SOKY’s attitude is typical of Ballygunnar’s approach. He could have gone down as an all time great goalkeeperif he dedicated himself more to the county.
None of the rest you mention approach the performance or longevity levels of Tony Browne or John Mullane, fine hurlers they may be.
Maybe the lads don’t want to sacrifice everything for IC hurling?
Doesn’t pay the bills unless you’re Limerick
The Ballygunner fellas prefer to do their thing in the muck and shite of winter in front of 3,000 people in empty cavernous stadiums rather than in summer on hard pitches in front of full houses. It’s an odd choice but it’s their prerogative.
Just club mentality. Is it any worse than not trying a leg for the club that reared you?
Philip Mahony was never going to be an inter county player once Derek was gone. Too slow.
Soky is the only one of that quintet who’d make a difference for the county team in fairness.
They get more recognition for doing it in November than they would in April/May.
Ballygunner have been shown live on TV at least three times already this autumn with probably another 2-3 games to come. Waterford were locked away on GoGo TV for much of this years Munster Championship. Their games v Clare and Tipp were two of the saddest Intercounty spectacles you could wish to see.
The average hurling fan would find it far easier name the current Ballygunner team than the Waterford team.
Most of the Ballygunner players just aren’t quite good enough for top level intercounty.
They are a very good club team, well-coached but they also have considerable resources in comparison to a lot of their competitors.
A lot of them have been in and around the panel and done nothing really. In fact, some of them probably got in ahead of better players just because they play for the dominant club team.
Dessie & Patrick Fitzgerald are the exceptions, O’Keeffe should probably still be there. And I did right Philip Mahony but even he would have been borderline. The rest… not convinced.
You never really know until or unless they actually try.
Limerick fellas just know.
Agreed. I admire them for putting Ballygunner first. Mount Sion lads fuming is no shock.
Corofin lads barely committed to Galway when they were going well too. Its not just a Ballygunner thing.
Then there are also a lot of lads from Clubs who aren’t successful pulling out of Intercounty.
So you have to ask the question is it the Intercounty schedule that is the issue…
There were hardly any of them good enough to play for Galway, they were just very good club footballers. Other than Fitzgerald, any lad good enough was involved - Gary Sice a great example. I’d say Ian Burke is greatly regretting his return to intercounty last year as it confirmed long held suspicions on his ability.
Very same thing happening in Down too, Laverty convincing Kilcoo players to line out for Down but the same lads then getting shown up as out of their depth at Tailteann Cup level.
On the other hand without naming names why do some top inter county players struggle at club level?
Because they’re surrounded by shite
Shur they’ve basically all been in there and didn’t stand out.
This idea that they’re all staying away of their own accord isn’t wholly true as most were only subs in the first place.
Peter Hogan could work in a certain system but there are better players in around the Waterford panel already. But he’s definitely good enough to be a regular sub.
And you definitely can make some sort of call as to whether a player has what it takes based upon their attributes and style of play, shur intercounty managements have to do that every single year.
Dessie, Patrick FitzGerald and Soky are obviously inter county standard. Mikey and Kevin Mahony are borderline. Tadgh Foley might make a go of it. Ian Kenny is no better than what’s on the county panel already. Barry Coughlan was never inter county standard and the whole county team was mutated to protect him. Ronan Power is the worst player on the team. Conor Sheehan and Paddy Leavey have had their chances. Peter Hogan has had multiple chances and always flatters to deceive.
They have a great conveyor belt of military medium winter hurlers that they can swap in and out as the occasion demands like Harry Ruddle and Billy O’Keeffe but for all their dominance they produce relatively few county hurlers.
Mount Sion and Erin’s Own when they were at similar levels of domination were contributing 7 players to the county team and the county team were winning all Irelands.
Agree with all of that, 100%.
There’s a reason club games are broadcast in Irish on TG4. It’s a minority pursuit. It’s fine that that’s where BG want to pitch themselves. It’s their prerogative.
For all their faults, between the 2017 and 2020 All Ireland Finals which Waterford played in, 7 different individual Ballygunner players started across those two finals - SOKY, Kenny, Coughlan, Mahony x2, Hogan & Dessie.