Keith Wood

[Macy]

Keith Wood is a sporting legend. He would have made the grade in any sport he turned his hand to. It was such a pity injury curtailed his career.

Whilst I agree with the sentiment, he did make the financial decision to play much of his career in England with their high number of games which must have taken its toll, rather than a smaller contract and be nurtured by Munster/ Ireland.

[OwlsFan]

Not sure where this should go but thought maybe the Ireland forum was the place for it but did anybody see Keith Wood on BBC before the game on Sunday. He also said the same thing on Marian Finucane on Saturday also.

He said that when he was growing up Kids dreamed of playing Rugby for Ireland playing in an All Ireland and playing in an FA Cup Final.

I was struck by this in the same way that I was by Bertie saying he was a huge Sports fan who supports the Dubs and Utd on national TV.

The very leat Wood should have said was dreaming of playing for the Irish Football team.

I grew up in Dublin where BBC TV was broadcast in to our home with Grandstand, Match of the Day, Cricket test matches, Wimbledon tennis etc. I loved them all but also lived up the road from Milltown so while I dreamed of playing for the Owls (losing the FA Cup Final to Everton 3-2 in 1966 after being 2 up was devastating), I was also able to watch my Rovers sporting heroes and follow Ireland.

So my first loves were soccer and cricket and although we played GAA at national school, it did nothing for me and neither did the rugby at secondary school. Even though I went to Rovers week in, week out, there was something more "exotic" about English football played in a faraway land in black and white on the TV. I continued to follow Rovers for many years until we set up our own cricket club in the locality so that was the end of my SUnday afternoons following the Hoops plus the Dunphy supported sale of Milltown made travelling across the city less appealing.

It is interesting that the early influences of between (4 and 14) were those which stayed with me for life.

[endabob1]

This is a frankly a ridiculous argument, I am roughly the same age as Woody, I grew up in Rural Ireland and I shared the same sort of ambitions as an impressionable young lad. I wanted to score a goal like Ricky Villa at Wembley, I wanted to kick a drop goal to win the triple crown like Michael Kiernan, I wanted to score the winning goal in an all-Ireland like Seamus Darby.
Ireland were an underachieving international football team who were rarely live on TV and living down the country it wasn't possible to go to games in Dublin so my international football aspirations were tempered by the fact that without success, there wasn't that much to aspire to (although I still remember listening on the radio to the game in Belguim when Ireland missed out on qualification in 82). Ask kids who grew up during the Charlton years and they would all have wanted to score goals in the world cup for Ireland, not too much rugby glory to aspire to during the early 90's I think you'll find.

[NeilMcD]

Mr.Wood, my namesake, did play Under 16 hurling for Clare. Other members of that team included Anthony Foley, Jamsie O'Connor, Anthony Daly etc... The current Clare Manager, Tony Considine, was manager of that team. As far as I know, they won a Munster title. Considine said that Wood was very talented but became to immobile due to his size for top level hurling as he grew.

Also, as was rightly pointed out, Keith's father was a former international. He died when Keith was very young. So I cannot see why he wouldn't be dreaming of playing rugby for Ireland.

I am also around his age and I can say that I grew up dreaming of playing in FA Cup Finals. I used to get up early in the morning of the FA Cup Final and watch the coverage all day. It was the cup of glamour with great finals such as 79, 82, 85, 86, 89 etc... played in Wembley which seemed to have a mystical aura on tv. Watching Cup Finals in crumbling Dalymount certainly did not have the same element of glamour, especially as Rovers seemed to own the Cup.

Also, before Euro 88 there was not the same level of support for the soccer team outside of Dublin. The crowds were not tiny for games before the Charlton years as the media try to portray. We wouldn't moved from Dalymount if they were. However, they were certainly more Dubln based than they are today.

Anyway, to sum it up. I think anyone is entitled to whatever dreams they have. Keith Wood might have wanted to be a ballet dancer in Russia and that would be his divine right.

Nobody said he did not play for Clare. We said he did not play for West Clare as no team existed as West Clare is a footballing region of Clare and Keith Wood is from East Clare.

The original point was not that he dreamt of playing rugby for Ireland which I would expect but I found it strange that he dreamt of playing in a foreign Cup Final rather in a sport rather than play for his own country in that same sport.

Then again we did have our own Leader go onto a chat show saying he is a huge sports fan and supports the Dubs and Man Utd.

I cannnot see Tony Blair going on Parkinson saying he supports Juventus.


I travelled up with my family to Ireland games from 1986 onwards as we moved to Clare in 1986 but I do agree with you that Clare most people were oblivious to the national team. I was treated as some sort of freak in school for going to Ireland games and it involved my dad taking me out of school to go to the afternoon games on a Wednesday. After the Spain game in 1989 I had to do a presentation to the class on my trip "up to Dublin" to see the Irish team play. That was the novelty with which the Irish team was held in 1989 in West Clare.

[geysir]

Here's an actual reference to words from the big man's mouth.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mai...0/srwood10.xml
"Killaloe, in Co Clare, is where I spent my formative years with a hurley in hand and dreamt of playing for my county. It was where I played every sport imaginable. But hurling was my first love. It is my favourite game to both play and watch. But, in fairness, there are not too many 17-stone hurlers around."
Sounds okay to me, sport loving kids have a multitude of dreams depending on whatever was happening. His Da just didn't bring him to the Irish soccer games.
It's an entirely different matter for Bertie, for whatever reason, parading his man u fixation.

[paul_oshea]

After the Spain game in 1989 I had to do a presentation to the class on my trip "up to Dublin" to see the Irish team play. That was the novelty with which the Irish team was held in 1989 in West Clare.

was this for your leaving cert geography class?

[woodie]

In fairness to Bertie, he grew up beside the Cat and Cage and was a Drums supporter before Shels move in. The only other club in his area back then was Bohs and he'd hardly have supported them!

[NeilMcD]

was this for your leaving cert geography class?

I was from Dublin so no.