What is your take on your own county?

Waterford with me. Narrowed it down to 4

Peter O'Connor (Athletics) 

John Tracey (Athletics)

John O'Shea (Football)

Ken McGrath (Hurling) 

Few notable omissions. Wouldn't have Sean Kelly in the mix as he was a drug cheat but as Deise316 will probably point out they were all drug cheats in cycling back then and still are now. John Keane who was Waterford only player at centre half back in the team of the millennium. Francis Connors would be a world renowned show jumper with many international honours. 

Winner for me is John O'Shea. won everything at the highest level playing football and a model professional to any kid in the game. Peter O'Connor is a fascinating story and well worth reading up on.

In fact we probably have 95% of the countries top sports stars

 

Shapes and Shipwrecked not in the reckoning?

what about Davy Fitz in Clare. surely in the mix! 

 

More chance of stretchryan making the Tipperary one

Impossible..I'd humbly go for 
 

Edit: Never mind

I'd say Laois is a tough one 

So you won't have a cyclist because of drugs, but athletics is ok

Then a GAA player, the most recent doping case in Ireland was a GAA player

Then you pick a footballer.....

Dublin Mount Rushmore:

Barney Rock

But he played rugby. 
 

That's why it's a 'convo'.

John Keane (on both hurling teams of century & team of millennium, impossible to leave out)

John O'Shea

John Treacy

Sean Kelly (christened John James Kelly, so 4 John's)

A lot of people simply don't remember how big cycling (and, for that matter, showjumping) was in Ireland in the 80's, and in that era, Kelly's achievements were huge, winning nearly 200 professional races and a grand tour (Vuelta), ranked No.1 cyclist in the world for more than 5 years- they actually changed their ranking system as a result, he had built up such a lead on the rest of them that he could have sat at home for a few years and still been ranked first. Take the point on the drugs, but they were all on them then, they're still on them now, it is still a tough sport, and was tougher back then. 

Had no idea who Peter O'Connor was, but wiki says he was born in the UK and grew up in Wicklow, later worked as a solicitor in Waterford after his athletics career ended, think connection to WD is tenuous enough !! 

Shapes is a Waterford icon in his own lifetime 

Would probably go Katie as our greatest myself

Keith wood

Kieran Fallon 

Gary Brennan.   

I will let family guy pick the hurlers but Lohan's, McMahon, jamesie, tony kelly must all be in contention.  

Dublin is too hard to pick.   

Shay Given

David Gallagher (All black Captain)

Seamus Coleman

Roy Keane and Sonia O'Sullivan are automatic, as is Christy Ring but before my time.

Jimmy Barry Murphy would be the earliest Hurler I remember, him of Sean Og would be the leading hurling candidates.

Football would have Billy Morgan or Dave Barry (football and proper football), probably too soon for the O'Donovan brothers. Denis Irwin too far behind Keane. Probably a rugger thrown in, O'Gara

Mickey Linden

Pat Jennings

George Best (pretty sure he is just inside the boundary for co Down) 

Take some beating that 

Wicklow 

Ronnie Delany 

Leighton Glynn

Nobody jumping out at me for the 4th 

Paul McShane from Wicklow?

 

Eddie Jordan?

He is, a hero of mine growing up but he'd be a stretch 😂

Didn't think of Eddie Jordan 

Zach Tuohy?

 

Id agree with the three above plus one of TK or Loughnane (for his overall impact as a player and manager)

I was thinking about Tuohy alright and he may well get in there. He's done extremely well out in Australia but whether that is enough we'll see. 

Interesting, can understand Cullen, don't know anything about Flood

Delany and Taylor are automatic, could argue who to give the next two to 

Hughie Douglas clearly!!

I would have both Paul McNaughton from Bray and John Robbie from Greystones ahead of Leo Cullen.

Paul McNaughton played rugby for Ireland, League of Ireland football with Shelbourne and Gaelic football for Wicklow.

John Robbie won the Leinster Schools senior cup with High School,

captained Trinity College and Cambridge University, played for Ireland and the Lions then emigrated and played for Transvaal and South Africa.

Robbie Keane, Paul McGrath, Johnny Sexton and Padraig Harrington

Shane Ross also 

How'd I forget 🙈

He runs off the ball, also a part owner of balls.ie 

In behind or covering?

The previous hosts were a lot better and a lot more likeable i found.

Knew he was one of the higher-ups, but that would certainly explain why he's on air...because I can't figure out any other reason why.

Trigboy 10 wrote: They’re all very annoying really! Nathan Murphy especially and they all seem obsessed with premier league football. The previous hosts were a lot better and a lot more likeable i found.

He never bothered me, though I can see how he might. To be fair though, you can't say he isn't knowledgeable.

I generally enjoy their football coverage, but at this point if Gilroy is on I just immediately switch it off.

A lot of people seem to have a problem with Gilroy and I'm not sure why other than jealousy or being whingebags. 

I'm open to correction on this but I'm almost certain Off The Ball was Gilroy's idea in the first place, he was the presenter right from the start in April 2002 with Ken Early as his sidekick. Off The Ball was a fairly revolutionary programme when it came on air, nothing like it had been done before in Ireland. It was clever, it was sharp, it was different to RTE, it was excellent. 

Gilroy in a way was a victim of his own success as Newstalk tried to move him into current affairs which didn't really work and Eoin McDevitt sort of stole his thunder in the intervening years.

I'd have Gilroy and McDevitt about even in broadcasting terms. Early was the programme's real star and without him it was never as good and was never going to be. If you're playing with good players, you'll look a better player and all that. Off The Ball tried out Colm Parkinson as a quasi-replacement for Early but had the misfortune that unlike Early, Parky was i) thick and ii) an arsehole, so predictably, it didn't work out. If Second Captains didn't have Early, it would probably fall away, I don't think the other lads would be able to carry it by themselves.

Some of Gilroy's questions can be over long, he's not particularly charismatic, and the sheer amount of time Off The Ball has to fill leads to a good bit of fluff and filler, but the programme and Gilroy are still capable of some very good stuff. It'll never again be what it was when Early was there though.

If a lot of people seem to have a problem with him, surely it can't just be coincidence?  From what you describe, he seems to have some business acumen and I would have to give him some credit as I do like OTB's football content.  I wasn't criticizing his business acumen though, simply his presenting and apparent complete lack of ability to have a knowledgeable discussion about sport beyond even what one can read on here.  That's why I assumed he must be knowledgeable about rugby or GAA or something, but I guess that isn't the case.  I don't know anything about it, but if they tried to move him to current affairs, perhaps it was because he was useless when it came to sport.  That was my whole question though, what purpose does he serve as a presenter on a station that is meant to be entirely about sport, though the picture now appears to be more clear.

My brother used to work with him years ago on the radio. He wasn't and still isn't a fan. 

I heard him ask questions that would take the guts of a minute and leave the interviewee with a yes or no answer. I do have to switch off. 

Wonder do the three boys regret it now... they haven't gone on to much and the 2nd captains on rte was awful. 

Isolating with David O'Doherty.....i'd sooner take the virus

Agreed Second Captains is complete dog sh*te 

That's a great summary of their respective strengths.

With regard to Second Captains, Early is an intelligent fella and I think McDevitt is good at interviewing. Ciaran Murphy offers very little.

Off the Ball tried to use the likes of Colm Parkinson and David Brady to replace them. It didn't work as neither Parkinson nor Brady are intelligent. Gilroy clearly has something about him, but I don't think he should be involved in presenting or interviewing. His questions take too long and he has tendency to fawn over those he's interviewing. One example I recall was his interview of Michael O'Neill - Gilroy let O'Neill ramble on about the Republic poaching his players, but never questioned O'Neill about his poaching of players from the Republic. Gilroy has family in Belfast and I believe he leans towards Norn Iron when it comes to the international game. Still no excuse for not fulfilling his role as a journalist.