Ulster Senior Football Championship 2020

POINTMAN

Well-Known Member
I would agree with you.

The way things are going, I'd be asking the question as to whether he is, or soon will be, the greatest player ever.
Great player- but......better than Jack O'Shea for example? Happens to be playing on the best team and not many teams can compete with the Dubs so he gets an easy ride. Just saying.....
 

Rufus T Firefly

Well-Known Member
Great player- but......better than Jack O'Shea for example? Happens to be playing on the best team and not many teams can compete with the Dubs so he gets an easy ride. Just saying.....

Allow me to respond with a very obvious retort. Jacko happened to play on the best team also. Yes, a team that few could compete with. I'm assuming that does not diminish Jacko in your eyes? If not, then why would that principle diminish Fenton?

Jacko and Pat Spillane are the two greatest footballers I have ever seen. I was never sure though who was the best for me. Fenton though is now coming into that reckoning. Fenton is unquestionably the best midfielder since Tohill. Indeed I would have him better than Mullins who previously would have been on my all time 15.

The Dubs are currently ripping up the record books to the extent that it is causing some serious questions to be asked about the future of our games as well as questions about what is behind their success. However don't let that distract you from the absolute greatness of the individuals we are watching.
 

POINTMAN

Well-Known Member
Dublin are further ahead of teams than that great Kerry team were - hence Fenton is less often up against it.
I agree he is a superb player - no dispute at all - just not sure he is as good as Jacko was.
Opinions......
 

PatMustard

Well-Known Member
Great player- but......better than Jack O'Shea for example? Happens to be playing on the best team and not many teams can compete with the Dubs so he gets an easy ride. Just saying.....

Yeah, it’s Jacko for me too. Great player and an incredible athlete.
 

Rufus T Firefly

Well-Known Member
Dublin are further ahead of teams than that great Kerry team were - hence Fenton is less often up against it. I agree he is a superb player - no dispute at all - just not sure he is as good as Jacko was.
Opinions......

Have you considered a link between Fenton's presence on the Dublin team and the gap there is to Dublin?

Agreed that it's all about opinions.
 

Armaghball

Well-Known Member
Fenton is basically the complete player. Hard to judge him against players from years ago given how much the game has changed but I wouldnt fancy many to come out on top. The lad has it all; great feet, great hands, pace, power, height and engine. Pure Rolls Royce of a footballer if I’ve ever seen one.
 

niall1980

Well-Known Member
The thing that would stop people recognising Fenton as the best ever is the fact that Dublin are so dominant. He’s definitely the best I’ve ever seen in 30 odd years of watching
 
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Eireogatron

Well-Known Member
Fenton is currently the best player in the best team ever, horse of a man, defensively, scoring, fielding, engine. He is on his way to being the greatest ever imo. Still only 27 as well.
 

Kem

Active Member
It's impossible to judge players from different eras. A top player will only get the platform and publicity playing with a top team. We all know great players who belonged to weaker counties but the lack of medals weighs against them.
Much talk about Dublin's population advantage but picking up second generation players whose family belonged to other counties is one useful if unseen advantage. Many people may not know that Fenton's mother and father are both natives of Kerry.
I think there is too much hysteria, i.e. Colm O'Rourke, about Dublin's current dominance. No-one suggested Kerry be broken up in the late 70s and early 80s. I thought Pat Gilroy was a sensible man until he came out with that amalgamation shit. Anyone booking their ticket to support the ArmaghDown championship team? As the late Ian said, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER.
Dublin's empire will end as they all do. If I were a betting man I would have a little flutter on Mayo. In this crazy year it would be typical of Mayo to do it.
 

h754136

Active Member
It's impossible to judge players from different eras. A top player will only get the platform and publicity playing with a top team. We all know great players who belonged to weaker counties but the lack of medals weighs against them.
Much talk about Dublin's population advantage but picking up second generation players whose family belonged to other counties is one useful if unseen advantage. Many people may not know that Fenton's mother and father are both natives of Kerry.
I think there is too much hysteria, i.e. Colm O'Rourke, about Dublin's current dominance. No-one suggested Kerry be broken up in the late 70s and early 80s. I thought Pat Gilroy was a sensible man until he came out with that amalgamation shit. Anyone booking their ticket to support the ArmaghDown championship team? As the late Ian said, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER.
Dublin's empire will end as they all do. If I were a betting man I would have a little flutter on Mayo. In this crazy year it would be typical of Mayo to do it.
A false equivalence.

That Kerry side was pretty much the same group of men that hung around for a decade. 11 of the 15 that started the 1978 final also started the 1986 final.

We're already seeing Dublin morph into their third incarnation since the dominance began. Only three players from 2011 are still starting. Only four from 2013. And only six (fewer than half the team) from 2015, when the current run began.

It simply isn't accurate to consider the Dublin machine in the same vein as great teams of the past. What they have created is much more powerful and enduring. And much more dangerous to the future prospects of a competitive intercounty championship.
 

PatMustard

Well-Known Member
A false equivalence.

That Kerry side was pretty much the same group of men that hung around for a decade. 11 of the 15 that started the 1978 final also started the 1986 final.

We're already seeing Dublin morph into their third incarnation since the dominance began. Only three players from 2011 are still starting. Only four from 2013. And only six (fewer than half the team) from 2015, when the current run began.

It simply isn't accurate to consider the Dublin machine in the same vein as great teams of the past. What they have created is much more powerful and enduring. And much more dangerous to the future prospects of a competitive intercounty championship.

Yes, that Kerry team came to an end spectacularly. Only won one Munster title in the next 10 seasons. Most teams were like that in recent decades: Meath, Down, Galway, Cork, Tyrone and ourselves.

You usually knew that. Frustrating as one teams success might have been over s number of years, you knew it would come to an end at some stage. Not so it seems with Dublin.

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say we could be looking at them winning most, if not all, of the next ten All Ireland’s. I dread to think what state the inter county scene will be in if that occurs.
 

ShiftYa

Well-Known Member
If Brian Fenton was born in Carlow would anyone know who he is was? Would he be half the footballer he is today? Would he even be playing football? If I had to guess it’d be 3 no’s.Like a lot of things in life the gaa can sometimes be a postcode lottery:
 

Kem

Active Member
Bull was talking to himself about it on another thread.

But yes, you’re probably right. The result was probably a foregone conclusion with most people I’d imagine.
It might be little satisfaction to them but Mayo were the better team for 50 minutes. You wonder how a manager could leave out a player of the quality of Howard. Subs made the difference. Dublin are not that far ahead of the other top teams. On that Dublin display Kerry would have beaten them.
 
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