Thanks Shane.
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It depended who was the manager in large part. They were very invested when Derek was running the barbecue club. Davys Irelands fittest family approach isn’t as popular. My sources tell me that the crunch point for Pauric was his refusal to do a beep test.
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Not an idea. SO’S started young, though.
I thought you’d enjoy SO’S ‘Toolkit to Survive 2023’.
‘Toolkit’ is an unfortunate locution, I would have thought.
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He started instead of Mullane in the 04 semi final. He was 18 at the time.
We’d have been better off starting with 14 men that day.
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He was too young and too green for it alright. Way out of his depth.
We also started iggy in that game as Brenner had a bit of a melt down after the Munster final.
Iggy was poor too. Kilkenny targeted him and it paid dividends.
We nearly pulled it out of the fire. At one stage when we were on a bit of a fight back Flynn scored a point from the middle of the field but Mac Suibhne gave a free against him for steps. Incorrectly imo.
Mac Suibhne always knew what side his bread was buttered on.
I thought so too.
He did us against Cork in 99 as well. Gave Cork a vital free when we were roaring back into the game.
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He did, of course.
A great pity Waterford did not win that game, as they really should have. Ye might well have beaten Cork.
Good post. However i think there are/will be a few exceptions to the rule. Eoin Kelly - Mullinahone certainly is. I could also see Pat Horgan and TJ Reid playing into their 40s at club level.
Eoin Kelly was more or less done with Tipp at 31 which kind of suits my point.
TJ Reid is becoming less and less of a force with Ballyhale as injuries mount up. They’ll probably keep starting him for a few more years though to score free’s and penalties. People thought Shefflin would stay going forever too but the end came quick enough for him in the finish.
Conor Laverty is another classic of the genre who fits my arguement. Finished with Down at 31 but was still flying around for 80 minutes in an AI Club final at 37 or 38.
A lot of the Dublin lads who stuck at it till 34/35 to win 5 in a row were more or less busted for their clubs within a year.
That’s the great thing about sport, we’ll never know. But it wouldn’t have been beyond Cork to beat us in the final.
Mossy Quinn is another good example of a player giving up/fading from inter-county at a relatively young age and keeping going as a force at club level for a long time.
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No. But the matter comes back to the point I always make. The sooner Waterford got to an AIF during the 2000s, the more likely they were to win one at some point – even if they lost the first outing on that day. Took far too long for Waterford to get there. 2002 and 2004 were both a great chance – 2002, maybe even more so.
To be fair, the John Mullane tangle in 2004 counted as desperate luck. Brian Murphy was seemingly tramping him out of it altogether.
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Aaron Kernan packed it in with Armagh in 2014, aged 31, and is still a main man for Crossmaglen at 39/40.
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