[QUOTE=“Manuel Zelaya, post: 1027844, member: 377”]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.[/QUOTE]
Point taken about core players departing the scene but it’s not a valid comparison - Tipperary was a football wasteland which didn’t even bother fielding a team for a qualifier in 2004. Galway had players from two under-21 All-Ireland winning teams in 2002 and 2005 coming through to bolster the ranks. Bar a resurgence in 2008 they’ve been serial underachievers in the last 10-12 years and part of that was down to Joyce simply not being near the level he was at from 1998-2001. Poor management in fairness was undoubtedly another reason.
I must say that I find such a statement incredible.
McConville was consistently very good for Armagh over a number of years and was an excellent footballer.
Ja was very gifted but only played for about 3 or 4 years due to injury.
I have already made my comments on Donnellan. Fair enough if you don’t agree but to say that Donnellan or Fallon were in a ‘different stratosphere’ to McConville is clearly ridiculous.
[QUOTE=“farmerinthecity, post: 1027848, member: 24”]I must say that I find such a statement incredible.
McConville was consistently very good for Armagh over a number of years and was an excellent footballer.
Ja was very gifted but only played for about 3 or 4 years due to injury.
I have already made my comments on Donnellan. Fair enough if you don’t agree but to say that Donnellan or Fallon were in a ‘different stratosphere’ to McConville is clearly ridiculous.[/QUOTE]
Has there been a half forward who has scored as prolifically as McConville has, even just from play alone? Maybe Connolly might have done something similar in the last year or two but McConville was an exceptional player and he was a great worker too.
[QUOTE=“farmerinthecity, post: 1027848, member: 24”]I must say that I find such a statement incredible.
Ja was very gifted but only played for about 3 or 4 years due to injury.
[/QUOTE]
Ja Fallon was playing senior for Galway as an 18 year old in 1992 the same year he was the star performer on the Galway U21 team that narrowly lost the All Ireland final. He was there for about 12 years before he tired for the first time in or around 2004, (although he was never the same player after he did the cruciate in 2000). 2000 was the only year I can recall him missing through injury. He had a comeback then around 2006. Certainly remember him featuring in 2007 when Galway lost the Connacht final to Sligo.
There was a fellow that played in the Kerry half forward line (probably a long before you were following gaelic football), Pat Spillane who was a prolific scorer from play.
