Six years after Graham's first retirement, it saddens me to hear that he appears to be gone forever now. To call him a phenomenal athlete is probably doing him a disservice. In my honest opinion he was the greatest player I have ever seen play the game, he was simply the complete footballer. There are so many memories that Meath fans will have of Graham, it would take almost a week to go through all the wonderful things he has done for the Royal County.

Many greats have played the game of Gaelic football but none were the all-round athlete that Graham was. When he went for soccer trials at Arsenal, most of their players were in awe of his fitness, even Paul Merson and George Graham once expressed their amazement at Geraghty's talent as a sportsman and as an athlete. Gaelic and soccer were not the only sports in which Graham was a success; he also excelled in both rugby and athletics during his sporting career. It is hard to even find words to describe a genius like Geraghty but it is widely believed now that we will ever see his like again.

Right from his Meath senior debut, eighteen years ago, he was destined for big things. Little did any of us know then, that he would go on to be arguably the greatest footballer of all time - a feat which I believe he achieved, I know many will disagree. But he has had so many terrific days in the green and gold that will never be forgotten since that debut. His display in the 96 semi final against Tyrone, captaining his county to All-Ireland glory in 99, rescuing Meath in the qualifiers of 02 against Louth, scoring some of the greatest points that the great stadium Croke Park has ever seen against Dublin in 05 and then last year when he destroyed the dubs again and scored that great goal against Tyrone. These are all just a few memories that stick out in my mind but there are so many more to choose from among his 58 championship appearances.

Post shall be continued in a minute or two as there is a maximum to the number of characters one is allowed to post in the same message.

Loyal2TheRoyal (Meath) - Posts: 4522 - 24/07/2008 12:10:54    55666

Off the pitch, he made the headlines too. Although, it must be said that no other amateur sportsperson in the world has ever - in the history of sport - taken the abuse Graham has. Journalists hit a new low in Ireland when they started to write some of the stuff they did about Graham. Not that it ever seemed to affect Graham's performances. Likewise, when he did do a thing or two beyond the rules, the same writers blew everything out of proportion. For example, the whole issue with the 19 year old Aussie was worth no more than 10 or 12 lines down the side of a page but for some reason it made the front page about five days in a row. Similarly RTE done their best to turn everyone against him any opportunity they got. I think overall, though, the media's feeble attempts to disgrace the player were a resounding failure.

Graham, for some reason that I am not aware of, earned a reputation as a thug or as I often heard him called by people even in his own county, "a scumbag". When or where he ascertained this sort of profile is a mystery to a lot of us but anyone who would call him any of those names are not true GAA people. Never, have I ever seen Graham set out to physically harm or hurt a fellow player. Even the way he was described in the aftermath of the Dublin game last year was unbelievable. Another thing I must mention on the same subject - the vilification Geraghty has suffered at the hands of his own county men during Meath club games has been nothing short of a disgrace. In fact, Graham is probably the opposite to all of that. I met him once or twice and he came across as a real sound lad to me.

My last word must go to the dubs however. As famous as Graham is in Meath, he is equally as infamous on the terraces of Hill16. That is an achievement that Graham should be proud of though, as it was performances against the boys in blue that made him the hate figure that he became. There is not a Meath Dublin game in my memory where Geraghty was not a contender for Man of the Match; I believe he genuinely filled Dublin players and fans alike with fear. Fear that he would do something that they knew only he could do.

Loyal2TheRoyal (Meath) - Posts: 4522 - 24/07/2008 12:19:21    55681

class act. good post, hope you dont go and ruin it now in the second half of the post

samin10 (Armagh) - Posts: 2434 - 24/07/2008 12:21:40    55684

YAWN...ZZZZZZZZZ

Rickyknowsbest (Mayo) - Posts: 54 - 24/07/2008 12:27:39    55694

Good man loyal, I knew that beating Limerick gave ye wouldn't sway you on all things Meath

Gerro - you're a legend and always will be. Best footballer ever or even best Meath footballer, not in my opinion, but you'll be missed all the same

holymoly (Dublin) - Posts: 757 - 24/07/2008 12:30:41    55698

favorite GG moment- just before dessie stepped up to THAT free, GG walked in front of him and had a word in his ear.excellant stuff.

Rhodejim (Offaly) - Posts: 2888 - 24/07/2008 12:33:40    55706

as we've had before with the who Ciaran McDonald thing, i wouldnt say he was the best footballer ever as Canavan and Fitzgerald would have claims on that one but was a class act all the same. i doubt theres a better achievement that captaining your county to All Ireland Glory. something not to many others have done. i wont miss him terribly but sad to see great players hang up the bots.

howshecuttin (Longford) - Posts: 376 - 24/07/2008 12:45:48    55730

No doubt an excellent player. Lets forget all the other stuff tho' - esp what happened in OZ - totally blown out of proportion you reckon Loyal. Is it any wonder we get incidents like the one in Carlow?

Dubinmeath (Dublin) - Posts: 1123 - 24/07/2008 12:46:15    55731

come on now title of the thread is best footballer ever. either agree or disagree, you dont need to drag up everything from his past, he was no angel but he was a damn fine footballer. leave it at that

samin10 (Armagh) - Posts: 2434 - 24/07/2008 12:52:39    55748

no

voiceofreason (Mayo) - Posts: 588 - 24/07/2008 12:55:38    55756

Totally OTT even from Meath the following were way ahead of GG O Connell , O Rourke, M Lyons ,Flynn and others from that period.

chainsaw (Laois) - Posts: 712 - 24/07/2008 13:01:53    55774

Excellent footballer but nowhere near best ever......Maurice Fitz, Jack O Shea, Brian Mullins, Peter Canavan, Mike Sheehy, Matt Connor and of course young Mort

BluePanther (Dublin) - Posts: 39 - 24/07/2008 13:07:10    55786

Great footballer?-Yes , without a doubt.
Best ever? No , couldn't even say he was the best Meath player ever. Colm O'Rourke , Trevor Giles and Martin O'Connell would be better than Graham in my opinion.

dubupnorth (Dublin) - Posts: 1897 - 24/07/2008 13:20:17    55825

Great player alright. Did a lot for Meath but as i Dublin fan i'd say Trevor Giles was the one player i disliked more because he was IMO a much better player and it's a pity he career was shortened by injury/???

Overall i'd still rate Peter Canavan as the best footballer i've seen in my time...

Enrico (Dublin) - Posts: 148 - 24/07/2008 13:24:26    55830

Hes probably one of the best characters football has ever seen in that we all loved him and every other county hated him but as far as the best footballer ever goes? i don't think so, he'd probably be in my top twenty alright. I don't think hes even the best meath player ever, bare in mind im only old enough to vividly remember the championship from 96 on so on that heres my top 5 meath players of the last twenty years

1. John McDermott (Tireless worker, great athlete, exellent player and in my opinion best meath player ever)
2. Martin O'Connell (Got selected on the millenium team, surely that counts for something)
3. Colm O'Rourke (Massive inspirational figure in the squad, very accurate)
4. Graham Geraghty (Same as O'Rourke except he really got to opponents more, which didn't always work in his favour)
5. Trevor Giles (Best playmaker meath ever had)

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 24/07/2008 13:58:00    55862

always rated geraghty. seem to remeber him playing as a half back and scoring a goal against the dubs in 94. Boylan threw him into the forwards with Giles and he excelled there. he will certainly go down as one of the greatest ALL ROUND FOOTBALLERS in my time, rather than just as a forward. I hated him after that tyrone game in 96, i must say, however, as you said loyal he really did cause fear to his opponents when on song

Suas Sios (None) - Posts: 1558 - 24/07/2008 14:09:55    55878

IS he not playing in the Tommy Murphy

maroon2gold (Westmeath) - Posts: 551 - 24/07/2008 14:11:35    55879

Have to say I liked Geraghty as a footballer, but whether he was the best of all time is debatable. He'd certainly be in with a chance of winning that acolade. He always reminded me of John Leahy in the hurling, bit of a nasty streak, but that was the spark so to speak that made both of them so good.

derfil1 (Kildare) - Posts: 1612 - 24/07/2008 14:59:00    55939

Geraghty would put the **** up anyone...he took the stick and got on with it. He was very smart too. Rem last year, one of the Dublin footballers (can't rem who) was ****** him off so he gave him a couple of friendly "nudges", the Dublin lad gave Geraghty a nudge and got booked...great stuff! Can't think of any player with the strength and pace at the moment to match him...Dennis Glennon probly closest though he wouldn't be in same league.

Ar.an.talamh (Kildare) - Posts: 320 - 24/07/2008 15:14:17    55971

GG was just OK! Best memories were: 1. Whelan putting him on his backside and out over the sideline last year. (Just showing him who his 'overlord' from the capital is and not to mess with a real tough footballer). 2. Not putting it up to the Aussies when he came across other real tough footballers just like Whelan. As for Fay, well....... He would probably be good enough to play Junior for my club......Good, but no great shakes really! Regards, Snufalufagus....Laochra Gael

Snufalufagus (Dublin) - Posts: 8100 - 24/07/2008 16:03:49    56048