English needed Fox and Kelly needed Corbett.
Two (four) greats playing in different eras. Impossible to make a definitive judgement as to which of them was the best.
In fairness he was marking Philly Larkin in 03.
Kelly was fantastic. I marked him once in a u21 challenge match. I’ve been cleaned a few times but this guy was mesmeric. He wasn’t especially fast, but if he touched the ball at all, half a second later he’d be five yards away from you stroking it over the bar. It made it worse that I was about 4 years older than him!
I’d say back in the days of Nicky English Waterford were so shite they feared Nicky English’s wife.
ah lads i’m surprised at ye for getting the rise so handy off an auld waterford fucker! sure them cunts never won fuckall. he has two more all ireland medals than that jersey kissing imposter of an eoin kelly that they had.
The team sporting world is packed of instances of players who didn’t win the honours they deserved due to the standard of other players on the team.
We didnt farmer. She was from Waterford - the Cork Road. So we had nothing to fear there.
True.
A wise man once said, “only a fool discusses hurling with someone from a county with less than 20 All Ireland Titles to their name”.
[QUOTE=“downyourthroats, post: 1052342, member: 1497”]True.
A wise man once said, “only a fool discusses hurling with someone from a county with less than 20 All Ireland Titles to their name”.[/QUOTE]
I think in Kilkenny they set that figure at 30.
in the '89 munster final - they tried to tomahawk English, the savages. it was all they were fit for the crayturs.
We were the Black and Tans in Blue and White according to Kevin Cashman.
Eoin Kelly spent a decade in Brian Murphy’s pocket.
[QUOTE=“downyourthroats, post: 1052332, member: 1497”]English needed Fox and Kelly needed Corbett.
Two (four) greats playing in different eras. Impossible to make a definitive judgement as to which of them was the best.[/QUOTE]
Nicky the pick of that four for me even allowing for curry lamb antics
Only an absolute pillock uses this tactic. Kelly fouled the ball for years. UNlike you though I don’t think that really takes away from his standing. And I agree he may be looked at differently had he been surrounded by better players. I personally think SHeflin is over rated.
[QUOTE=“downyourthroats, post: 1052342, member: 1497”]True.
A wise man once said, “only a fool discusses hurling with someone from a county with less than 20 All Ireland Titles to their name”.[/QUOTE]
:rolleyes:
I was on board with all of that until the last sentence.
I am reticent to write anything good about Tipperary, especially when it comes to Hurling but Eoin Kelly transcends all of that in my world. The ability he had was second to none, there will be lots of debate about he’s not as good as x, y z. Yes he never achieved as much as someone like Henry but if Henry had Eoin Kelly’s natural ability then you would be looking at the most perfect form of Sportsman ever created. Similarly if Eoin had Henry’s application and hunger then he would have been even better.
Quite simply a joy to watch in his prime, scored points no other player in the history of the game could manage. He carried a very poor group of players for more than half a decade and it never fazed him in the slightest. There was a game against Limerick in Thurles [06 possibly] where he killed a puck out on his hurley at shoulder height, swivelled once and put it over the bar from 45 metres out over his shoulder. He made it look so easy such was his natural ability.
I honestly don’t think we’ll see his likes again.
o_O
Eoin Kelly was a fine hurler but, having seen both throughout their careers, I’d consider English the better of the two.
Kelly’s free-taking could be erratic at times and he often fluffed simple scores at vital times. In particular, the final game of the trilogy v Limerick in 07. The game was deep in extra-time, Limerick led by a point and Mark Foley was scandalously blown for a shoulder charge on Seamus Butler. The free was no more than 50 metres out and Kelly failed to reach the goals with it. He missed straightforward frees too often IMO.
He had great wrists and a serious eye for goal but there were a lot of defenders who usually got the better of him with regularity, the aforementioned Damian Reale and Brian Murphy, to mention two. His fitness was often suspect and, other than the Limerick game in 2006, which has been flogged to death here by the Stonethrowers, I don’t recall him singlehandedly winning games for Tipp as much as many have claimed.
English, in his prime, was a fantastic hurler. Bear in mind, for the first 3 or 4 years of his career, Tipp were utter shite and he was the sole driving force behind them in the early to mid-80’s. He took some terrible timbering also. There were so many occasions when he turned games in favour of Tipperary, much more than Eoin Kelly. Even on days that they lost, he very nearly pulled it out of the fire for them - the 85 Munster Final in Cork being an example.
As a Limerickman, I respected and admired Kelly but I feared English.
eoin Kelly was a genius…he had wrists of iron…he was very slow and found it hard to get away from his marker but once he turned and shot few were able to block him down fully…it was gas watching paul Kelly play wing back for tipp as literally every ball he got he drove into eoin…