Not that he has no brain heās a bit on the yellow side of things. I wouldnāt ever start him but bring him on with 10/15 to go, heāll get away with it then he has a lot of pace and can take a score.
As another poster alluded to, I think the problem is Coughlan - Iād put Tadhg Burke in there. Philip Mahony can also be turned quite easily too and has very little pace, I have concerns about him.
O Keeffe
S Fives
Burke
Connors
D Fives
A Gleeson
C Gleeson
Barron
Moran
Walsh
Mahony
Shane Bennett
Curran
Devine
Shanahan
100% agree. Think id be saying top class is sustained excellence over seasons with ability to influence results almost single handedly
Edit original Q was about top class not just good forwards
We also need to get a lot more from play out of Pauric Mahony he seems to be holding back a bit or something since his leg break, hitting frees and loose scores isnāt enough.
If you take out Clare which as I said was a freak year really I donāt think any team has won an All Ireland recently without at least one forward who had been performing excellently in the years leading up to that win
Thats grand. So we are agreed the answer to your question is as recent as 2013.
My view, it will potentially happen more often as coaching and tactical approaches develop which maximise delivering on stengths of team and maybe disguising inadequacies elsewhere i.e. not having a top class forward
Clare 2013 was unusual but I think its doing it a disservice to call it a freak. They made most of what they had which is all you can ask
Conor McGrath will probably go down as Clareās best forward of the post-Loughnane era and would have walked onto any team in the country for most of this decade.
As for the exact definition of a top class forward, I donāt know. I presume youād consider it a forward who scores a few points from play in every game, regularly sets up scores and is just generally very very hard to mark.
I actually do think Waterford have very good forwards; Curran, for example, is capable of racking up big scores but the Waterford system really doesnāt lend itself to inside forwards getting massive tallies. McGrath relies on the likes of Moran & Barron in midfield, as well as the subs, to notch decent tallies. I donāt think itās the lack of individual talent in the forwards that will see them fall short, itās a system that chokes them that will.
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It was a freak year. The two teams that dominated the 4 years before and 3 years after 2013 were knocked out early. Clare made the most of it and fair play to them but they wouldnāt have got near Kilkenny or Tipp at their best
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The Cork team that won in 84 would have bate em as well but its as irrelevant
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2013 is the only year between 2008 and 2016 that Kilkenny and Tipp werenāt in All Ireland semi finals at least. How is that not a freak year?
Not nightmares. But it is bound to be an issue for him the next time they line out against him.
Getting such a trimming can have a huge effect on even the best of players
I know.
I just said he is a prospect.
Neither was good enough in 2013 to get to the final. Its as pointless an approach as anything to say clare was a freak when both tipp and KK were bate twice each. Its not like they didnt enter
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What has that question got to do with anything?
Are you Northern Irish/Italian?
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The definition of āfreakā is āa very unusual and unexpected event or situationā. Thatās exactly what Tipp and Kilkennyās performances in 2013 were
What about the 20 odd years before 1987. Weāre they freak years?
Or between 2001 and 2008???
Weāre they freak years cos Tipp were not massively competitive???
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You said forwards were not their issue. Its a very relevant question
