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Having seen Tg4 yesterday where they picked the 3 best footballers of the last 25 years , i was wondering who people tought were Offalys best footballers of the last 25 years. Unfortunately Matt Connor would nt be counted because of the accident.

I Suppose it would have to be between finbarr cullen (edenderry) or vinny claffey (doon)

leinsterman wrote:I Suppose it would have to be between finbarr cullen (edenderry) or vinny claffey (doon)

Would Niall McNamee or any of the 82 team who played on through the barren years feature

alot of the 82 team had a lot of football played some of them were there in 71,72,78,79, maybe padraig dunne played till about 87.
brendan lowry another great player. it would be hard to pick one. niall McNamee good player but did'nt win anthing with offaly

Cathal Daly would have to be in the top 3. He's Offaly's only football allstar of the last 25 years.

I don't think that Niall McNamee can be considered. He hasn't really done anything yet with Offaly apart from 2006. I know that he hasn't a great supporting cast but to be considered great he needs to do a bit more. Look at Declan Browne for tipp over the years. Niall definately has the talent when you consider his displays for Rhode.

I think that the answer lies with the 97 team - Finbarr Cullen and Vinny Claffey. Sean Grennan also has strong credentials considering the length he played with Offaly and the range of positions (and also for the belt on Ciaran Whelan (Ha Ha)). McManus also comes into the mix for his dedication but I wouldn't consider him in pure terms of talent. It has to be Vinny for me marginally over Finbarr.

Tar Man wrote: McManus also comes into the mix for his dedication but I wouldn't consider him in pure terms of talent...

I wouldn't agree with this, simply because to me a footballer is judged on what he does, rather than what he has the potential to do. McManus had a few bad days at the office down the years, but for sheer effectiveness he's the winner for me. I can think of several games where Offaly either got a result or else came damn close to doing so on the back of Ciarán's dominant performances.

Niall may yet take the crown off him (he's still only in his mid twenties after all) and God knows there were days where I wished Ciarán was taken off rather than left on to dig a deeper hole for himself and Offaly, but he was an unstoppable force at times and made more of an impact than Vinny and Finbar who would be close runners up for me.

1 .niall mcnamee
2.cathal daly
3.vinny claffey

I'd go for Finbar Cullen.
He made the game look easy, always seemed to be in the right place for breaks, used the ball cleverly and was capable of bursting up and taking a score when the forwards were having a bad day.

A few others deserve mention.
- Peter Brady was the most skilful player, but wasn't helped by being mostly on poor teams.
- Vinny Claffey while not having Brady's golden boot, was a great man to hold off a defender and make scores.
- Ciaran McManus put in some thundering displays, had a few off days too but his commitment is outstanding.
- Cathal Daly was a master of corner back play. Always seemed to win the 40-60 balls against the best corner forwards in the game.
- Niall McNamee has the ability to be right up there. Still a bit inconsistent though.
- Sean and James Grennan - They were offered the role of the Mitchell brothers in Eastenders years ago, but luckily chose Offaly football instead!

Frank Weir

frank weir played in the 60's. that not in the last 25 year's

bracknaghboy wrote:Frank Weir

Beat me to it Bracknaghboy

leinsterman wrote:frank weir played in the 60's. that not in the last 25 year's

Leinsterman, check out his avatar - he's talking about the Frank Weir of the 90s (mainly), who did indeed represent the County.

Taking it a little more seriously though, I think it would be a toss-up between Brendan Lowry and Finbar. Two super footballers.

To be fair to Niall McNamee, he could well feature when the same question is asked 10 years from now, but he's still a young man with lots of football left to play.

Johnny Mooney - Rhode - He had it everyway.