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Name Your Best 15 Gaa Players Over The Past 40 Years

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Replying To The_DOC: "Without Seán óg de Paor and/or Deccie Meehan there no way Galway would have won one if not both All Irelands. Without Lee Keegan, I'm fairly sure Mayo would still have lost all those finals though." No way Galway win without one of their half backs? Seriously. Class players but a daft post there. Like ridiculous. Any more random scenarios for us? TheFlaker (Mayo) - Posts: 8607 - 20/10/2025 16:02:25 2640840 Link
Replying To tirawleybaron: "Team is from 1985 onwards - Kerrys golden years team were washed up by 1986. That rules out all of them really Stephen Cluxton Mark O Se Mick Lyons Keith Higgins Lee Keegan Seamus Moynihan James McCarthy Brian Fenton Anthony Tohill Trevor Giles Maurice Fitzgerald Peter Canavan Colm Cooper Michael Murphy David Clifford. Subs: Rory Beggan Seán Marty Lockhart Jack McCaffrey Sean Cavanagh Larry Tomkins Conor McManus Squad Members Darran Fay Kieran McGeeney Kevin Walsh Ja Fallon Mickey Lindon" To have no Galway player in the starting 15 or even the next 6 subs and to have two Mayo players is recency plus proximity bias :D FullOfPorter (Roscommon) - Posts: 436 - 20/10/2025 16:31:07 2640845 Link
Replying To TheFlaker: "No way Galway win without one of their half backs? Seriously. Class players but a daft post there. Like ridiculous. Any more random scenarios for us?" You have repeated exactly my point! Re read my post. The_DOC (Galway) - Posts: 824 - 20/10/2025 16:48:13 2640849 Link
Replying To tomsmith: "Tomsmith here An y Poster that would leave Murphy Donegal ,Mc Donald County Mayo and Tohill L, Derry of the best 15 players in the past 40 years knows very little about the skills of the Gaa. All three of these lovely footballers were tops in Skill and delivery ( and I dident include Sheanie Johnston of Cavan and Kildare fame ) in my lie up as the greatest exponents of theGaa game" You don't know much either, firstly there is no L in the County Derry and next you don't know much if you put Tohill in front of the great Sean Cavanagh. Saynothing (Tyrone) - Posts: 2451 - 20/10/2025 16:48:24 2640850 Link
Replying To The_DOC: "You have repeated exactly my point! Re read my post." Eh i can only hope you are joking. Hope. TheFlaker (Mayo) - Posts: 8607 - 20/10/2025 17:29:19 2640856 Link
Replying To FullOfPorter: "To have no Galway player in the starting 15 or even the next 6 subs and to have two Mayo players is recency plus proximity bias :D" I'm not completely sure about recency bias when it comes to picking out great GAA players, to be honest the way football went regarding defensive tactics and uncontested handpassing I'd say it would be harder for players who played in the more tactical era to get noticed. GreenMan1987 (Meath) - Posts: 117 - 20/10/2025 20:55:18 2640880 Link
Replying To GreenMan1987: "I'm not completely sure about recency bias when it comes to picking out great GAA players, to be honest the way football went regarding defensive tactics and uncontested handpassing I'd say it would be harder for players who played in the more tactical era to get noticed." That point would tend to affirm recency bias on this specific thread, if 'recent' players are appearing more regularly in selections, despite your theory regarding the perceived difficulties in 'getting noticed' in the modern stew that is possession retention gaelic football. Pope_Benedict (Galway) - Posts: 4456 - 21/10/2025 12:29:04 2640943 Link
Replying To FullOfPorter: "To have no Galway player in the starting 15 or even the next 6 subs and to have two Mayo players is recency plus proximity bias :D" The usual general critisism - name the player(s) that should be dropped for all these great Galway lads. The Galway team of 1998 - came from no where that year and were done by 2002. In no estimation of greatness does having 3 or 4 good years make you one of the greatest players of a 40 year period. tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1633 - 30/10/2025 11:32:40 2642224 Link
Replying To tirawleybaron: "The usual general critisism - name the player(s) that should be dropped for all these great Galway lads. The Galway team of 1998 - came from no where that year and were done by 2002. In no estimation of greatness does having 3 or 4 good years make you one of the greatest players of a 40 year period." tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1632 Tomsmith here Yes you are correct one trick wonder players wee not included in my first post and while Mayo have been Bridesmaids may times in Gaa competitions only Mc Donald stood out in my opinion. Many other footballers in Mayo had excellent periods of playing GAA but only for a short duration and none of these had the killer instinct to drive Mayo on to won an All Ireland .. tomsmith (Cavan) - Posts: 4114 - 30/10/2025 14:55:10 2642261 Link
Replying To tomsmith: "tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1632 Tomsmith here Yes you are correct one trick wonder players wee not included in my first post and while Mayo have been Bridesmaids may times in Gaa competitions only Mc Donald stood out in my opinion. Many other footballers in Mayo had excellent periods of playing GAA but only for a short duration and none of these had the killer instinct to drive Mayo on to won an All Ireland .." Ah now Tom! Your team of the past 40 years (1985 to 2025) included Paudie O Se - retired in 1987 (3 years of the 40) Dermot Early Snr - retired in 1985 John Joe Reilly died in 1952 Mickael Kearns retired in 1978 Matt Connor retired in 1984 While all would be in with a shout of some other time frame - we are talking the last 40 years Also, this is supposed to be best 15 players - not best 15 players who won the All Ireland or some other makey upey qualification. Since the footballer of the year was introduced Only David Clifford, Brian Fenton and Trevor Giles have won it twice Of the players that have won it There have been Goalkeepers: S Cluxton (19) Full back line Defenders: M O Se (07) Half back line defenders: S Moynihan (00), D Meehan (01), K McGeeney (02), T O Se (04), K Lacey (12), J McCaffrey (15), L Keegan (16) Midfielders: MDMA (13), B Fenton (18&20), P Conroy (24) Half forwards: M Fitzgerald (97), Trevor Giles (96 &99), Ja fallon (98), P Galvin (09), A Brogan (11), KMcGeary (21) Full forwards: P Canavan (95), S Mc Donnell (03), S O Neill (05), K Donaghy (06),B Brogan (10), J O Donoghue, A Moran (17), D Clifford (22 & 23) You cant ignore lads who were the best in the country on multiple years, nor can you ignore lads from 1985 to 1995 So in hindsight S Cluxton Mark O Se Mick Lyons Seamus Moynihan Lee Keegan K McGeeney K Lacey Brian Fenton Anthony Tohill Trevor Giles Ja Fallon Peter Canavan Maurice Fitzgerald Michael Murphy David Clifford. If you insist - I can have K McDonald in for Michael Murphy. Can't have the 5 retired/dead lads you included though tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1633 - 30/10/2025 16:01:44 2642272 Link

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