paddyor wrote:Statisitically in terms of appearances and then trophies for the 2010-2020 period I'd imagine something like
Healy 168(211-29-13-1) 3HEC, 1 ACC, 4P14
Cronin 177 2HEC, 1 ACC, 4P14
Ross 152 3HEC, 1ACC, 2P14 Retired 2017
Dev 206(239-2-4-6-21) 3HEc, 1ACC, 4P14
Cullen 106(18+27+18+23+20) 2 HEC, 1ACC, 2P14 Retired 2014
Ruddock 3HEC, 1 ACC, 4P14
SOB 3HEC, 1 ACC, 4P14 Soon to retire if rumours are to be believed
Heaslip Retired 2017 3HEC, 1 ACC, 4P14
Reddan Retired 2016 2HEC, 1 ACC, 2P14
Sexton 3HEC, 1 ACC, 4P14
Nasewa Retired 2018 3HEC, 1 ACC, 3P14
D'arcy Retired 2015 2HEC, 1 ACC, 2P14
Ringrose 1HEC, 2P14
McFadden 3HEC, 1 ACC, 4P14
R. Kearney 3HEC, 1 ACC, 4P14
It's a good team, you could make a better team I'm sure but those are the lads with the body of work. Massively favours guys who bridged from the early to the late part of the decade. There's kind of three teams (peak- trough- peak to keep it simple).
.........
Looking at that team, it seems we quite possibly are heading for another trough with the bolded soon to retire(maybe for the best). There's guys there to replace them but most don't have the body of work their predecessors do.
Like the logic of your selection and the underlying rationale. However, somewhat disagree with the last sentence. Many of those in your selection had little or no back catalogue by the time it became evident that they would be strong contenders in any all-time ranking.
One of the key factors now is how proficent the guys in, and coming out of, the Academy are from the start. They have had a better grounding at National under-age and in the Academy and have largely trained with the senior players from age 19 or 20. Couple that with time in the Sub-Academy and we're almost getting 'fully formed' pros from the Academy.
When you look at Kelleher, Baird, Connors, Doris, Frawley, the O'Briens etc. the line is fairly extraordinary and we appear to be losing fewer of the really talented players to injury during their development.
So, lots of confidence that if there is to be a trough, it will be short-lived, or bridged by some of the experienced guys hanging tough for at extra year or two - Ferg, J10, Dev, RK etc.
Ryan and Ringrose are already in my 'all-time list'. Only RK, BO'D, SO'B & Jamie were in that list by age 23, the others in it joined by dint of their consistent brilliance. It's a high bar but that's my bias. However, the parameters for inclusion in this selection are clearly set out and your selection fits the bill well.
