Greatest Irish Sportsperson of all time

**Dodge** · 26/11/2009, 2:15 AM

Originally Posted by weecountyman

Wayne McCullough - was done out of Olympic Gold

No he wasn't. He was clearly beaten by a terrific Cuban fighter. Absolutely no question about the decision at all

BTW Neil O'Donoghue has a bit of a cult following in the NFL, as he has the worst Field Goal percentage of any player to have tried 100 FGs. Its something like 50%

**bennocelt** · 26/11/2009, 9:04 AM

Originally Posted by Ronan85

My vote would go to Delaney followed closely by O'Driscoll. Don't think those involved in horse racing should be on the list as its not a real sport and Keane shouldn't be on it as he's a traiter to the country as evidenced by his comments last week.

Thats rubbish, horse racing gives me as much or more pleasure as 90% of those listed sports. Jockeys have to put their lives on the line every time they get on a horse as well.
An Irish winner in Cheltenham is a great sporting sight

And Roy is a hero of mine too. Traitor my hat

**endabob1** · 26/11/2009, 9:12 AM

Has the result of this been announced?

**Bluebeard** · 26/11/2009, 9:59 AM

I think that jockeys should be nominated moreso than the trainers. To my mind a sportsperson is a person who is actively involved in the doing of the sport, rather than the watch / coaching / commentating. For example, IMO Heffernan should be on the list for his playing days alright, prolly not Micko, who was a better coach but also played.

If you allow trainers and coaches on the basis of their "active involvement in sport", why not journalists who can elevate a game, or TV pundits, or fans? Miche�l O'Hehir or Jimmy Magee, sporting legends; Liam Griffin - great sportsperson in that regard; Tom the Gom - watching every League of Ireland game played for the past 35 years - I've met him at Dalymount the same night there'd been confirmed sightings of him at Belfield and Richmond! Surely he'd be eligible too? And without the fans, there would be no sport.

**Ronan85** · 26/11/2009, 11:58 AM

Originally Posted by bennocelt

Thats rubbish, horse racing gives me as much or more pleasure as 90% of those listed sports. Jockeys have to put their lives on the line every time they get on a horse as well.
An Irish winner in Cheltenham is a great sporting sight

And Roy is a hero of mine too. Traitor my hat

To be fair, the majority of people who watch horse racing do so in bookies. In my opinion, a lot of them are either gamblers or drunks, as opposed to sports fans. Besides, its the horse that are the stars of the show, whereas there's very little to appreciate about jockeys or trainers. Whilst I realise there are Irish winners at Cheltenham, I can never recall any of them and I think for most sports fans, such achievements barely measure on the richter scale.

As for Keane, he was a gutsy performer, but there not a particularly good player technically. Elements of the Irish media (like Dunphy and Curtis) hyped him up no end. In the last year or so, even his most fervent supporters are beginning to see through Keane, particularly after his departure from Sunderland. In my opinion, he's a bottler who lets on to have principles, but is really only a hypocrite. He showed little interest in playing for Ireland so given that this award is for the greatest Irish Sportsman, I don't think he should be in the running.

**bennocelt** · 26/11/2009, 4:44 PM

Originally Posted by Bluebeard

If you allow trainers and coaches on the basis of their "active involvement in sport", why not journalists who can elevate a game, or TV pundits, or fans? Miche�l O'Hehir or Jimmy Magee, sporting legends; Liam Griffin - great sportsperson in that regard; Tom the Gom - watching every League of Ireland game played for the past 35 years - I've met him at Dalymount the same night there'd been confirmed sightings of him at Belfield and Richmond! Surely he'd be eligible too? And without the fans, there would be no sport.

To be honest Bluebeard I would have no problem with that

**bennocelt** · 26/11/2009, 4:49 PM

Originally Posted by Ronan85

To be fair, the majority of people who watch horse racing do so in bookies. In my opinion, a lot of them are either gamblers or drunks, as opposed to sports fans. Besides, its the horse that are the stars of the show, whereas there's very little to appreciate about jockeys or trainers. Whilst I realise there are Irish winners at Cheltenham, I can never recall any of them and I think for most sports fans, such achievements barely measure on the richter scale.
.

Could be talking about an awful lot of the Irish football away fans there going by recent outings

But thats your small world - in my world Cheltenham is a major event, so is the Flat season, etc. Its a mans thing, someday when you sip your Starbucks coffee and put down your Irish Times you might understand (to copy your generalisations!

)

**old git** · 26/11/2009, 7:31 PM

[QUOTE=Ronan85;1283389]To be fair, the majority of people who watch horse racing do so in bookies. In my opinion, a lot of them are either gamblers or drunks, as opposed to sports fans. Besides, its the horse that are the stars of the show, whereas there's very little to appreciate about jockeys or trainers. Whilst I realise there are Irish winners at Cheltenham, I can never recall any of them and I think for most sports fans, such achievements barely measure on the richter scale.

will you get a life .. go to any pub during a rugby match / soccer match / gaa match and see plenty of drunks even at the games themselves ... just because you dont follow horse racing you just cant class it as a non sport .. nearly everybody in ireland would have a little bet on the aintree grand national every april .. 50 -60,000 fans attend the chelthenham meeting every year .. yes the horses are stars but you also need jockeys to help try and guide them round safely... aslo going on your reckoning so called superstars of irish rugby / soccer / hurling would not be so good if their teamates did not put in 100% doing the dirty work which makes them look so good ..

**O'Shea's Boot** · 26/11/2009, 8:35 PM

A lot of the Jockeys are awesome - how dedicated must they be to remain so light and fit ......... Christy O'Connor Jnr for that 2 iron in the Rider Cup and on talent alone George Best and Big Pat Jennings

Meant also to mention Steve Collins - dominated the Super Middleweights until Calzaghe came along

**Macy** · 27/11/2009, 1:59 PM

Originally Posted by Wolfie

That said, I'd vote for Sean Kelly as he was at the very top of his profession for a considerable period of time.

Memory is hazy on this but I think bad luck conspired to rob Kelly of the Tour of Spain one year? I think he had a cyst and had to drop out of the tour. I remember seeing footage of Kelly finally having to give up the ghost on that tour, in absolute agony and in tears as he had to drop out.

Kelly for me too, a grand tour, every one day race worth winning (except the Worlds), numerous shorter stage races, 4 green jerseys. Undoubted world number 1 for (over) a decade - I don't think anyone else can compete with that.

Not sure about him being robbed in the Tour of Spain (most famous robbing was Robert Millar), but I think the footage is either the 85 or 87 Tour de France as billsthoughts says..

**weecountyman** · 01/12/2009, 12:30 PM

Originally Posted by Dodge

No he wasn't. He was clearly beaten by a terrific Cuban fighter. Absolutely no question about the decision at all

BTW Neil O'Donoghue has a bit of a cult following in the NFL, as he has the worst Field Goal percentage of any player to have tried 100 FGs. Its something like 50%

Dodge, he was leading clearly through the fight despite horrible refereeing, foul play from the Cuban and it turned only when, after being told to stop boxing, the Cuban cracked Wayne with a sneaky shot (in the second) which did his cheekbone and his eye closed right away. Even still on the punch count he led but inexplicably lost overall. Not surprisingly 2 of the judges and the referee were suspended right away by the AIBA and never were allowed on international panels again!

However Casamayor was a terrific fighter (both amateur and pro) but still didn't deserve to beat him.

**bennocelt** · 01/12/2009, 2:46 PM

Originally Posted by weecountyman

Dodge, he was leading clearly through the fight despite horrible refereeing, foul play from the Cuban and it turned only when, after being told to stop boxing, the Cuban cracked Wayne with a sneaky shot (in the second) which did his cheekbone and his eye closed right away. Even still on the punch count he led but inexplicably lost overall. Not surprisingly 2 of the judges and the referee were suspended right away by the AIBA and never were allowed on international panels again!

However Casamayor was a terrific fighter (both amateur and pro) but still didn't deserve to beat him.

That's funny as I dont remember this as well, I thought at the time that McCullough boxed very well, with the broken cheekbone and all, but that the better boxer won in the end

**Dodge** · 01/12/2009, 3:06 PM

McCullough ed on punches thrown, but not in ounches landed. That was his style though

He was clearly behind, and lost to a better fighter. No shame in that, but no point in trying to add extra hype to it

**Ronan85** · 01/12/2009, 4:45 PM

Originally Posted by old git

will you get a life .. go to any pub during a rugby match / soccer match / gaa match and see plenty of drunks even at the games themselves ... just because you dont follow horse racing you just cant class it as a non sport .. nearly everybody in ireland would have a little bet on the aintree grand national every april .. 50 -60,000 fans attend the chelthenham meeting every year .. yes the horses are stars but you also need jockeys to help try and guide them round safely... aslo going on your reckoning so called superstars of irish rugby / soccer / hurling would not be so good if their teamates did not put in 100% doing the dirty work which makes them look so good ..

If horse racing is such a great sport and the Aintree Grand National is such a big event, why do those people (who you refer to as "nearly everybody in Ireland"

) need to have "a little bet" to enjoy the sport? In most other sports, people are happy just to spectate. Horse racing is more of an industry than a sport. The difference between horse racing and sports such as rugby / soccer / hurling is that those team sports involve athletes playing with skill and putting their bodies on the line, whereas jockeys are passengers on an animal for the benefit of an audience that is primarily comprised of gamblers, snobs, and political hacks (the Galway Races being a case in point).

The day our greatest sports person comes from the horse racing industry will be a sad day for Irish sport.

**Ronan85** · 01/12/2009, 4:47 PM

Originally Posted by Macy

Kelly for me too, a grand tour, every one day race worth winning (except the Worlds), numerous shorter stage races, 4 green jerseys. Undoubted world number 1 for (over) a decade - I don't think anyone else can compete with that.

Not sure about him being robbed in the Tour of Spain (most famous robbing was Robert Millar), but I think the footage is either the 85 or 87 Tour de France as billsthoughts says..

I thought it had been well established at this stage that Kelly was doping. Didn't he fail a drug test in the '80s? In my opinion, there's nothing to admire about someone who stayed at the top through the use of drugs.

**weecountyman** · 01/12/2009, 10:56 PM

Originally Posted by Dodge

McCullough ed on punches thrown, but not in ounches landed. That was his style though

He was clearly behind, and lost to a better fighter. No shame in that, but no point in trying to add extra hype to it

Dodge, he won on punches landed - the countback showed he won by 14 punches yet he ended up losing by half a dozen, which does happen sometimes, however the two judges who cost him the fight landed only 1 scoring punch (ie with .2secs of the other judges) between them. In fact when the computer read outs were analysed (by a Spanish investigative reporter) it showed that on the fights involving the 2 judges there were "serious anomalies" that favoured Cuban fighters. He won the first round easily by bullying and scoring 5 clear headshots and taking no shots himself, yet lost 4-1. As with the later Hamed fight, he won overall but lost the decision.