Loads of players drift from minior/u21 teams.

what happened to the great Laois minor teams of 96/97,03??

Players below dissperared off radar after promising underage careers
Conrad Murphy,Phillip Clifford-Cork,Liam Brosnan, BJ Welsh,Gavin Beasley,Ian Twiss,-Kerry,Beano McDonald,Stephen Kelly-Laois,Declan McCrossan,Raymond Mulgrew-Tyrone,Thomas Cleary-Westmeath,Alan Kilcoyne,Michael Molyles,Alan Duggan-Mayo,Paul Fitzmaurice-Longford

HughHunt24 (Cork) - Posts: 841 - 28/04/2015 11:40:54    1718389

Living in Laois I can tell you ,
Beano Mcdonald is still playing a big of club football he is about 35 now he had a sucessfull inter county career and won a Leinster with Laois in 2003 they shuld have won 2004 and 2005 as well but just failed by a point in both games ...He got a very bad leg break(was shown live on TV) in 2004 in the last 16 against Tyrone in croker and never fully came back to what he was altough he did start the Leinster final of 2007 against Dublin and continued on the county scene for a few years.

Stephen Kelly got a serious back injury in that he just couldn't shake off and had to retire early from the game both at club and Senior level it was such a pity as he was a class act who could score from anywhere with his lef peg.

Colm O'Rouke said he was the best prospect he'd ever seen as such a young age and reminded him of himself with his style of play!

BigJohn.6_8 (Galway) - Posts: 704 - 28/04/2015 16:04:16    1718569

Beano was a cracking player. like his first cousins Donie Brennan and donie Kingston, all played senior and minor championship for Laois in the same year. Chris Bergin was another lad that dissapeared off the radar

HughHunt24 (Cork) - Posts: 841 - 29/04/2015 13:16:03    1718895

Id say a lot of lads move overseas, get married/kids or find jobs which all have impacts on playing time

DoireCityFC (Derry) - Posts: 1580 - 29/04/2015 13:23:27    1718904

Decky Mc Croussan had to go work in England at the time, was a fantastic player. Raimy Mulgrew found it difficult to break on to the tyrone team and hold a position. He went to OZ for afew years and is back now playing club football in Tyrone

redhanddefender (Tyrone) - Posts: 913 - 29/04/2015 13:50:18    1718913

The commitment level at senior is just on a different level to that of underage - once you finish 2nd level education you are either travelling to college or work, studying, have money to spend on other interests, emigrate, marry, have kids, etc.

My own club had about 6 consecutive years of successful u16 and minor teams that we thought would be unbelievable when all reached senior, but it just didn't work out that way. About 6 players from that group of about 35 are still playing for the club.

cavanman47 (Cavan) - Posts: 5010 - 29/04/2015 14:11:05    1718928

Promising young players discover beer in college and don't want to give up their entire lives to GAA (which is what is required nowadays to be competitive).

I do think that rather than pay for play, the GPA should push the Government to provide tax breaks for intercounty players if they play for ten years similar to professional rugby players. ITs the least they deserve for what the intercounty scene provides to the country.

tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1105 - 29/04/2015 14:45:27    1718946

From Dublin alone -
Wayne McCarthy
Mark Vaughan
Paul Conlon
Mark Davoren

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 29/04/2015 15:03:04    1718954

"I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again"

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 29/04/2015 15:12:14    1718959

Conrad Murphy - the prime example of player burnout....injuries, emigration and i guess no longer had the hunger. but overall played way too much too young
Phillip Clifford - only put together a few good seasons.....hunger i say was his main problem
Liam Brosnan - lovely club football but just fell short of intercounty standard
BJ Welsh, - attitude, laziness, didnt put in workrate for intercounty unlike his close friend bj keane
Gavin Beasley - never heard of him
Ian Twiss - lovely footbalelr but not senior intercounty stanrd

woops (Kerry) - Posts: 2073 - 29/04/2015 15:23:44    1718965

Woops - Did Philip Clifford suffer from Malnurishment?

Aidan Kilcoyne (not Alan) got dropped by James Horan and spend some time in UK, but looked all set to make return last year when he suffered a bad injury just before throw in in a club match.

Michael Moyles must be near 40 now so would not be involved now, managed minor juniors. Probably burned out from playing sigerson for 15 years.

Never heard of Alan Duggan.

xxx (Mayo) - Posts: 1275 - 29/04/2015 17:45:18    1719037

xxx :-) possibly alright!

woops (Kerry) - Posts: 2073 - 29/04/2015 17:49:24    1719038

I dont think this thing of young players going off the radar is a big myth.
The demands required at inter county level these days simply mean that many young starlets become disillusioned and simply dont believe that the effort is worth it, and I dont blame them.
I shudder to think of how many great young GAA stars we will never see.

joncarter (Galway) - Posts: 2692 - 29/04/2015 19:16:34    1719065

A lot of lads can't make the step up to senior football after a great minor or u21, some are with clubs that are intermediate and junior level and the gulf up to senior is huge so lads just fade out, others emigrate or a serious injury means they only can play club football, it's a pity because so many counties have great minor and u21 players but miss out when senior panel is picked or chosen

riverboys (Mayo) - Posts: 1389 - 29/04/2015 21:41:40    1719095

Moyles career was cut short due to a serious knee injury as far as i remember.


Could you possibly mean Alan Durkan from Breaffy ans not Alan Duggan ??

HurlerOnTheFenc (Mayo) - Posts: 282 - 30/04/2015 09:03:06    1719113

I remember when we were U16/Minor, same era as Savage/Meehan/Donnellan, the star man for Galway was John Concannon, never seemed to make it when it came to senior though

Rosineri1 (UK) - Posts: 2099 - 30/04/2015 09:44:45    1719118

Always questioned the attitude of Mark Vaughan,was prob correct in the end..

Wayne McCarthy has been living in Meath for years and had a decent career playing with Simonstown Gaels..

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 30/04/2015 09:46:11    1719120

ziggy32001
County: Meath
Posts: 2716

1719120
Always questioned the attitude of Mark Vaughan,was prob correct in the end..

Terrible attitude alright.

In terms of ability he had it all but he got found out in the end.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13704 - 30/04/2015 09:58:51    1719125

Kerry had Paddy Curran and Barry John Walsh best minors for years but didn't have the best attitude.

kerryrowz (Kerry) - Posts: 833 - 30/04/2015 11:37:35    1719159

Seem to recall that Paddy Curran had two serious knee injuries and then two operations. Might still be playing good club football in Cork. Lovely forward.

Gaa Fan (USA) - Posts: 749 - 30/04/2015 14:33:22    1719228