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

Girly Gal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120038517#Comment_120038517

From memory, no team played well at that world cup, Germany were efficient and Cameroon were probably the most exciting team as they were an unknown quantity, but, also a very physical team (dirty). From a footballing point of view it was probably one of the worst world cups with a dire final. It's fondly remembered in Ireland & England as it was our first world cup and it's the closest England have gotten since they won it.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120039679#Comment_120039679

That's actually a fair point : the entire tournament was terrible and the Germany - Argentina final must have been one of the worst ever.

Certainly though, we didn't play much good football in that tournament. Defended well for sure, but only scored two goals in five matches and didn't create many chances in any game.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120038517#Comment_120038517

True… very good defence, decent forwards , but nothing aside from a very average midfield, Ronnie Whelan was taken to Italy but only to make up the numbers and played a handful of minutes as a sub..a falling out with Jack and carrying an injury limited his participation…Whelan had just played an integral part in Liverpool winning the league by 9 points. He was 28.

orourkeda1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120038517#Comment_120038517

We didnt win a match and scored 2 goals. One of those goals packie Bonner landed his kick out about 10 yards from the dutch goal line

MOR316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120032754#Comment_120032754

Aye. Completely in the wrong. Imagine a professional footballer getting annoyed at having no training gear or no footballs?

Shame on Roy for expecting the bare minimum

MOR316

We probably would have won the group in 2002 if Roy was there but, still would have gotten knocked out in the last 16.

Aside from Roy, Duff and maybe Robbie Keane, we had next to no one anywhere near good enough and anyone who was, were on their last legs (Staunton)

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120045941#Comment_120045941

And that's a reason to throw a hissy fit because your teammates went playing golf. It explains calling someone a sht human, calling a former captain of the country a sht footballer and then questioning his Irishness in front of the team you captain full of players just as Irish as Mick ?

Primadonna who loves the sound of his own voice.

It was no turning point anyway because we would have done roughly the same with him there.

dasdog

Eddie Irvine finished on 74 points in the 1999 F1 Championship driving for Ferrari just shy of Mika Hakkinen's 76. He came very close to winning the title that season - a fifth place finish was enough for 2 points.

From Northern Ireland and identifying as Irish he was classified by the FIA as British although the tricolour was flown at some races leading to some controversy. I was at the first race of the season in Melbourne which was not only Irvine's first win but one of the Jordan cars finished second. The scenes beneath the podium were something else.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120046274#Comment_120046274

Frentzen was the Jordan driver and finished that season 3rd as well.

We had a an F1 team and a driver at the top team. Added to all the other stuff the late 80s and 90s really were a mad decade for Irish sport.

MOR316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120046091#Comment_120046091

Again, shame on a professional footballer expecting footballs and training gear at a training session. Shame on a professional footballer for wanting to win. The idea that the captain of Manchester United, in their most successful period, should expect a football is outlandish. Shame on him!

Mick and the FAI deserve more respect for making a pig's ear of it.

You're right. Keane was only ever a loud mouthed primadonna. Rubbish footballer. Thank God for Mick and the FAI

breezy1985

The redevelopment of Croke Park was considered a big risk by many inside and outside the association.

Would be interesting to see if it made any difference. Personally I think the GAA having the countries only decent modern stadium helped lift a lot of perceptions about the GAAs backwardness and certainly seemed to help the finances.

Would it have lead to the National stadium in the inhospitable Blanchardstown venue.

Did you smash it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120046850#Comment_120046850

I think you can say that again. I think the redevelopment of croke park is one of the key developments in the history of sport in Ireland.

MOR316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120046898#Comment_120046898

Shame they can't do anything about the Hill though

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120046917#Comment_120046917

In what sense ?

micar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120046917#Comment_120046917

You can say the same thing about the Aviva as well

Man Vs ManUre

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120047000#Comment_120047000

Aviva is way worse. At least the Hill generates a good atmosphere when full. That low end at Aviva is horrible.

If we didn't still play Irish sports, we'd have the greatest soccer/rugby/basketball/Olympics/water polo/hockey/bowling/tiddly winks/Protestant teams on the entire planet!

The GAA has a lot to answer for!

Elmer Blooker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120034087#Comment_120034087

Denmark felt they were robbed when Peter Schmeichal was clearly fouled for Spain’s goal but the reality is they got what they deserved and failed to qualify.

They could only draw 0-0 twice in away fixtures v Latvia and Lithuania where they even missed a penalty. We got six points from those two matches. They should have been already qualified when they played in Seville on THAT night.

edit: it was two points for a win and not three back then, had Denmark won both their games in the Baltic’s as we did we most likely would have needed to win by 3, 4 or even 5 in Belfast to qualify and that would certainly have been an impossible task, big Jack was one lucky so-and-so, everything when right for him until the Euro ‘96 campaign when it all fell apart.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120049876#Comment_120049876

I'll never forget the awful shte that was the Latvia match. Those pink jerseys are ingrained in my brain.

I don't think there is a single Irish manager in my lifetime that isnt guilty of drawing a load of games we should have won.

MOR316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120046989#Comment_120046989

That they can't build on due to the train running behind it. Not their fault. A good job has been done with The Hill but, it just sticks out due to the rest of the stands.

Then again, it's a special place in GAA folklore so it probably adds to it

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120053121#Comment_120053121

It would be nuts to "build on" the stadium has more than enough capacity as is.

I kinda like when a stadium has an unusual feature anyway as opposed to the generic look it would have if "completed".

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120045941#Comment_120045941

It was a location for downtime, not their final training camp base

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120053342#Comment_120053342

It wasn't for feckin downtime anyway, it was for squad training and acclimatisation ahead of the biggest tournament in world football.

And in the long term Keane has proven to be right in his opinion, just not in his behaviour. The problem was, the difficulty was largely the fault of the amateur clowns in the FAI at the time, not so much McCarthy and definitely not the squad.

Between the team management and Keane, both sides were right and both sides were wrong, to an extent. But all the blame belongs with the FAI. Again.

Mad_maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120053954#Comment_120053954

Keane would have erupted eventually

Grueller

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120038274#Comment_120038274

Was that shot in Orlando not Wim Jonk?

missie1234

And Clare would have won?

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120054211#Comment_120054211

It was…. And the first goal as I remember was Phil Babbs fault…. All the pace of a three legged donkey and didn’t even tackle.

What if schools and communities supported a wider range of sports. Mediocre footballers getting all of the treatments and time to go train etc.

Hermy

For me personally the biggest what-if in sport is regarding professional cycling and how different the results tables would be if it had been a clean sport.

I was a big fan back in the 90's and early 2000's but gave up on it completely after the muted response to Armstrong's ban.

And in the context of the thread I wonder if Ireland might have had more or less success if the sport hadn't become so reliant on doping from the mid 80's onwards?

Pawwed Rig

I was once prescribed a course of steroids after a minor bit of surgery. It happened that I was scheduled to run a half marathon during the period when I was taking the steroid. The difference is actually staggering. It was the easiest run I ever did and once I kept my sugar intake high I could have run another one in the same day. This is an anecdotal bit of info but it leads me to suspect that a clean athlete cannot come close to a doped one. For this reason I suspect many accomplishments in sport. The fact that there hasn't been a load of people caught in world football increases my skepticism of this and other sports.

Obviously elite sports are vastly different to my pathetic efforts but where the majority are doping (as in some sports historically) my suspicions are that the others just weren't caught.