Irish Indo - Greatest players of all time ranked in every position

Hurling

1 Tony Reddin

2 Bobby Rackard

3 Nick o'Donnell

4 John Doyle

5 Tommy Walsh

6 Ger Henderson

7 JJ Delaney

8 Lory Meagher

9 Jack Lynch

10 Christy Ring

11 Henry Shefflin

12 DJ Carey

13 Jimmy Doyle

14 Nicky Rackard

15 Eddie Keher

Football

1 Stephen Cluxton

2 Enda Colleran

3 John O'Keefe

4 Sean Flanagan

5 Tomas O'Se

6 John Joe O'Reilly

7 Martin O'Connell

8 Jack O'Se

9 Mick O'Connell

10 Sean O'Neill

11 Sean Purcell

12 Pat Spillane

13 David Clifford

14 Peter Canavan

15 Kevin Heffernan

The shorter inter county season is really forcing some of these so called Gaa journalists to scrape the bottom of the barrel. This is the type of nonsense a national school student might undertake as a project, not a journalist in a national newspaper. What a load of codswallop. Breheny involved enough said.

Breheny spends the winter making up these sort of lists (or regurgitating them from previous articles); you'd think he'd just retire, he hasn't written anything worth reading in years

Was Kevin Heffernan better than Mickey Linden, Stephen O'Neill, Gooch Cooper, Bernard Brogan, Steven McDonnell, Mattie Forde. I think not. Didn't have any of their skills. I watched some clips back of Heffos play. And it was typical of the play 40 or 50 years ago. Headless lumping the ball up the pitch.

Obviously Leaving out Mick Mackey is just not a serious selection . He was the greatest of the 1930s and invented the solo.

Kyle Hayes should probably be on it now and he's only 26. He's better than JJ Delaney as it stands and he's only coming into his prime. By the way I'd still have JJ on.

I think the reason Heffernan gets included is that he changed the role of corner forward somewhat as he was a roving corner forward and didn't stay in the full forward line all the time so it's more the tactical innovation he introduced as a player that gets him credit as much as his ability.

I'd put Stephen O'Keefe or Nicky Quaide in goal.

No Ken McGrath or Tony Browne? On this alone the list should be dismissed

Even if we had seen in person every player of the last 100 years it is an act of futility to compare players of different eras to each other anyway. If you put a modern top inter county player in their prime up against a legend of yesteryear in their prime in the All-Ireland final of 2025, the legend of yesteryear gets destroyed, there is no doubt. However that shouldn't be reason to look down on the legend of yesteryear in anyway, they were playing an almost different sport in a different era with all that comes with it.

If Nicky Rackard for example was born in 1998, grew up in the same era as Cian Lynch for example with its improved standard of living and medical knowledge, the same sporting environment as Cian Lynch, where money is no object, was exposed to the vast increases in knowledge of strength and conditioning, diet, recovery times etc. that have occurred since his time, benefited from the best modern coaching, using modern equipment, on modern pitches, to the modern interpretation of the rules, etc. etc. would Nicky Rackard had gone on to become a legend of the game in this modern era?

Obviously we can't ever know the answer, but I think it would be highly likely. The point is you can only compare players to their peers of the same era, imagining who would win in a duel between John Doyle and Aaron Gillane is pointless when you consider the eras in which they play, and this is why I hate lists like the one that led to this thread. You could even argue that the increased rate of change in the game in recent years has meant that even comparing players as recent as the late 90s/early 00s to modern players for example is now pointless

There's a reason why the print media is almost exclusively against the split season.

The longer the season goes on, the more they don't have to write fluff pieces like that.

Well no Matt Connor makes it redundant from the get-go, and I understand these lists like to cause controversy but…

Also, GAA is not like soccer where the best players will gravitate towards the best teams. They are stuck with the county they were born in, which makes it a bit daft to have it so concentrated on certain counties, especially in football which would be more widely played. Mattie Forde would be one name that would jump out.

You could have five thousand different teams in there and I appreciate its just his opinion but I find Breheny very inconsistent as gaa pundit.

The love in for Clifford is also strange. He has not even gone through third of his career yet

With all of these teams i can never understand how someone can pick someone who likely played before they were even born.

But thats not the case with the journalist who wrote the piece.

Goalkeeper is a tough one. The 90's was a golden era in that position.

There is a huge amount of hate from certain areas of the country for Clifford. He has one below par game and next thing he's no good.

Yeah agreed -

I think with these things you either suspend the disbelief, or you just ignore it.

You cant obviously compare across eras. You can say who was the best of their time, or who was the most influential. Like that thing of Kevin Heffernan 're-inventing the role of the corner forward'….but was he any good?

Funny enough - the all time highest scorer in all Ireland championship football is Cillian O'Connor, and not just that but his scores per game outperforms all other players in the top 20 highest scorers - and yet he is nowhere near this list. Just food for thought.

Explain?

As i said it comes from two particular parts of the country

Never won anything on merit? Care to explain that one? What exactly was it based on? Out of interest what county are you from?

I agree with your first sentence. Don't agree with the rest.

It's not hatred. It is obviously jealousy and begrudgery. I have been playing and watching football for the past 40 years, and I haven't seen anyone as good/talented/skillful as D Clifford. I have never heard of neutrals turning up to Croke Park to watch a junior club match, basically cause one particular individual was playing. He (with help from the brother) brought their small little club to All-Ireland victory. He scored 4 goals and 4 points in a minor All-Ireland final. That is 16 points contributed in a game by one person. In my opinion, he has gone on to prove the promise that he has shown as a youngster. He's not going to be spectacular in every game, and detractors will try to point to a couple of performance that were off colour.

Dublin dominated for over a decade and their fans contended that they were the best team ever. It was a kick in the balls to them that Clifford came along 8 years ago, taking the plaudits of being the best player at an individual level, and a lot of those fans tried to dampen his abilities whenever they could. It's understandable and human nature. But in reality, the majority of GAA fans can see Clifford as he is - a player that can do things on the pitch that no other player can do.

Just to note that I am not from Kerry, and not a Clifford family member. Have never met him; I just have great admiration of how he has performed on the pitch.

The only thing you got right there is that you're not from Dublin:-

- He scored 4-4 in an all-ireland final - intercounty. Against elite competition. I didn't mention anything about club matches or other senior matches, where you will often come across mis-matches.

- I have never heard anyone say to me that they are going to Croke Park, for the sole purposes of seeing one player, and to be present in the event that he might do something special like he did against Tyrone couple of years ago. People of go t matches as a neutral in anticipation of a good match, or there could be a couple of intercounty players involved, or it may be one of the bigger clubs in Ireland. But I am talking about Fossa. If it was Fossa in Croke Park, and someone like say Paul Geaney was playing, how many people would go as a neutral.

- I didn't say anything about you being jealous. Don't flatter yourself by comparing yourself to him. I don't know where you are from, but I am referring to rivalries. Of course, a person from one county begrudges success in a rival county. That is where most of the comments from Dublin personnel is coming from. Nothing wrong with it. It's natural. But might as well point out what it is, rather than writing it off as hatred.

- No player that I have ever seen has performed as consistently great as he has between the age of 19 and 25 (which he currently is). I'd be interested if you could name these great players that have done his equal in those 6 years.

myself and a friend have been giving out yards about Breheny for years and his "journalism" with GAA he loves putting the boot into some counties and makes darlings of others. anyway he is just a very poor GAA analyst its like hes stuck in 80s and 90s. his tripe is so bad that myself and my friend were messing at the end of the inter county season saying it wont be long til marin breheny has a top 20/50/100 lists in irish indepnedent. we were thinking he must be running out of road soon with them lists, we were waiting for the "top 20 left footed players ever in GAA" or "the top 50 redheaded players EVER in GAA" . Top 20 underrated/overrated players. top 10 what if moment in GAA EVER! absolute nonsense just cover all the GAA thats still going on. maybe the two weeks before christmas and christmas week is ok for that tripe, not when the GAA club season is coming to a climax.