Unpopular GAA opinions you hold

AngeGal wrote: »

Niall Finnegan was the most under rated forward of the last two decades.

That's the lad who played for Galway right ?

Most under rated is difficult to judge, but I would have thought he was given reasonable credit?
I mean he's not as good as Donnellan, Joyce, de Paor, Ja or maybe even Savage right ?
He never won an All star , is that the gripe?

Ok fine, piss all over my OCD dreams... I hate unfinished things and I love Croke Park. It just deflates me looking at it sometimes.

Ok another proposal.

Reinstate the Connacht hurling championship with Galway Intermediates representing them and the senior teams for the other four counties.

The winner qualifies for the All Ireland intermediate series.

Deedsie wrote: »

Reinstate the Connacht hurling championship with Galway Intermediates representing them and the senior teams for the other four counties.

The winner qualifies for the All Ireland intermediate series.

I would love to see a Leinster Champ for non - Liam McCarthy teams same with a Connacht + Ulster same idea..Play them after the Christy Ring,Rackard cups

TCDStudent1 wrote: »

I cant see that being unpopular with anybody.....

Roscommon, Leitrim, Mayo and Sligo senior hurlers may see it as an insult was my thinking

Amprodude wrote: »

Tipp werent the wonder team that everyone expected them to be after 2010
and aren't consistent as a unit.

No argument from me there (as a Tipp fan). The talent is certainly there from the backs to the forwards but they haven't kept it together. In years ahead it will be looked back at as a missed opportunity, especially if we fail to win anything this year.

Something wrong with Galway Senior hurling teams since 1988.

Dublin won't be serious All Ireland contendors ever.

Wexford hurling is a shambles.

Offaly don't have anything like they had in the 1990s.

Lot of negativity there but I agree with Galway in a sense. Right now, Joe Canning will go down in the books as a serious talent that likely won't win an AI but never say never. I'd swap the Wexford and Offaly opinions around. Offaly are in a worse state right now.

While most people think the 'golden era' for hurling was the 1990's, I think that the 2000's were the real golden era.
The players throughout the 00s were some of the best of all time.
Dj, Henry, O Hailpin, Joe Deane, Eoin Kelly, Brendan Cummins, Ken Mcgrath, John Mullane etc

Amprodude wrote: »

Kilkenny hurling is the benchmark each year and the standard everyone needs to be at.

Nothing controversial abut that.

Christy Ring cup is a waste of time.

Tell that to the teams playing in it.

Eddie Brennan was always underrated as a player.

Disagree, he is rightly rated and lauded as an excellent forward and a great goal-poacher, and it's a little understandable that he might not always have got the credit he deserved with so many great players around him.

Mike Duignan was an average player and is a so called expert.

I'd agree that he wasn't anything extra special as a player but he is really good in the co-commentator role.

AngeGal wrote: »

Niall Finnegan was the most under rated forward of the last two decades.

Even as a Galwayman I can't agree with that. Finnegan was consistent and never let us down but what you're saying is an exaggeration. A bit under-rated yes but most under-rated of the last 20 years is stretching it.

Deedsie wrote: »

Roscommon, Leitrim, Mayo and Sligo senior hurlers may see it as an insult was my thinking

They might, but the fact is that even Galway's second-string squad would beat all of them. In fact, such is the huge gulf between the top teams and the rest in hurling, I'm pretty sure you could take the pick of those 4 counties and the Galway intermediates would still beat them, while the seniors would destroy them.

zetecescort wrote: »

95% of hand passes in hurling are actually throws

95% might be a slight exaggeration but well over 50% are throws but do you really want refs blowing every time and slowing down the game? It would ruin games and I think all teams are happy with the status quo on this one as all teams benefit at times.

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Dj Carey was overrated

He found it hard to score against Cork in finals.

Despite winning the last 3 or 4 U21 Ulster titles Cavan Seniors wont improve much more

Galway will win a Senior football All Ireland within the next 3 or 4 years.

rebel girl 15 wrote: »

Its because football is easier to play, requires three times less skills than hurling. To be fair, Ulster are doing a lot to promote hurling

Ive only just discovered the thread and am reading through but had to stop at this one. What absolute nonsense.

Are people from Kilkenny born more naturally skillfull than people from Kildare above them who only play football? What about people from south Galway, are they more skillfull than the people born in north Galway who play football instead?

The argument that football is more popular because it requires less skill is nonsense. I'd hazard a guess that 80% of the footballers in the country have never honestly tried to take up hurling. If they gave it a go, whose to say they couldnt play it as well as the lad from an hour down the road? Hurling is a harder game to master certainly, and it requires a player to learn the skills at a younger age. But football isnt more popular just because thousands of young lads failed at Hurling and said 'oh lets take up football instead'. It's historically always been more popular to watch and play, regardless of the skilll level or how entertaining it is.

I enjoyed reading all those. Ive a few unpopular ones.

1) The '45 and particularly '65 system in GAA is an absolute joke. It's not right that in hurling and to a lesser extent football, the vast majority of deflected wide balls are automatically turned into a score. Every good u-16 free taker can now put over a '65.

An Example: A player solos through and a defender bravely dives across his pointed shot with the hurl and deflects the ball wide. The reward for the defenders skill and bravery for stopping a point for the opposition is a near certain point for the opposition. That is utterly ridiculous and I was delighted when a foreigner recently, upon watching hurling for the first time, came to the same conclusion unprompted.

How to remedy it? Well this suggestion would get laughed out of any pub in rural Ireland, but how about a sideline cut in from the corner flag, similar to soccer? Or even the 21 yard line. Same goes for football.

2) Hurling is an excellent sport and entertaining as hell. No other sport can provide finishes like the one we had Sunday, yet hurling provides them every year. However, it has its flaws no question. It's too easy to score. In no sport should you be able to score from inside your own half regularly. 3/5ths of the frees awarded on the pitch can be scored directly from. That's a ridiculous ratio.

We play both Football And Hurling on the same sized pitch. However, the pitch size is perfectly sized for 15v15 football. Its not perfectly sized for Hurling, as the players can simply hit it too far. Its kind of like Golf where courses must be altered as everyone can now hit it longer. In Hurling, hurls and sliothars are continiously becoming more refined to aid distance and accuracy, yet the size of the pitch remains the same. Something may have to be done to standardise and change hurls.

There is a little to much randomness in hurling. Aimless pucking the ball upfield just looking for distance. Poesssion skirmishes on the ground can 10-20 seconds with multiples players jumping around the same small area trying to gain posession. Who ultimetely gets the ball is somewhat random.

3) This current Dublin football side is the best we've seen in donkeys years and will be remembered as such. Cluxton has always been an excellent goalie, from long before he started the free taking and kick out experiments. He was an excellent shot stopper from the time he was 20 and always competent in the air.

4) Kerry were the team of the 00's without question. The won the most by a mile and its only 3 short games where they were outdone tactically in 2 of them, that is stopping everyone from lauding their greatness. The effort Tyrone had to put in to each AI win meant they were spent the following year.

Two players oft mentioned even on this thread were slightly overrated though. Marc o'se was an excellent footballer but not a 10/10 corner or full back. He simply got compltely roasted on a few occasions (Kelly, Meehan, Brogan once), something which never happned to the very best in history. Daragh o'Se was also a great servant but Cavanagh, McGrane, Walsh and McDermott all got the better of him in big games, a couple to a huge extent.

Seamus Moynihan and Tomas O'Se were the greatest footballers of that side. Cooper was never the very best forward in the country at any stage, but was always in the top 4/5. Therefore he must go down as the best forward in the past 20 years. Bernard Brogan is probably second tbh, though many dont like him.

5) Its scary to think how underrated footballers like Emylyn Mulligan, Declan Browne and even Mattie Forde are/were. The simple fact that they were always up against the oppositions best marker (often double marked) and still always made an impact is crazy.

Nidgeweasel wrote: »

The minute silences before games have gotten out of hand and need to be eradicated.

Id agree and the national anthem also. No other countries do it, only for big matches.