Just to add to the other teams mentioned, the Galway team of 98/01. Joyce, Donnellan, Fallon with Clancy, Savage and Finnegan...plus John Donnellan on the bench for good measure!! Best team who played the most enjoyable football until ugly football took over.
Surely the best half forward line in the last 30 years of Donnellan, Fallon with Clancy.

changingtosligo (Mayo) - Posts: 75 - 11/08/2011 12:33:41    1008947

gotmilk
County: Fermanagh
Posts: 163

1008910
am i the only person who remembers that in 05 mulligan was very poor up untill he scored that goal again dublin. If im not mistaken he was taken off very soon after scoring that goal as well because he had done nothing else in that game. Yes he was very good in the replay semi and the final but would i don't think you can count a month of football as a reason to state he was lethal.
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Mulligan was about to be taken off in the game until he scored THAT goal, he was man of the match in the next 3 games if I remember right... That's exactly the point, he has stood out in the big games where it's all to play for.

You could declare that Bryan Sheehan is the greatest player of all time for playing great against Limerick, but that would be a complete lie as he has yet to show up in the big games especially Versus Tyrone in 2008.

Enoryt (Tyrone) - Posts: 41 - 11/08/2011 12:52:41    1008972

If you were to have a pick of all forwards of the last 30 yrs the gooch would have to be first on the list. There were other exceptional forwards(esp canavan) but the gooch is a more complete footballer. The gooch is the kind of lad who could sit in the middle of the 40 and direct play all day or put him in the full forward line and he could get you the winning goal(with either foot) or kick points from further out (with either foot.) A lot of great forwards had one or two things they were good at , the gooch has the lot. Nobdy comes close when it comes to vision. He also has a bag full of medals, all stars and other personal awards to validate my point.

JohnMitchel (Dublin) - Posts: 178 - 11/08/2011 13:27:35    1008998

The best Kerry Forward Line ever.........?
According to David Brady and Liam Hayes its not even the best forward line in Ireland today!!

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 11/08/2011 14:01:35    1009053

RenardRedHand
County: Tyrone
Posts: 460

1004217 No simple as .
Kerry in 86 Power , Liston , Spillane , Ogie Moran and Sheehy
Tyrone in 05 Canavan , SON , Mulligan , McGuigan , Dooher
Down in 1991 Linden , James McCarten , Ross Carr and Blaney
I've heard the Galway team of 1966 had a fantastic team but im too young to have seem them play . Although it's the same forwards ( except for Darren OSullivan ) the Kerry foward line 06 - 08 was fitter , faster and could hit endless shots .

Think the current kerry forward line is alot stonger than it was between 06-08 as players like declan o'sullivan and gooch are hitting the peak of their powers!! doesnt make much sense either not to include '09 in your above statement when kerry had tommy walsh and tadgh kennelly and gave one of the greatest attacking displays of all time against the dubs!!

as_ky (Kerry) - Posts: 535 - 11/08/2011 19:26:25    1009320

Liamwalkinstown
County: Dublin
Posts: 2599

1009053 The best Kerry Forward Line ever.........?
According to David Brady and Liam Hayes its not even the best forward line in Ireland today!!

According to Liam Hayes Seamus Moynihan was useless. Enough said. Sorry, who is David Brady?

Corrxxx (Kerry) - Posts: 584 - 11/08/2011 20:55:21    1009381

Not the best forward line ever but some of the best. Hayes and Brady ? God help us!

Real Kerry Fan (None) - Posts: 2957 - 12/08/2011 09:16:43    1009452

My best Kerry forward line would be:

Pat Spillane - Maurice Fitzgerald - Mikey Sheehy

Colm Cooper - Eoin Liston - John Egan

With replacements:
Sean Walsh, Kieron Donaghy, Declan Sullivan & Mick O'Dwyer

dingle1 (Clare) - Posts: 805 - 12/08/2011 11:38:27    1009555

Potentially the forward line at the moment could be one of the greatest.
Declan and Paul 2 of the best half forwards kerry have ever produced ably assisted by a workaholic Donnadh.
Then Gooch and Donaghy 2 forwards than can dismantle any team alongside Darren who is having the best season of his career.

But alas this year it is not working out that way!
Declan & darren have been in schintallating form with Donnadh Walsh becoming am important mainstay of the Kerry team with his work rate.

But for the other 3 they have t pick up their form.
Gooch was unreal in the early part of the season but he has been carrying knocks all summer and has been minding himself.
galvin is just coming back from injury so the jury is still out on him.
As for Donaghy he ha been very poor this year and possibly could be bench warming against Mayo. If anything just to give him a kick up the arse.

woops (Kerry) - Posts: 2073 - 12/08/2011 16:17:17    1009876

Kerry had a better forward line in 2009 than they do now. Galvin was flying fit, Kennelly had more to offer than Donncha Walsh, Tommy Walsh was/is a better all-round footballer than Donaghy and Cooper's own personal form was much better than it is now.

Other than Kerry in 2009 the only other comparable set of forwards in the modern era for me are Tyrone in 2005 who were equally as impressive. However neither had the all-round consistent talent of the Kerry four-in-a-row unit.

eviemonkey (Cork) - Posts: 308 - 12/08/2011 16:51:24    1009913

Very good comment by eviemonkey, I also think Kerry 09 forwards are away stronger with Tommy Walsh and the form of Galvin and Cooper showed that year.
I think Mayo will turn them over

andhuglas (Cork) - Posts: 26 - 12/08/2011 18:38:57    1010026

Tommy walsh was a huge loss but you couldn't pick out a player who would easily make way for him. Also,anyone disregarding donnacha walsh's contribution has obviously never watched this kerry team play.

mikeoc (Kerry) - Posts: 567 - 12/08/2011 18:49:15    1010031

JohnMitchel
County: Dublin
Posts: 149

1008998
If you were to have a pick of all forwards of the last 30 yrs the gooch would have to be first on the list. There were other exceptional forwards(esp canavan) but the gooch is a more complete footballer. The gooch is the kind of lad who could sit in the middle of the 40 and direct play all day or put him in the full forward line and he could get you the winning goal(with either foot) or kick points from further out (with either foot.) A lot of great forwards had one or two things they were good at , the gooch has the lot. Nobdy comes close when it comes to vision. He also has a bag full of medals, all stars and other personal awards to validate my point.

i'd probably pick canavan over cooper. canavan could do all those things that you mention cooper could do, plus he had to carry tyrone for years before the great minor team came through.

Alvin (Donegal) - Posts: 218 - 12/08/2011 18:50:04    1010032

The gooch and canavan are and were great but neither of them would touch maurice fitzgerald. He could kick equally well of either foot,shoot from long distance,deliver quality footpasses and he also had the strength and agression to mix it up. Probably the most skillful footballer of all time.

mikeoc (Kerry) - Posts: 567 - 13/08/2011 13:03:48    1010317

Maurice Fitzgerald was without doubt the most skillful player of all time, but he wouldn't get in the Kerry forward line for me cause he lacked inter county pace, hence why he couldn't get his game under paudie in 01/02 , the greats never get dropped but he did.

clondalkindub (Dublin) - Posts: 9926 - 13/08/2011 13:29:41    1010342

Down 1960: Sean O'Neill, James McCartan, Paddy Doherty. Any of those three could win a match on their own.

Gabriel. (Down) - Posts: 412 - 13/08/2011 16:37:07    1010460

Very valid point about teh current Kerry forwsrd line, The two O'Sullivans are in fine form and In my opinion Donnacha Walsh is def teh most under rated player in Ireland. Paul is only coming in match fitness and both Cooper/Donaghy are only ticking over, frightening thing is we are knocking up very big scores 20+ points per game is impressive regardless who one is up against. If and big if Donaghy and colm hit form it would be fairly frightening. Rem 2009 Colm was quiet very quiet even dropped for being a bold boy but with 39 seconds of that quarter final the whole thing changed.

As for the best ever, differant times and some had differant styles of play etc hard to really compare but a good forward line is onky as good as the midfield parings ability to win ball to supply an then there is the actual ball itself. In saying that though Kerry have produced som ecracking forwards, The lynches, Egan, Bomber, Sheehy's Power, Oige, Spillane, Maurice, Darragh Cinneide, Mike Frank, and now the current generation, I often think of the likes of Timmy Fleming and players who graced our fields from 1987-1995 that never got the appreciation or acknowledgements they derseved as Cork had the upper hand back then.

Horsebox77 (Kerry) - Posts: 5491 - 13/08/2011 17:40:39    1010488

Cooper is one of the best Kerry forwards ever. He has a 4 AI titles and scored many points since he started playing for Kerry in 2002.
I would put him on the same level as Liston and Spillane.
How do you categorize Donaghy? Sometimes he plays midfield. He seems to have a very different style compared to Cooper. But that maybe why he is so successful at scoring and creating scoring chances for Cooper.

mikeyjoe (USA) - Posts: 415 - 14/08/2011 14:51:08    1010749

They aint far off it. They have being in 7 finals in 9 years (6 of them in a row) and if they beat Mayo that will make it 8 in 10 years and that would not be possible without unreal forwards pure and simple. Goouch, Declan Sullivan are the main men but dont forget Donaghy and Galvin have picked up footballer of the year awards.

It is not possible to keep playing to the same standard year after year and like this year when one or two of them are not playing at there best a new star seems to emerge ie Darren o Sullivan.

Alot of people have mentioned other forward lines from the past like Tyrone, Down which had great players but to be honest they never put back to back Titles together or made it to six finals in a row so should not be classed as the best forwards of all time. To be considered to be the best forwards of all time there should be alot of consistency in winning and playing at the top stage on a regular basis. Although Tyrone had outstanding forwards they never go to two finals in a row but Kerry got to 6 so how anybody would say Tyrone had better forwards is madness.

kingdom4life (Kerry) - Posts: 13 - 14/08/2011 18:41:30    1010900

Well Kevin MacStay doen't seem to think so, he thinks Alan Dillon & Andy Moran would walk onto the Kerry team

moomoo (Kerry) - Posts: 4023 - 15/08/2011 10:22:17    1011138