Yet great fun!
Hoban for me falls down because he failed at a low level in England and his European record is poor. I don't think he's up the very top; he's Éamon Dunphy's "big man for the little occasion" for me.
Crowe and Byrne had to get ahead of Robbie Keane, Kevin Doyle, Clinton Morrison, David Connolly, even Gary Doherty. Maybe not huge strength in depth, but there's enough there to keep them out of the national team. I think very few LoI players are really good enough for the national team though, going back to the infamous Pat Byrne case and before.
McMillan and Maguire deserve to be mentioned for sure. Loathe as I am to knock a former UCD player, I think Crowe and Byrne (11 and 10 Euro goals) achieved their tallies in far fewer games than McMillan's 33? if Byrne and Crowe played in every Euro game available, then they scored 8 in 14 for Shels and 8 in 16 for Bohs respectively.
The managers point is quite interesting. I always felt Fenlon and Doolin's teams underachieved, especially in Europe, effectively for the reasons you say. I think that way about Bradley too to an extent (sorry otoh!), but certainly agree on the others being better managers.
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