2handsondahurl, I have nothing against Joe Cooney. Look at the greats in hurling or football, u cannot be one of the greatest ever if all your hurling is done by 25 at county level. I have stated that the man was a complete genius. Is it not a fair point that 9 years without an all star is a major mark against him? If Galway as a county say that yer greatest ever hurler did not win an all star after the age of 25, its a sad state of affairs for your county. I dont believe Joe Canning will do that and I do believe that he will pass Cooney on all stars in the near future. Cooney from 1990 onwards did all his best hurling for his club - UNDENIABLE: twohands also in 1999, Joe Cooney started ff against clare, got 2 points off Lohan in first half and apart from that DID NOTHING. LOHAN CLEANED UP. Please if you are going to put up an arguement with me atleast have facts to countrer act mine and not comments like "What have you got against Joe Cooney" or the height of rubbish like "I watched him come off the bench in 1999 when he was pushing 40 and was able to teach the Clare lads a lesson".

inoyerright (Tipperary) - Posts: 98 - 01/04/2010 12:59:14    606299

In my honest opinion John Connolly was the best Galway hurler I have seen with Joe Cooney a close second.Joe Canning has the potential to be the greatest but we should wait till his career is over to judge that.My father used to nominate Joe Salmon,Josie Gallagher ,Seanie Duggan when he talked about great Galway hurlers he had seen.

Barnowl94 (Galway) - Posts: 3150 - 01/04/2010 13:21:15    606333

Ah lads, he's just winding ye up. Don't mind him. He has nothing else to do

eastwest (Galway) - Posts: 244 - 01/04/2010 14:04:48    606391

In my time watching Galway

1. Cooney
2. Keady
3. Canning
4. John Connolly
5. Coleman and how Galway could do with a few men like him now
6. Eanna Ryan
7. Conor Hayes
8. McInerney
9. Finnerty
10. PJ Molloy
11. Niall Mc

GalwayDownUnder (Galway) - Posts: 64 - 01/04/2010 14:32:04    606418

inoyerright, I'd say Joe Cooney got no all star in those years, because he didn't play consistently well enough at intercounty level in those seasons. The reason? While he never lost his peerless class in terms of touch and hurling skill, in my opinion he may not have maintained a supreme level of fitness from the age of 25 onwards.

I'm surprised that you think Eoin Kelly might be Tipp's best ever. Hopefully, he won't go 9 years without an all star, as you say, although he has just gone 8 without an All-Ireland medal, and wouldn't have won that one either without "help", as I said earlier.

Pope_Benedict (Galway) - Posts: 4365 - 01/04/2010 14:59:25    606461

That's a good list GalwayDownUnder. I would also add Pat Malone and Steve Mahon - neither ever really grabbed the limelight but they were very consistent performers and they always seemed so calm and composed in big games.

Gaillimh_Abu (Galway) - Posts: 1041 - 01/04/2010 16:52:34    606641

Good list Galway down under, and your comment about coleman is briliiantly accurate. Here's a link to a member of the 1923 winning team. Legend. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zr9O258c7M

eastwest (Galway) - Posts: 244 - 01/04/2010 19:44:17    606846

JC(Mark1) was the best. Dont forget the Ballinderreen man who scored 7 points in 1990 at the age of 36 in an All Ireland Final.

Mandela (Galway) - Posts: 83 - 01/04/2010 20:52:07    606947

liam burke was the greatest CLUB hurler ever. he kept kilconieron in senior for years after he brought them there. the year he left they went down and wont be coming back anytime soon. ollie canning will even tell you this.

Hurlingfanatic. (Galway) - Posts: 124 - 01/04/2010 21:32:12    606998

Joe Salmon, Billy Duffy. Sean Silke, Brendan Lynskey ;-)

Milic1888 (Galway) - Posts: 132 - 02/04/2010 09:25:04    607025

Pope_Benedict, watch that match again. Tipp had a simple tactic based on the fact that Galway had no plan B. Tipp said when Joe Rabbit catches the ball, stand in front of him and crowd him, he was never fouled. He didnt know where to turn and over carried every time, watch closely and you will see that he fouled every ball and was never fouled himself. Kevin Brodericks goal that was disallowed was because there was a blatent third man tackle by ollie fahy on one of the Tipp defenders and that is why Broderick got time to shoot. cummins would have blocked it anyway but he heard the whistle as it had went BEFORE BRODERICK EVEN GOT THE BALL. Galway are always good for excuses, sure the ball was thrown into the net in 81 (Clear handpass which was allowed at the time). Why dont ye ever just say to yerselves, we have 4 all irelands, a dispicable record in finals, an embarrasing record for a county yer size and start dealing with the issue. I challenge anybody to watch 2001 final again and you will se the ref was perfectly fair. I am not biast as 1989 was a time Galway were blaguarded off the pitch and the all ireland was robbed from ye but 2001, the best team won.

inoyerright (Tipperary) - Posts: 98 - 02/04/2010 09:38:20    607028

Mandela, Noel Lane was 35 and scored 4 points. My god, does anybody have their facts right in this site. He was a great player though and is up there with the greats.

inoyerright (Tipperary) - Posts: 98 - 02/04/2010 09:43:43    607032

GalwayDownUnder, anyone that picks 11 hurlers ahead of Ollie Canning does not know anything about hurling. 4 all stars and never played on an all ireland winning team. keady wasnt as good as Silke and didnt even make the mellinium team.

inoyerright (Tipperary) - Posts: 98 - 02/04/2010 09:49:37    607033

eastwest, theres nobody winding anybody up

inoyerright (Tipperary) - Posts: 98 - 02/04/2010 09:52:15    607035

ah joe canning is the best in galway!!!!!!!!!!!!

mking (Galway) - Posts: 3 - 02/04/2010 11:08:39    607086

inoyerright, you appear to have all the answers in relation to the 2001 refereeing performance, so can you tell me what the scoreable free was for, that Tipp were awarded immediately after Healy's second half goal.

For many hurling fans under the age of 40, or even 50, Galway hurling at intercounty level didn't exist until 1975. In the 22 yrs from '75 to '96, Galway contested 10 finals, winning 3. That "finals" record, that you describe as despicable and embarrassing, can be rationally explained. It arose because Galway only had to win 1 match to progress to a final. This has been more or less proven since 1997, as under various backdoor/trapdoor systems Galway have only reached 2 finals in 13 years.

One further question. Would you regard Tipp's record in the hurling championship since '71, as despicable and embarrassing also?

Pope_Benedict (Galway) - Posts: 4365 - 02/04/2010 12:38:19    607173

inoyerright:
Galway hurling suffers from an embarrassment of 4 All Irleand titles for the following reasons:
A) - No competition in Connacht - therefore arriving in Croke Park on All Ireland semi final day cold as regards championship hurling and playing against provincial winners so I"m sure you can appreciate the difference in match intensity that we'd have had to endure. Imagine Tipperary facing a Munster final versus Kerry every year as we had against Roscommon and then expecting massive things of them in the All Ireland series!!! Would Tipperary be as successful as they were if they had to? So alot of the facts and figures etc that you are throwing out are towards a county hasn't been on a level playing field. This point can be further consolidated in our success at Underage in recent years where by the gulf in class and intensity hasn't fully developed yet. Before the argument of Galway joining Munster in 1958 comes into play, it was hardly fair back in those days that Galway hurlers didn't have one home game throughout that time - hence the best of Galway hurlers didn't commit to the county team then.
B) - Our County Board is rotten to the core and has been for quite sometime and has only been sorted out recently, Tipperary have always had fantastic proven managers over their teams, Galway hasn't. As a result we then had the dominant years of Galway clubs dominating the All Ireland series in hurling in the 90's and to the current day, why? Because there was no point in training with the county for the sake of one game a year along with complete biased decisions made at management level and also county board level to ratify that manager. Have Tipperary teams being dominating the leaderboard over the 90's and 2000's like Galway teams? End of.
C) - Galway (excusing a couple of the last few performances ie Kilkenny in Thurles) do very well to compete at the level that they do. How can you legislate for player development in this county when there's no meaningful Provincial Championship for players to develop and have more than one game a year as was the case until the back door came in? Imagine the great teams of the mid 70's and of the 80's playing in a Provincial Championship like the current crop are? I firmly believe that we would have a hell of alot more All Ireland Titles than what we do presently. An embarrassment of riches comes along at some time when you can have say 20 or 23 fantastic hurlers of a very high standard, the 70's and 80's was our time, and as a result we've not been able to compete at the races since for the aforementioned reasons. We finally seem to be developing a squad of players all capable of doing a job and seem to have a manager who meets the requirements to manage an inter county team, all we can do is hope that things continue to improve because in fairness they can't get much worse.

oranmoreman (Galway) - Posts: 77 - 02/04/2010 13:01:46    607206

So yes Galway are an embarrassment for a county it's size and the lack of All Ireland titles however it's not as a result of the players but rather the systems in place for Galway to compete in something I hope and appreciate someone of your apparent love and knowledge of hurling will agree with and understand.

Now to clarify, yes, Ollie Canning probably is Galway's greatest intercounty hurler however he'll go along way to have the class, charisma and vision that Joe Cooney had along with the love for the man amongst Galway people. From the mid 80's onwards Sarsfields were always the people's favourite in Galway hurling something that was demonstrated in the huge crowds that followed and watched them year in year out at club level in Galway. People would pay just to watch Cooney in action. It is well known that he orchestrated the goal in the '94 All Ireland to beat Toomevara, he told Padraic Kelly where to hit the line ball to and he had Michael 'Bottler' Kenny told where to stand so as to take the pass and score the goal.

For that point I'd like to mention Padraic 'Dandy' Kelly as one of Galways greats. A fantastic stick man with super ball control and vision to match that of Cooney. All Ireland man of the match in both Club and Inter County All Ireland finals in 1993, was on the losing team in the inter county game V Kilkenny. Not been achieved by any player since.

oranmoreman (Galway) - Posts: 77 - 02/04/2010 13:02:01    607208

joe cooney was the master ...anyone who thinks joe canning is the best galway hurler ever at the age of 22 is fooling themselves!! liam burke was also an excellent hurler and he did keep kilconieran up for years!! you would also have to say tony keady was an unbelieveable hurler...galway havent had a centre back as good as him since and thats another reason galway cant win anythin

ralph_wiggum (Galway) - Posts: 44 - 02/04/2010 13:52:08    607277

also kevin broderick was magic on a hurling field ! i would have paid 50 euro into a club match just to see him play. also scored the probably the best point croke park has ever seen in 2001 against KK.

ralph_wiggum (Galway) - Posts: 44 - 02/04/2010 13:57:13    607284