Best Gaelic Games player ever

[The Real Laoislad]

Is it DJ or Ring? Or Peter Canavan or Mikey Sheehy or maybe it's Micheal Duksie Walshe who has won endless medals in handball or maybe even one of the Downey sisters from Kilkenny who won Camogie medals
I know it's hard to compare the players but who in your mind is the best or most iconic figure of our gaelic games past or present

[ziggysego]

Frank McGuigan

[Pangurban]

Sean Purcell

[hitzelsperger]

Maurice Fitzgerald

[Armagh4SamAgain]

Kerian McGeeney

[TORGAEL]

Sean O'Neill

[ziggysego]

I think Frank McGuigan may have been eclipsed by another Tyrone player from an earlier generation.  An elderly gent at the MacRory final told me that the late Frankie Donnelly from Carrickmore was the greatest Tyrone player and greatest scorer in a single game.

I'm too young to know what the great Frankie Donnelly was like, but from my own experience I'll stick with Frank

[From the Bunker]

Cork's Jack Lynch 5 AI in a row mixing Football and Hurling. Other players were good at one decipline but Jack was good at Gaelic Games!

[DrinkingHarp]

This one is too easy ............     Me 

[The Real Laoislad]

It's not just football i mean all Gaelic sports
Who best represents our Gaelic Games who has given more than anyone to this great tradition we have...
In my opionion the best Gaelic sportsman we ever had was DJ Carey and thats not easy for me to say as i grew up on the Kilkenny/Laois border and am the biggest ABK fan there is.
I think he excelled at Hurling more than any footballer excelled at football

[Glensman]

Niall Patterson

[GalwayBayBoy]

Sean Purcell

From what i've heard from those older and wiser than me I think so.

Tributes have been paid to the Galway Gaelic footballer, Sean Purcell, who died last night at the age of 76.

He was recognised by many football enthusiasts as the greatest player of all time.

Purcell was picked at centre-forward on the GAA/An Post 'Team of the Millennium' and the 'Team of the Century'.

AdvertisementHis name was inextricably linked to that of his team-mate Frank Stockwell, and they became known as the Terrible Twins.


His achievements included winning ten Galway Senior Football Championship titles, an All-Ireland Senior Football medal with Galway and three Railway Cup medals with Connacht.

Recently, he was awarded an honorary degree at a ceremony at NUI Galway. 

In a tribute, the RTÉ broadcaster, Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh, said Sean Purcell was known as 'The Master' and his performance on the pitch and kind deeds off it were always executed with a certain grace and elegance.

Sean Purcell's extradordinary career will be remembered at GAA events throughout the country today.

He died after a short illness, and is survived by his two sons and four daughters.

[stew]

It's not just football i mean all Gaelic sports
Who best represents our Gaelic Games who has given more than anyone to this great tradition we have...
In my opionion the best Gaelic sportsman we ever had was DJ Carey and thats not easy for me to say as i grew up on the Kilkenny/Laois border and am the biggest ABK fan there is.
I think he excelled at Hurling more than any footballer excelled at football

DJ is a wonderful player but the hurling heads on here could name three or four that were better than DJ in hurling alone, in terms of him excelling more tha any footballer I would say that is balls as well, Maurice Fitzgerald and Peter Canavan are two modern day footballers that were as good as DJ was in his chosen sport, nevermind the men like McAlarney and Jacko  from the past.

Christy Ring is one name bandied about as the greatest ever hurler but these things are subjective. In footballing terms for me the best player I ever saw was Johnny Corvan, he was sublime but does not have the longevity the likes of Canavan has so Canavan would get the nod with Fitzgerald a close second, both men killed us over the course of their illustrious careers.

[stew]

It's not just football i mean all Gaelic sports
Who best represents our Gaelic Games who has given more than anyone to this great tradition we have...
In my opionion the best Gaelic sportsman we ever had was DJ Carey and thats not easy for me to say as i grew up on the Kilkenny/Laois border and am the biggest ABK fan there is.
I think he excelled at Hurling more than any footballer excelled at football

DJ is a wonderful player but the hurling heads on here could name three or four that were better than DJ in hurling alone, in terms of him excelling more tha any footballer I would say that is balls as well, Maurice Fitzgerald and Peter Canavan are two modern day footballers that were as good as DJ was in his chosen sport, nevermind the men like McAlarney and Jacko  from the past.

Christy Ring is one name bandied about as the greatest ever hurler but these things are subjective. In footballing terms for me the best player I ever saw was Johnny Corvan, he was sublime but does not have the longevity the likes of Canavan has so Canavan would get the nod with Fitzgerald a close second, both men killed us over the course of their illustrious careers.

[realredhandfan]

'So good he says it twice'


Ziggy what age are you?  Frank Mc Guigan stopped playing in Winter 84.  From meory that makes you three. Some judge of talent boy for a three year old.   
IMHO FRANKIE DONNELLY aside, I cant comment and having listened to the reasoned analysis of Stew, ie Longevity and committment becomes a big factor too, PTG over Mc Guigan anyday.  Big FRank might be the best Gaelic player to have spent most of his career in the USA, but Canavan committed more to Tyrone GAA than Big Frank ever did.  nO comparison except for the rose tinted spec brigade