?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120034770#Comment_120034770

Could have made the final but Brazil were on a different level to everyone.

Wishbone Ash

What if Seamus Darby hadn't come on as a sub in the '82 All Ireland football final?

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120034974#Comment_120034974

What do you mean "the other counties" they all get different amounts.

As for soccer the great "what if" is what if John Delaney never got the top job. We will be paying for that on and off the pitch for years.

Girly Gal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120034770#Comment_120034770

No we wouldn't have, we were an average team at best with Keane, and the rest of the squad performed above themselves in Keane's absence. At best we might have got past Spain, but, there's no way we would have gotten past South Korea in the next round, both Italy and Spain were screwed over against South Korea, with a lot of very dogey decisions going South Korea's way, there's no way we would have been allowed win against them.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120034737#Comment_120034737

We would probably end up like somewhere like Denmark.

Decent enough at soccer, qualify regularly but rearly compete for titles (their 1992 win wascan outlier).

We would not be like NZ with rugby simply because even without the GAA rugby would still be well behind soccer when it came to interest, participation etc.

Whereas in NZ it is the undisputed number one.

BrianD3

Irish sport is full of we were robbed/what ifs, many of which are pretty tenuous. Saipan, Thierry Henry, Tommy Byrne. One that hasn't been mentioned here is Michael Schumacher being given his F1 debut by Jordan F1 in 1991. His great performance resulted in him being swiftly snapped up by another team with more money. Had he stayed with Jordan, their 1992 car was such a heap of crap that he wouldn't have been able to do anything with it. It might have damaged or at least delayed his career rather than being a positive thing for Jordan.

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120035097#Comment_120035097

New Zealand are also winners of numerous Olympic medals unlike us who have a pitiful amount of medals

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120035529#Comment_120035529

Olympics are all about money. You invest you win.

We have only just announced the future building of our first velodrome and modern athletics tracks are very thin on the ground. Those 2 facilities along with swimming pools can yield multiple medals from 1 investment do to the nature of the sports.

One positive"what if" in the future should be Sports Campus Ireland. Many what ifs stem from the fact we never had something like that before.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120034974#Comment_120034974

Why wouldn’t Dublin receive the most funding ?

they have more clubs, more teams then any other counties aside from Cork.

Why don’t Cork get more ? Who knows.

but to suggest that Dublin should get the same funding as say Waterford ? Shows a misunderstanding of the purpose of funding.

should the University Hospital in Waterford get the same funding as The Mater in Dublin…? No :) the Mater has 719 beds and 19 operating theatres..

University hospital in Waterford has 429 beds and 8 operating theatres… same principle applies in the GAA…

funding is comparative to the needs and demands of the sports in each county.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120035674#Comment_120035674

Shirley your last sentence should read “funding depends on whether that constituency has a sitting minister”

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120035860#Comment_120035860

The money some football fans complain about is GAA money not government.

And don't call him Shirley 🤣

Man Vs ManUre

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120034572#Comment_120034572

There was a program on RTÉ recently and it showed what would have happened. Ireland would have got to the final and faced Brazil in Yokohama, they go 1 up in first half but Ronaldo equalised in 2nd. The game ends 1-1, no goals in extra time and it’s a penalty shootout. Roy takes irelands last pen and the score is 5-4 Brazil so he needs to score, unfortunately his shot hits off top of crossbar and Ireland lose. Brazil win the World Cup.

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120035627#Comment_120035627

Many much poorer countries than Ireland have plenty of medals, Hungary is one