Retiring GAA Stars tribute thread - May cause brain/neck damage

[kerry1891]

@Il Bomber Destro

Thought he struggled in 2010, he was carrying a lot of injuries around then and had played his best football before that. Great player and a loss for Down, he was some fielder of a ball and would probably had benefited more playing closer to goal but Down needed him out around the middle of the pitch. Think his All Star award in 2010 was more down to him deserving at least one over the course of his career rather than for his displays that year. Along with Dan Gordon he was the heartbeat of the Down team.

You are correct. Coulter was good in 2010 but he was super in seasons before that. was well near unmarkable.

[farmerinthecity]

@kerry1891

You are correct. Coulter was good in 2010 but he was super in seasons before that. was well near unmarkable.

The only player I have ever seen to destroy Karl Lacey. He did so in one of the early rounds in Ulster in 2010 or 2009.

[farmerinthecity]

@Kid Chocolate

i posted that late of a Friday evening, you can ignore my late Friday evening posts - see craft beer thread

You must always be drinking craft beer so.

[Il_Bomber_Destro]

My top 10 Ulster forwards of the past 15 years:

1. Peter Canavan
2. Stevie McDonnell
3. Brian Dooher
4. Paddy Bradley
5. Stephen O’Neill
6. Oisin McConville
7. Benny Coulter
8. Diarmuid Marsden
9. Brian McGuigan
10. Ronan Clarke

[farmerinthecity]

[QUOTE=“Il Bomber Destro, post: 1049418, member: 2533”]My top 10 Ulster forwards of the past 15 years:

1. Peter Canavan
2. Stevie McDonnell
3. Brian Dooher
4. Paddy Bradley
5. Stephen O’Neill
6. Oisin McConville
7. Benny Coulter
8. Diarmuid Marsden
9. Brian McGuigan
10. Ronan Clarke[/QUOTE]

That’s some bunch of players. I think Ronan Clarke was potentially fit for the top 5. Michael Murphy would have to make it - probably 2 or 3.

Just on Stephen O’Neill - what a player. There are not too many players when you see them take possession of a ball, solo, and pass you can see ability bursting through. And his wonderfully controlled easy way of kicking off either foot.

Incredible to think he couldn’t make the team in 2003.

[dodgy_keeper]

[QUOTE=“farmerinthecity, post: 1049421, member: 24”]That’s some bunch of players. I think Ronan Clarke was potentially fit for the top 5. Michael Murphy would have to make it - probably 2 or 3.

Just on Stephen O’Neill - what a player. There are not too many players when you see them take possession of a ball, solo, and pass you can see ability bursting through. And his wonderfully controlled easy way of kicking off either foot.

Incredible to think he couldn’t make the team in 2003.[/QUOTE]

Tyrone played Dublin in Croke Park in a league game a few years back, it may have been the first game of the league that year. It was a Saturday night game under lights as part of the “Spring Series” as they marketed it.

O’Neill just gave a masterclass. I know it was only the league etc but he was just sublime. Scored about 6 or 7 from play, off left and right from every angle. The injuries really curtailed him but for the brief enough time he was in his prime he was just unmarkable.

[Il_Bomber_Destro]

[QUOTE=“farmerinthecity, post: 1049421, member: 24”]That’s some bunch of players. I think Ronan Clarke was potentially fit for the top 5. Michael Murphy would have to make it - probably 2 or 3.

Just on Stephen O’Neill - what a player. There are not too many players when you see them take possession of a ball, solo, and pass you can see ability bursting through. And his wonderfully controlled easy way of kicking off either foot.

Incredible to think he couldn’t make the team in 2003.[/QUOTE]

Think O’Neill may have been out of the country in 2003. He was definitely in university in England for a period and that may explain why he wasn’t making the team, he came on and scored two vital scores in the final. Enda Muldoon was also very unlucky not to make the cut there as well.

[Manuel_Zelaya]

@Il Bomber Destro

I don’t think so, Down had a very talented core of players, they won All Ireland minor titles in 99 and 2005 and the side which reached the All Ireland final in 2010 were backboned by these two sides.

The 1999 All Ireland winning minor team had little input into the Down side that got to the 2010 final. Coulter and possibly John Clarke were the only two starters in the 2010 final from the 1999 minor team. The likes of Brendan Grant, Liam Doyle, Michael Walsh and Ronan Murtagh who backboned that minor team of 1999 and broke into the senior team shortly afterwards were in most cases long gone (or in Murtagh’s case a peripheral sub) by 2010.

[Il_Bomber_Destro]

@Manuel Zelaya

The 1999 All Ireland winning minor team had little input into the Down side that got to the 2010 final. Coulter and possibly John Clarke were the only two starters in the 2010 final from the 1999 minor team. The likes of Brendan Grant, Liam Doyle, Michael Walsh and Ronan Murtagh who backboned that minor team of 1999 and broke into the senior team shortly afterwards were in most cases long gone (or in Murtagh’s case a peripheral sub) by 2010.

Fair enough, thought the likes of Gordon and Rodgers would have been of that vintage as well. Doyle was a terrific player and would have been a nailed on starter in 2010 had he been fit.

[kerry1891]

[QUOTE=“Il Bomber Destro, post: 1049418, member: 2533”]My top 10 Ulster forwards of the past 15 years:

1. Peter Canavan
2. Stevie McDonnell
3. Brian Dooher
4. Paddy Bradley
5. Stephen O’Neill
6. Oisin McConville
7. Benny Coulter
8. Diarmuid Marsden
9. Brian McGuigan
10. Ronan Clarke[/QUOTE]

Jez I d push Coulter up as far as 3 in that list. that’s how highly I d rate him

[Sidney]

[QUOTE=“farmerinthecity, post: 1049421, member: 24”]That’s some bunch of players. I think Ronan Clarke was potentially fit for the top 5. Michael Murphy would have to make it - probably 2 or 3.

Just on Stephen O’Neill - what a player. There are not too many players when you see them take possession of a ball, solo, and pass you can see ability bursting through. And his wonderfully controlled easy way of kicking off either foot.

Incredible to think he couldn’t make the team in 2003.[/QUOTE]
No chance.

Coulter was as talented a forward as there has been in Ulster since Canavan.

[myboyblue]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3cdgZqkIlI

[myboyblue]

[QUOTE=“Sidney, post: 1049436, member: 183”]No chance.

Coulter was as talented a forward as there has been in Ulster since Canavan.[/QUOTE]
Can’t believe he’s only 32, such a shame he can’t give it one more year to see how things go now Clarke is back. He took an awful amount of punishment in that mickey mouse shit games against those neanderthals from Australia, you’d wonder did that shorten his career somewhat as well.

[farmerinthecity]

[QUOTE=“Sidney, post: 1049436, member: 183”]No chance.

Coulter was as talented a forward as there has been in Ulster since Canavan.[/QUOTE]

I would rate Murphy higher than Coulter.

And I rate Coulter very highly.

[Bisto]

@Il Bomber Destro

I don’t think so, Down had a very talented core of players, they won All Ireland minor titles in 99 and 2005 and the side which reached the All Ireland final in 2010 were backboned by these two sides. . .

I think the biggest thing was the game changed from the way Down would traditionally play …i.e with no regard for how the opposition set up…they were all about Down and playing open football…if you look at the teams that came along in Ulster like Armagh and Tyrone, they were far more tactical and methodical than Down …to me, they are like Galway in that regard - always a few lovely footballers but far too open

[farmerinthecity]

@scumpot

I think the biggest thing was the game changed from the way Down would traditionally play …i.e with no regard for how the opposition set up…they were all about Down and playing open football…if you look at the teams that came along in Ulster like Armagh and Tyrone, they were far more tactical and methodical than Down …to me, they are like Galway in that regard - always a few lovely footballers but far too open

They would probably say that they were staying true to their tradition and that is something to be applauded. Dare I say but a bit like Barcelona.

But ultimately it worked against them in terms of honours. Even the likes of Kerry, the ultimate football traditionalists, adapted to the modern blanket defence game. So much so that this year’s All Ireland was almost anti football.

With all the talk of Spillane and his puke football in 2003, Jack O’Connor approached Mickey Harte at half time in that match and said it was as perfect of a 35 minutes as he had seen from a team in Croke Park.

[Bisto]

[QUOTE=“farmerinthecity, post: 1049543, member: 24”]They would probably say that they were staying true to their tradition and that is something to be applauded. Dare I say but a bit like Barcelona.

But ultimately it worked against them in terms of honours. Even the likes of Kerry, the ultimate football traditionalists, adapted to the modern blanket defence game. So much so that this year’s All Ireland was almost anti football.

With all the talk of Spillane and his puke football in 2003, Jack O’Connor approached Mickey Harte at half time in that match and said it was as perfect of a 35 minutes as he had seen from a team in Croke Park.[/QUOTE]

Kerry played puke football against cork in second half of 2009 all Ireland final…they just locked up shop and cork were left taking pot shots from distance… they also would have bet Dublin in 2011 if they had continued going forward and trying to score more instead of the likes of Tomas o Se kicking the ball across the pitch or going backwards with it trying to run down the clock…

[Il_Bomber_Destro]

@scumpot

I think the biggest thing was the game changed from the way Down would traditionally play …i.e with no regard for how the opposition set up…they were all about Down and playing open football…if you look at the teams that came along in Ulster like Armagh and Tyrone, they were far more tactical and methodical than Down …to me, they are like Galway in that regard - always a few lovely footballers but far too open

Maybe but I think it was always a case of Down playing to their strenghts more than anything else. If you looked at the physical size of the Down team in 2010 to say the Cork team there was a big differential in size, the likes of Rafferty, McCartan, Hughes, McComiskey and Poland were all under 5 ft 10. I think it’s always been a case of Down playing to their strengths rather than being proud to play different. McCartan was actually a pretty defensive coach as Down had major deficiencies in their backline. They’ve also got Jim McCorry in this year who is another very defensive coach and it will be interesting to see what way he has Down playing.

[corner_back]

@myboyblue

Unbelievable to think of some of the Cork mullockers who won an All Ireland in 2010 and Coulter never even got an Ulster.

Pity about him. Lads like Niall McNamee and possibly Brendan Murphy* are just as good as him and have barely won a championship match in the last few years with their counties.

*it is hard to win a championship match with your county when you’re not on the panel

[Sidney]

@myboyblue

Can’t believe he’s only 32, such a shame he can’t give it one more year to see how things go now Clarke is back. He took an awful amount of punishment in that mickey mouse shit games against those neanderthals from Australia, you’d wonder did that shorten his career somewhat as well.

Coulter was well able to mind himself in those matches. Along with McDonnell he was one of the best goalscorers ever in Gaelic football. @farmerinthecity - would certainly rate him higher than Michael Murphy who despite Donegal’s success hasn’t quite become the player he threatened to be back in 2009.