[QUOTE=“Nick Rivers, post: 992330, member: 2763”]Mark Keane was a fantastic free taker, in the Colin Ryan class and a great guy to have on a team.
Main problem was the fact that the whole team drank enough to fill a small reservoir. My sister hung out with one of the players from that team and he was constantly on the lash. At the same time she shared a class in LIT with a senior Limerick player who had gone back to college in his late 20s. She innocently filled in the senior player on the drinking exploits of the younger guys and was gobsmacked when he told her that he rarely drank and when he did it was not to excess : ‘But sure I thought all ye hurler lads drink.’ She told me that he was well cheesed off. Those under-21 lads seriously destabilised the whole spirit of the senior team; their success meant that they had to be introduced into the side but their drinking made a mockery of the senior guys. Dowling’s talk on Newstalk the other night was a million miles away from that 21s team.[/QUOTE]
I think a big reason why things didn’t really take off for some of those u21 lads when they got to senior level was the way Dave Keane was shafted after that championship defeat to Offaly in 2003.Keane knew the players and he knew what made them thick and i think if given time he would have done a fine job as senior manager.Did the elder statesmen on the senior panel make any effort to make the younger players feel welcome?
The incredible investigative powers of his sister who uncovered the young players’ drinking exploits and blabbed to the more senior players was too much for the board to handle.
The incredible investigative powers of his sister who uncovered the young players’ drinking exploits and blabbed to the more senior players was too much for the board to handle.
Simpletons. :rolleyes:[/QUOTE]
Wait, young GAA players like to drink alcohol? WTF? When did this happen? Should we organise a mass or something?