[QUOTE=“Il Bomber Destro, post: 1049418, member: 2533”]My top 10 Ulster forwards of the past 15 years:
Good effort - no room for Paul Finlay though. Over the past 15 years he’s ahead of all of the bottom 3 at worst and has proven more influential and consistent than Paddy Bradley IMO.
Freeman was a better player and more influential than Finlay for me. Paddy Bradley was consistently brilliant throughout his Derry career, I recall him winning many games by himself for Derry, hitting monster scoring tallies consistently, he was as good a ball winner as I’ve seen in a full forward.
[QUOTE=“corner back, post: 1049802, member: 1572”]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[/QUOTE]
Brendan Murphy FFS 
Taggy Fogarty and Brian Hogan also retire.
John O’Brien has retired also this morning
What age is Fogarty?
33?
Would be 33 in 2015
Dropping like flys in Kilkenny, hard to see those lads being replaced, hard to also see how Shefflin is going to commit for 2015…JJ likewise
Just Henry and either or both of JJ or Jackie to go now.
Four retirements in the past few weeks, all four had become very peripheral - none of the four started the All Ireland final replay and none of the four even came in off the bench.
They’ve all been replaced already. Kilkenny have more or less a new team overnight and such is the uncompetitive nature of the All Ireland Hurling Championship, Kilkenny are still winning it year in year out with different personnel and a new team.
Having Clarke in an Ulster top 10 without Murphy on it is farcical.
Murphy already has had a longer career and has dragged Donegal over the line quite a few times. Clarke had one very good game of note. He was a fabulous talent, but never got to fullfill it.
I’d have Dooher, Canavan and McGuigan as my top 3.
[QUOTE=“caoimhaoin, post: 1049908, member: 273”]Having Clarke in an Ulster top 10 without Murphy on it is farcical.
Murphy already has had a longer career and has dragged Donegal over the line quite a few times. Clarke had one very good game of note. He was a fabulous talent, but never got to fullfill it.
I’d have Dooher, Canavan and McGuigan as my top 3.[/QUOTE]
What they achieved is remarkably similar. At 25 both had two all stars, one young player of the year and an All Ireland winners medal as well as one runners up medal each. Clarke had 4 Ulster compared to Murphy’s 3. You could argue cases for both but it’s certainly not clear-cut at this juncture in Murphy’s career as you seem to be implying.
I think Henry will retire, Jackie Tyrell has already said he is continuing this season anyway but as yet no indication from JJ either way.
The poster Ron Jones bumped into David Herity a couple of weeks ago in Cork. David said there’d be 6 retirements in total.
The 4 thus far, plus JJ and Henry.
Special place in my heart for Taggy. The filthiest swing to ever win an AI medal, let alone 7 of them.
[QUOTE=“Il Bomber Destro, post: 1049418, member: 2533”]My top 10 Ulster forwards of the past 15 years:
Brian mcguigan was probably the best centre forward I ever saw…a master at creating space for others and also moving the ball fast and accurate to a dangerous full forward line…a real team player…
What a great servant John O’Brien was for Tipp over the years. Possibly the best wrists in the country before Bubbles came on the scene.
A class act for Toome aswell when they were at their peak. A huge pity he was injured that fateful day against Ballyhale in 2007. You would imagine Toome would have an AI Club had he been playing.
Unrivaled, his decision making and picking the right pass in the right area was unbelievable. He often ignored an obvious pass to wait for the space created and then hit a deeper ball.
Would rank Blayney ahead of him.
Blayney wasn’t half as accurate or polished as mcguigan but had the same ideas alright and was great at winning breaking ball…