Saturday, August 29, 2009
FLICK back there right now and have a quick look at the business pages. Check out the ISEQ share price list.
Look out for AIB and Bank of Ireland. Now compare the 12-month low with yesterday’s close of business price.
If you had invested €10,000 in Bank of Ireland shares, when they were at their lowest price, compared to yesterday’s price, and sold them on Monday morning you would make a gross profit of over €200,000.
Sweet stuff, if you had the guts to take the risk.
Of course, most who would have fancied a punt on the stock exchange wouldn’t have had either the original sum to invest, or the self-confidence and belief to go and make such a decision.
To do so would put them completely out of their comfort zone.
Others, perhaps more well to do and more successful individuals with more knowledge and confidence in speculation would be more likely to have made a calculated move. It would not have stalled them at all. When you have the experience and the confidence from previous successes, it is easier to be victorious.
Let’s be honest here, the hardest time to do anything is the first time. And it is the same in sport.
For a county, and the players on the team that collect that county’s first All-Ireland in the history of the GAA, it is an enormous achievement, hugely significant and takes a lot of character, ability and good men in key positions.
To win three titles, in six years is a magnificent success story. And to beat the most revered and successful county in Ireland every year you did so, and twice in finals makes that accomplishment even more noteworthy and exceptional.
Comparisons are odious, however "the team of the decade" debate is one that is still being discussed in many quarters, and Pat Spillane’s outburst on RTÉ last Sunday only re-ignited the debate.
Using an unequivocal measurement criteria, Kerry would be many people’s choice, as they won titles in 2000, 2004, 2006, 2007 while Tyrone have only three, 2003, 2005 and 2008.
However, those bald facts ignore some KPI’s (key performance indicators) for both sides that change things and rule out such a linear assessment and judgement.
Firstly: from where did each team start their journey? Kerry win the All-Ireland on average three times every decade. That is a fact. They have held the Sam Maguire aloft more than any other county. Winning an All-Ireland medal is something the young players who break into the county team expect to do. It is almost part of their DNA.
However it is not the same all over the country, and therefore Tyrone started their journey from much further back than their Kingdom counterparts. And that is relevant to any argument about which team’s achievements are superior.
PRIOR to 2003, Tyrone had never annexed a senior All-Ireland title and therefore such talk was nothing but fanciful dreaming. They came close in 1995 and 1986 but both days ended in failure. To buck that stigma of failure and underachievement took a very special group of players and a very special manager. To have done so in such style, with such conviction and with such regularity was a terrific accomplishment.
Secondly: and this fact cannot be ignored in any sane and fair assessment of which team merits being called the team of the decade – in all the big championship clashes that these two teams met in this decade; the semi-final of 2003, (Tyrone 0-13, Kerry 0-6), the final of 2005, (Tyrone 1-16, Kerry 2-10) and the final last September, (Tyrone 1-15, Kerry 0-14), Mickey Harte’s team emerged victorious.
Those results settle any argument as to which team was the better in one-to-one clashes. Three wins to zero, is non negotiable.
If a boxer beats his opponent in three separate bouts, there can be no doubts about who is the better fighter. And the same logic should apply across the sporting spectrum.
Some pundits think that just because Kerry have four All-Ireland crowns in their locker this decade, or maybe five by late September, and reached more All-ireland semi-finals than Tyrone, that makes them a better team than Tyrone.
I don’t agree and think that is a very simplistic way to look at the subject. Yes, they may have been more consistent, but a measurement of consistency is not the same as a measurement of quality.
Finally it would be incorrect not to mention the fact that Tyrone won their three All-Irelands under the same manager, whereas Kerry won their four titles under three different managers: Paidí O Sé, Jack O’Connor and Pat O’Shea.
So surely the title of manager of the decade in Gaelic football should go to Micky Harte without recourse to a dispute? For me, the fact that this Tyrone team won the county’s first All-Ireland titles this decade, allied to the fact that they defeated Kerry on every occasion that they won those titles, in colossal games, would indicate that they were the best team in the country since 2000.
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