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Counties Missed Opportunities....

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Just a thread on counties in both codes, who have let big opportunites slip away from them, kind of moments in time where they could have led to great or greater success but slipped from their grasp.....and some never recover while others make up for it.
a few off the top of my head head.
1) Louth in the 90s, could have set up a meath v louth leinster final had they took Laois in the first game in 91, led Dublin 1-9 to 0-8 with 20 minutes to go in the Leinster semi final in 1992, they had Kildare in final.....
Beaten by a point by Meath in 1998 leinster semi final.
Beaten by Offaly in 1997 Leinster quater final, in a side of the draw which hadnt got Meath, Dublin,Kildare or Laois. Would they have taken out a weakened Meath in the Leinster final? I dont see 2010 as that much of a missed opportunity for louth, it was a team on decline as proven since.

2)Westmeath in 2001 all ireland q/final. 9 points up in the second half v Meath. Would they have beaten Kerry who had a shocker v Meath in semi final? a westmeath v galway all ireland final....

3)Monaghon v Kerry 2007. If i were from MONAGHON this would keep me up at night, take Kerry and there was an All ireland to be had.

dickie10 (UK) - Posts: 532 - 06/07/2020 15:53:58    2283233

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Replying To dickie10:  "Just a thread on counties in both codes, who have let big opportunites slip away from them, kind of moments in time where they could have led to great or greater success but slipped from their grasp.....and some never recover while others make up for it.
a few off the top of my head head.
1) Louth in the 90s, could have set up a meath v louth leinster final had they took Laois in the first game in 91, led Dublin 1-9 to 0-8 with 20 minutes to go in the Leinster semi final in 1992, they had Kildare in final.....
Beaten by a point by Meath in 1998 leinster semi final.
Beaten by Offaly in 1997 Leinster quater final, in a side of the draw which hadnt got Meath, Dublin,Kildare or Laois. Would they have taken out a weakened Meath in the Leinster final? I dont see 2010 as that much of a missed opportunity for louth, it was a team on decline as proven since.

2)Westmeath in 2001 all ireland q/final. 9 points up in the second half v Meath. Would they have beaten Kerry who had a shocker v Meath in semi final? a westmeath v galway all ireland final....

3)Monaghon v Kerry 2007. If i were from MONAGHON this would keep me up at night, take Kerry and there was an All ireland to be had."
In the modern era Monaghan football missed some great opportunities. From around 2006 they had fantastic teams for a decade; the 2007 defeat to Kerry and the quarter final/semi final defeats to Tyrone must be a regret. It's hard to see how the county could have won an All Ireland during Dublin's 5 in-a-row but opportunities were there beforehand and it's unfortunate that group of players never managed to grace the biggest day and even compete in an AL final. It's difficult to see Monaghan football hitting the same heights over the next few years.

sam1884 (UK) - Posts: 707 - 06/07/2020 16:19:31    2283236

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In football for Galway, there's not too many missed opportunities in terms of potentially winning an All-Ireland in recent decades as the team was either well off the pace or there was much stronger contenders waiting in the wings, so you'd have to go back to the 2000 drawn final against Kerry for the last missed opportunity.

On the other hand with the hurlers, you could pick out so many examples of them throwing away good chances of winning All-Irelands since they went into Leinster

eoghan6688 (Galway) - Posts: 129 - 06/07/2020 18:28:49    2283246

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Replying To eoghan6688:  "In football for Galway, there's not too many missed opportunities in terms of potentially winning an All-Ireland in recent decades as the team was either well off the pace or there was much stronger contenders waiting in the wings, so you'd have to go back to the 2000 drawn final against Kerry for the last missed opportunity.

On the other hand with the hurlers, you could pick out so many examples of them throwing away good chances of winning All-Irelands since they went into Leinster"
Galway could ve won drawn all Ireland in football in 2000 alright but did nt take their chances in the end but Kerry much better in the replay.In hurling Galway could ve won in 1981 v Offaly and 1990 v Cork but relaxed when in the driving seat.I have a great fondness for Galway and was at a lot of their big games.

CiarraiMick (Dublin) - Posts: 630 - 06/07/2020 20:13:27    2283255

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Last year v Tipp for us. Undoubtedly one that got away. I still don't know how we didn't finish them off.
I don't remember the 90s but have heard all the stories about losing to KK, Cork, etc. Lose to KK by a point, they go on and win the All-Ireland.

StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 864 - 06/07/2020 21:07:16    2283260

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Replying To eoghan6688:  "In football for Galway, there's not too many missed opportunities in terms of potentially winning an All-Ireland in recent decades as the team was either well off the pace or there was much stronger contenders waiting in the wings, so you'd have to go back to the 2000 drawn final against Kerry for the last missed opportunity.

On the other hand with the hurlers, you could pick out so many examples of them throwing away good chances of winning All-Irelands since they went into Leinster"
Must go back and watch that one again I do remember Galway being the better team the first day out but Kerry better the second day.

That Galway team was fantastic to watch with Meehan, Joyce, Donnellan, Sean Og and others. I could watch Padraig Joyce playing all day.

GeniusGerry (Kerry) - Posts: 1957 - 06/07/2020 21:41:12    2283267

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Replying To GeniusGerry:  "Must go back and watch that one again I do remember Galway being the better team the first day out but Kerry better the second day.

That Galway team was fantastic to watch with Meehan, Joyce, Donnellan, Sean Og and others. I could watch Padraig Joyce playing all day."
What a Championship 2000 was; nobody can say Kerry were not tested in that series :) Between the semi finals and final it was a fitting way to end the old system before the qualifers were introduced.

sam1884 (UK) - Posts: 707 - 06/07/2020 22:09:57    2283270

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3)Monaghon v Kerry 2007. If i were from MONAGHON this would keep me up at night, take Kerry and there was an All ireland to be had."

Too soon to talk about it...

Eddie the Exile (Monaghan) - Posts: 719 - 06/07/2020 22:32:15    2283272

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wexford hurlers last year, yeah christ thats one that got away. still it would be sickeninng to lose to kilkenny in the final. BUT can you imagine they beat that kilkenny team who were poor on the day ! beat them twice in the same year and win an all ireland, that would have been wexford hurling greatest day.

On the theme of wexford football they had a great chance to beat dublin in 2012. would have been a meath v wexford leinster final.

dickie10 (UK) - Posts: 532 - 06/07/2020 22:59:21    2283274

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Replying To eoghan6688:  "In football for Galway, there's not too many missed opportunities in terms of potentially winning an All-Ireland in recent decades as the team was either well off the pace or there was much stronger contenders waiting in the wings, so you'd have to go back to the 2000 drawn final against Kerry for the last missed opportunity.

On the other hand with the hurlers, you could pick out so many examples of them throwing away good chances of winning All-Irelands since they went into Leinster"
On the other hand with the hurlers, you could pick out so many examples of them throwing away good chances of winning All-Irelands since they went into Leinster

In the 11 years Galway have played in Leinster, they have won 1 All-Ireland.

In the the previous 121 years they won 4.

Cockney_Cat (UK) - Posts: 1115 - 06/07/2020 23:13:42    2283277

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1998 Connacht final in Tuam. Down to 14 players..went ahead late on..had Galway beaten on their home patch on a down wet day. Ref inexplicably gives a very late free to Galway to draw it. The rest is history. That Roscommon team at that moment was as good if not better than Galway imo. A missed opportunity for us. Dublin and Kerry were gone back around then.

moros (Roscommon) - Posts: 996 - 06/07/2020 23:37:18    2283279

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2009 Munster football final - Limerick dominated possession but missed loads of great chances and gave up 2 goals completely against the run of play to lose to Cork by 2-6 to 0-11.
2010 Connacht football final - Sligo convincingly beat both Galway and Mayo to reach the final but then choked against Roscommon in the final and lost by a point.
1991 all-Ireland hurling semi-final - Antrim played out of their skins after conceding a goal after 20 seconds. They should have won but Kilkenny pulled it out of the fire with 2 very late points. (2-18 to 1-19).
2010 Leinster football quarter-final - Wexford led Dublin by 0-9 to 0-4 with 10 minutes to go and should have been out of sight. Dublin managed to drag themselves back into it and forced extra-time, which they won comfortably. The following year, the same teams met in the Leinster final which Dublin won by 3 points - the crucial score was a long range Dublin free that ended up in the Wexford net. Wexford could easily have won both of these games but instead Dublin went on to win the 2011 all-Ireland to kick-start their period of dominance.
I hate to see less successful counties blow great chances like the ones above but sadly it happens a lot.

Gaillimh_Abu (Galway) - Posts: 841 - 07/07/2020 06:53:59    2283286

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In the 133 year history of the All Ireland championship Leitrim have never beaten Roscommon at home, every time we have beaten them it has been in Roscommon. We have drawn with them at home but never beaten them. Our biggest rivals. In the All Ireland Qualifiers in 2003 we drew them at home, played a fantastic game and were winning deep in to injury time by 1-11 to 1-9 when Roscommon scored a scrambled goal to put them a point ahead, our goalkeeper kicked the ball out and the game was over. Thats the one that always kills me looking back, leaving the ground with the Rossie fans singing to the tune of living next door to Alice " all my life I've been living next door to Leitrim, Leitrim who the f... are Leitrim!"

leitrim4sam (Leitrim) - Posts: 475 - 07/07/2020 11:02:25    2283300

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Replying To leitrim4sam:  "In the 133 year history of the All Ireland championship Leitrim have never beaten Roscommon at home, every time we have beaten them it has been in Roscommon. We have drawn with them at home but never beaten them. Our biggest rivals. In the All Ireland Qualifiers in 2003 we drew them at home, played a fantastic game and were winning deep in to injury time by 1-11 to 1-9 when Roscommon scored a scrambled goal to put them a point ahead, our goalkeeper kicked the ball out and the game was over. Thats the one that always kills me looking back, leaving the ground with the Rossie fans singing to the tune of living next door to Alice " all my life I've been living next door to Leitrim, Leitrim who the f... are Leitrim!""
Hahaha what a day.

sourmilk93 (Roscommon) - Posts: 565 - 07/07/2020 11:30:34    2283304

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Replying To leitrim4sam:  "In the 133 year history of the All Ireland championship Leitrim have never beaten Roscommon at home, every time we have beaten them it has been in Roscommon. We have drawn with them at home but never beaten them. Our biggest rivals. In the All Ireland Qualifiers in 2003 we drew them at home, played a fantastic game and were winning deep in to injury time by 1-11 to 1-9 when Roscommon scored a scrambled goal to put them a point ahead, our goalkeeper kicked the ball out and the game was over. Thats the one that always kills me looking back, leaving the ground with the Rossie fans singing to the tune of living next door to Alice " all my life I've been living next door to Leitrim, Leitrim who the f... are Leitrim!""
That's the saddest post I have seen in a long while. I know from experience you can't afford to give them Ros lads the opportunity to sing. And not a Sally in sight for consolation!

Llaw_Gyffes (Mayo) - Posts: 1105 - 07/07/2020 11:43:07    2283306

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Roscommon losing the All Ireland final in 1980. Big chance let slip of Roscommon. Galway V Kilkenny in the 1993 All Ireland final. Galway should have won. Mayo V Donegal in the All Ireland football final of 2012. Mayo lost due to two early Donegal goals from Michael Murphy I think. Big chance for Mayo gone. Finally Galway V Tipp in the 2001 Hurling final. A notorious final for the poor reffing of the Tipp ref. Galway lost chance of a double that year as the footballers beat Meath in the final. Galway robbed of double.

galwayford (Galway) - Posts: 1927 - 07/07/2020 12:02:03    2283309

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Meath in the 70s; overshadowed by the great Dublin and Offaly teams in the decade in Leinster but very competetive and had many players often stated to be some of the best never to win an All-Ireland. They were All-Ireland runners-up in 1970.

Meath in the late noughties; Meath in this timeframe suffered from having too many managers coming and going, and too much chopping and changing in the panel, including the breakdown of the set-up that was 20 years established by Sean Boylan. They beat Kildare, then lost a replayed match with Dublin in Leinster in '07 and went on to have a very strong run in the qualifers with wins over Down, Fermanagh, and Galway before knocking Tyrone out in the All-Ireland quarter finals.
In '09 following a loss to Dublin in Leinster, they defeated Waterford, Westmeath, Roscommon, and Limerick before beating Mayo to reach the Semis once again.
In 2010 they put 5 goals past Dublin, and had some big wins in the early 10's before most of the team moved on. In all of the intervening years they went out largely unnoticed. The talent was there, just never pushed on and never had the right consistency to become champions or yearly contenders.

Young_gael (Meath) - Posts: 391 - 07/07/2020 13:23:54    2283320

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I always look back to 2002 from my own counties point of view. After beating Tyrone in croker we brought all Ireland champions Armagh to a replay which was played in Navan which we most definitely could've won. The internal optimist in me wonders what could've happened to us had we won that game and would this mentality have filtered down to our underage teams. O'Hara was in his prime and we had some other excellent footballers. TAKE ME BACK!!

republican (Sligo) - Posts: 266 - 07/07/2020 13:40:11    2283326

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I think Limerick missed a great chance to take us in 2004. In the Munster Final first outing the sides were level and on three occasions think his name was Kelly. Anyways he has one free and two 45's that he kicked long which Darragh Sê fielded. The bit of experience cost them as if he went short for any of those and took the return the simplest of 30 yard pop point was on.

In the replay after twelve minutes in Killarney Limerick were 1-03 to nil up but a Mike Frank goal and admittedly a very soft penalty which Cinneíde converted meant we were level at HT when playing well below par.

Limerick had us by the short and curlies both days. Liam Kearins has a good panel and layout back then

Horsebox77 (Kerry) - Posts: 4877 - 07/07/2020 13:49:45    2283329

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Replying To republican:  "I always look back to 2002 from my own counties point of view. After beating Tyrone in croker we brought all Ireland champions Armagh to a replay which was played in Navan which we most definitely could've won. The internal optimist in me wonders what could've happened to us had we won that game and would this mentality have filtered down to our underage teams. O'Hara was in his prime and we had some other excellent footballers. TAKE ME BACK!!"
I remember it! Sligo were very strong contenders that day, Navan was packed and the locals were treated to a great, sporting game from two totally neutral counties. The place was awash with black/white flags on one end and orange the other. That Sligo team is most definitely another what if...

I'd also point out that some of the other missed opportunities for county teams that stand out to me would be; Tyrone in the 90s, Kildare in 2010, the Cork team of the late 00s could maybe have won another All-Ireland, and the teams of Laois, Westmeath, and Wexford in the early-mid 00s. They were all very competetive in their time but didnt acheive outside of Leinster.

Young_gael (Meath) - Posts: 391 - 07/07/2020 14:06:01    2283334

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