Kildare Player of the Decade(s)

Yep there’s another one... I’m already in bad books in Ellistown for leaving out Jack Donnelly

The 2000s can be divided into 3 parts. From 2000-2003 we reached 3 Leinster finals, winning 1 and coming close in the other 2. I thought this team were betting attacking wise than the 98 team but not as good defensively. From 2004-2007 we couldn't buy a win in the championship and we slipped down to 5th or 6th best in Leinster. When McGeeney came in 2008 we improved again and went close to a Leinster in 2009.

Apart from the obvious 2 players, I would pick Anthony Rainbow (All star in 2000 and played most of the decade) and Tadhg Fennin (crucial scores in Leinster finals and All-Ireland semi). The other player I'd consider is Mick Foley but he was probably at his best in 2010 and 2011.

Emmet Bolton should definitely be in there.

The replies so far showing how difficult this is..

Killian brennan

Cheers for mention in Glen Ryan post K365 - delighted with that!

As well as Johnny and Dermot, my noughties nominations would be Tadhg Fennin and Ronan Sweeney.

Ok so Fennin’s a definite on the shortlist with JD and Dermot. I can only put 4 on Twitter & everyone seems to have their own ideas for no.4. Hard one to call. Could be any of 7 or 8 different guys. I’ll have to get the stats out and see if that helps.
Keep your thoughts coming. Trouble is so many who played in 00’s really only peaked when Geezer came in.

Maybe you should just put up the two names 365. Make it a straight shoot out between JD and Dermot, as it's unlikely to be anyone else.

If it has to be 4 I'd go with Roli and Tadhg.

Fenin's footpasses and goal scoring threat is something we have missed. Pure class act. 2000 he really set the scene alight! Great in Leinster final 02 also. Him and Johnny had great games that day.

Fear An Geata wrote:

Maybe you should just put up the two names 365. Make it a straight shoot out between JD and Dermot, as it's unlikely to be anyone else.

If it has to be 4 I'd go with Roli and Tadhg.

Want to make it 4 choices for each decade. Reason being that I'm going to have to have a play off between the two lowest scoring winners as I can only have 4 in the final.

Your four are looking good though.. ran some stats and Roli looks well up there with 90 appearances across the decade. Closest contender probably Rainbow in terms of appearances across the decade. I know it's not all about appearances but it's indicative of consistency / importance to the team.

Row Labels Apps Score Ch Apps Ch Score
John Doyle 106 442 42 175
Ronan Sweeney 90 66 38 33
Tadhg Fennin 84 212 29 68
Anthony Rainbow 82 15 34 8
Killian Brennan 76 15 26 6
Dermot Earley 74 54 34 35
Enda Murphy 73 0 25 0
Eamon Callaghan 69 40 24 11
Andriu MacLochlainn 63 1 24 0

JD, Earley and Fennin for definite. I'd go with Enda Murphy for the last slot. He was a great goalkeeper but he never got the recognition he deserved from Kildare supporters, he even represented Ireland in the compromise rules. Sweeney wasn't good enough, to be honest.

IMO I would have Johnny, Dermot, Fennin and Rainbow

Reasoning is that the 2000s were pretty miserable apart from the very early part of it where we won a leinster and reached another 2 finals so it would have to be weighted to the earlier part of the decade.

The mid 2000s were dire, some awful defeats and looked like the 80's again. One player who tried to lead in that time was Killian Brennan. Always gave his best.

Very true murof , he was an excellent performer in pretty dire years in the mid 00s and really stood up when Dermot was out of action for large parts of various seasons.

Nice on this forum to acknowledge the guys who did a good job in tough times.

Think we all know It will be a shootout between JD and Dermot for this particular gong

Gonna be a high standard in the final 365 !!

Think for noughties JD wins hands down. Earley a victim of his injuries here. Johnny Doyle kept us from becoming Like Laois are now. There was league games in the middle of the decade where apart from maybe a point or two he was getting all our scores. 2005 championship in particular he was outstanding against Wicklow Westmeath and Laois (despite the pasting). He is standout for me with hobourable mentions to Earley Murphy Callaghan.

Lads Callaghan was only good for a short period imo. No way is is he in it. Even though he is worth a mention surely he is not in frame for this list??

Look a like Tommy Carew will top the 70s poll - 39% to Ollie Crinnigan's 26% with Pat Dunny on 22%.

Ollie Crinnigan first Kildare Allstar Im sure Tommy Carew was a fine footballer but you dont get an allstar for nothing.

[quote="steviegenius"]Ollie Crinnigan first Kildare Allstar Im sure Tommy Carew was a fine footballer but you dont get an allstar for nothing.


Showing my age now but Tommy Carew was the best Kildare footballer I have ever seen play, of course that's in my opinion only.

The votes don't lie....

Still Didnt get an Allstar

275 votes is a decent quorum and he’s well ahead of Ollie to be fair. Only saw the tail end of both their careers but Carew would be my favourite from that era. Great goal scorer and someone always close to the top of the national scoring charts like JD in later times.

Will leave a gap of a week before the Noughties poll due to the Christmas break. Gives me more time to narrow down the shortlist!

Ok - Player of the Noughties poll now live on Twitter.

I went with Rainbow to join JD, Earley and Fennin.  Tough one to choose.

Link:

https://twitter.com/kildaregaa365/status/947106283605430272

Johnny ran away with this poll but I honestly think that Dermot should have run him closer. JD got his All-Star in 2010 and Dermot got his second in 09
At the start of the 00s Dermot was much more established than JD and then towards the end of the decade, Dermot was a key man to stop for Kildare.
I remember in Leinster Dublin had to bring on two midfield to cope with him in 08 and 09.