Michael Donnellan was overrated.
Great engine but barely any football in him.
[QUOTE=“farmerinthecity, post: 1027809, member: 24”]Michael Donnellan was overrated.
Great engine but barely any football in him.[/QUOTE]
harsh…the amount of skill it takes to solo the ball at that speed cannot be underestimated…
[QUOTE=“farmerinthecity, post: 1027809, member: 24”]Michael Donnellan was overrated.
Great engine but barely any football in him.[/QUOTE]
Bit harsh as he was exceptional in 98 but he was a flash in the pan as far as being a great footballer goes. Joyce was an outstanding footballer though and I would disagree with the assertion he only did it for a short period of time. Fallon was a great player but again I think his performances at the top level were for a hastened spell.
Exactly, how many people have we seen similar since, very few.
Outrageous comment from farmer.he maybe didn’t have the longevity of Fallon or Joyce,but fucking hell his best was amazing at times.
[QUOTE=“farmerinthecity, post: 1027809, member: 24”]Michael Donnellan was overrated.
Great engine but barely any football in him.[/QUOTE]
If had the temperament of Joyce he would have been one of the greats. Not the most stable of characters but his footballing skills could never be questioned.
Always struck me as someone for whom it came too easily and as such got bored of it very easily. No questioning his skill though.
Would you ever fuck off* Sid for fuck sake.
*apologies if you are on a deliberate wind up.
[QUOTE=“caoimhaoin, post: 1027812, member: 273”]Exactly, how many people have we seen similar since, very few.
Outrageous comment from farmer.he maybe didn’t have the longevity of Fallon or Joyce,but fucking hell his best was amazing at times.[/QUOTE]
Brian Dooher. Only difference is that Dooher was a lovely sweet kicker of the ball.
EDIT: Paul Galvin was another.
Fallon was a truly gifted player until he did his cruciate in 2000. Never the same afterwards.
Joyce was arguably the best forward in the game round 2000/2001. While he always remained capable of producing the goods sporadically after that, he never reached even close to the same heights again after 2001. It happens. Stephen O’Neill suffered in a similar manner after 2005. While the class was always there, perhaps the drive wasn’t.
Donnellan went downhill around the same time as Joyce hut his decline was more pronounced again. Don’t think he was even on the team anymore by 2005?
His free taking technique was horrible.
Padraic Joyce is the most skilful and probably the best full forward of the past 25 years. The nonsense and revisionism that’s going on here is breathtaking. I would suggest before there’s any more nonsensical comment, a video/DVD is watched of the second half of the 1998 All Ireland final, the brilliant goal from Joyce early in the 2nd half that turned that game on its head when Galway looked beaten. Follow that up with watching the 2001 final. The 10 points scored by Joyce, 9 in the 2nd half - 5 from play is the finest individual 2nd half display I’ve seen in an All Ireland Football Final.
Fallon scored one of the best points I have ever seen in Croke Park in 1998 against Derry. Outside of the left boot from the right side - near the sideline.
What does technique matter if he was able to put the ball over the bar and between the posts?
I couldn’t give a shite hwo are free takers technique as long as he can score.
[QUOTE=“tazdedub, post: 1027828, member: 312”]What does technique matter if he was able to put the ball over the bar and between the posts?
I couldn’t give a shite hwo are free takers technique as long as he can score.[/QUOTE]
Donellan missed mainly.
[QUOTE=“Horsebox, post: 1027815, member: 1537”]Would you ever fuck off* Sid for fuck sake.
*apologies if you are on a deliberate wind up.[/QUOTE]
Apart from 2008, what did Joyce do post-2001?
2002: Not much
2003: Not much
2004: Not much - played well against Tyrone in a league semi-final
2005: Decent year
2006: Not much
2007; Nothing
2008: Good year
2009: Not much
2010: Not much
2011: Not much
2012: Played well against Roscommon - nothing after that
2013: Not much
Undeniable that he didn’t fulfil his potential after 2001.
The only forward I have seen better than Stevie McDonnell is Canavan.
Then he shouldn’t have been a free taker.
Technique only comes into question if the the player is shit at what they are doing, I bet if Donellan knocked over 90- 95% of frees and still had the same technique you wouldn’t have said anything and I can bet that his technique would have been copied.
There’s no revisionism here - nobody has argued that Joyce wasn’t outstanding in the 1998-2001 period. It’s his contribution after that which is in question.
[QUOTE=“tazdedub, post: 1027833, member: 312”]Then he shouldn’t have been a free taker.
Technique only comes into question if the the player is shit at what they are doing, I bet if Donellan knocked over 90- 95% of frees and still had the same technique you wouldn’t have said anything and I can bet that his technique would have been copied.[/QUOTE]
But he didn’t. So all that guff is irrelevant.
As Kinvara Passion has said, Galway football fell off a cliff after 2002. The senior guys like Tomas Mannion, Kevin Walsh, Gary Fahey and Sean Og de Paor left a huge void in leadership stakes which was never replaced and the other two star players Ja Fallon and Michael Donnellan were bedevilled by injury (the same could be said of what should have been the next sensation of Galway football, Michael Meehan). In the second half of Joyce’s career, Galway were being knocked out of the championship by the likes of Wexford, Westmeath, Antrim and Donegal (when they were still a pub/drinking team before the Jim McGuinness era of prohibition) and routinely beaten by Sligo in Connacht.
For the rest of Joyce’s career, he was akin to Declan Browne in Tipperary, having to do it all. Up until the day he retired, Joyce was still the go to man for Galway and invariably about their best player every day he went out.