Tribute to Liam O' Connor

Xenophile

Tribute to Liam Connor of Offaly died to today at the age of 58.

What a memory he has left to all his family and friends and supporters of Offaly football. May he rest in peace.

cat in the sack

you know what they go on about fitness now, that was way better football
than whats on show today, Matt Connor Mike Sheedy never see the likes of them again.

Dirty Dingus McGee

cat in the sack wrote: »

you know what they go on about fitness now, that was way better football
than whats on show today, Matt Connor Mike Sheedy never see the likes of them again.

No it wasn't. I remember being told that the 1980 Semi final where Matt Connor scored 2-9 was a great game , it was very high scoring 4-15 to 4-10 but the standard of play was surprisingly poor and the amount of times Offaly in particular stupidly wasted possession was incredibly frsutrating.If the fitness levels of players from the 1980's were brought up to todays standards and they played a game against recent all ireland champions I'd be very confident the modern day team would win comfortably simply because teams these days think a lot more about the game an play far more sensibly and don't stupidly waste the ball.

Skill levels of players are far higher these days 15 years ago I wouldn't have been too confident if a defender was going forward to take a score back then but these days defenders are much better on the ball and you feel confident that most will score when given a chance, defences are much tighter now than in the past as well and yet scoring averages have been the same for about 30/40 years, if defences are much tighter and nobody will argue with that then you would think if skill level went backwards or remained the same that the scoring averages would decrease but they haven't which indicates forwards are a lot better than they are given credit for these days as well.

Nostalgia is what is killing reasonable analysis of Gaelic Football and All Ireland gold is a great show because continually it proves that the game wasn't as great in the 70's 80's, 90's etc as the likes of Pat Spillane think it was, yet we are fed the line about football been far superior back then.

By the way the 1982 All Ireland final was a genuinely great game of football with very high levels of skill and this doesn't get appreciated because of the finish to the game.

mickmackey1

I was about to disagree with everything you said until I read the last line The first half of the '82 final was maybe the best 35 mins of football I've ever seen, and with a way higher standard of defending than for example the Kerry-Dub semi this year.

Dirty Dingus McGee

mickmackey1 wrote: »

I was about to disagree with everything you said until I read the last line The first half of the '82 final was maybe the best 35 mins of football I've ever seen, and with a way higher standard of defending than for example the Kerry-Dub semi this year.

Dublin Kerry wasn't a typical match, both teams played a relatively loose brand of football that day.If players were much better in the past surely scoring averages would be a lot higher than they are today.By and large teams are better organised defensively these days and there is much less space for forwards to exploit today than in the past, yet scoring has remained the same.

cat in the sack

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

No it wasn't. I remember being told that the 1980 Semi final where Matt Connor scored 2-9 was a great game , it was very high scoring 4-15 to 4-10 but the standard of play was surprisingly poor and the amount of times Offaly in particular stupidly wasted possession was incredibly frsutrating.If the fitness levels of players from the 1980's were brought up to todays standards and they played a game against recent all ireland champions I'd be very confident the modern day team would win comfortably simply because teams these days think a lot more about the game an play far more sensibly and don't stupidly waste the ball.

Skill levels of players are far higher these days 15 years ago I wouldn't have been too confident if a defender was going forward to take a score back then but these days defenders are much better on the ball and you feel confident that most will score when given a chance, defences are much tighter now than in the past as well and yet scoring averages have been the same for about 30/40 years, if defences are much tighter and nobody will argue with that then you would think if skill level went backwards or remained the same that the scoring averages would decrease but they haven't which indicates forwards are a lot better than they are given credit for these days as well.

Nostalgia is what is killing reasonable analysis of Gaelic Football and All Ireland gold is a great show because continually it proves that the game wasn't as great in the 70's 80's, 90's etc as the likes of Pat Spillane think it was, yet we are fed the line about football been far superior back then.

By the way the 1982 All Ireland final was a genuinely great game of football with very high levels of skill and this doesn't get appreciated because of the finish to the game.

my point was there was no blank defence back then or putting 14 men behind the ball, or like mayos style and passing around the defence for about 5 minutes, yes Matt Connor did score 2-9 off one of the best fullbacks to play the game in John O'Keeffe , i supose you tell me theres better fulbacks out their now than John O'Keeffe:rolleyes:

cat in the sack

mickmackey1 wrote: »

I was about to disagree with everything you said until I read the last line The first half of the '82 final was maybe the best 35 mins of football I've ever seen, and with a way higher standard of defending than for example the Kerry-Dub semi this year.

yes great half of football, what people also forget was offaly were also ahead at half time in that final and were worthy winners.

Dirty Dingus McGee

cat in the sack wrote: »

my point was there was no blank defence back then or putting 14 men behind the ball, or like mayos style and passing around the defence for about 5 minutes, yes Matt Connor did score 2-9 off one of the best fullbacks to play the game in John O'Keeffe , i supose you tell me theres better fulbacks out their now than John O'Keeffe:rolleyes:

There are great players in every era, I am sure 30 years ago they were people saying that the footballers of the 80's didn't compare well to the players of the 50's.All team sports evolve and improve over time just as Gaelic Football has.

The reason teams pass the ball around these days is because its far more sensible to try and keep the ball than to waste possession.If 2 teams play and one decides to be loose with possession and another tries to keep the ball, the team who is more sensible with possession will end up exploiting the other teams looseness and won't concede possession as much themselves and therefore give themselves a better chance of winning the match.

Armagh played old fashioned football this year and they were destroyed as soon as they played against any half decent opposition.