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John O’Keeffe.
THIS is GAA ‘silly season’ with the National League weeks away and the All-Ireland Club Championships on a break until February.
Well the national GAA journalists have a bit of downtime these days, so one of them has picked his top 50 full-backs of the last 50 years.
Martin Breheny of the Irish Independent made his selection in today’s paper and it’s an Austin Stacks man who takes the No.1 position.
Here’s what he has to say about John O’Keeffe…
“Those who claim that previous generation full-backs would be unable to adapt to the modern game clearly know nothing of O’Keeffe. Whatever the age or era, he would have been the ultimately authoritative No 3.
Equally effective in air and ground wars, his approach was invariably positive, operating off the basic policy that if he beat his opponent to the ball, he was in control.
O’Keeffe started as a centre-back, where he won the first of seven All-Ireland senior medals in 1970. By 1972 (when Kerry lost to Offaly in a replayed final) he was at midfield, before taking over at full-back for the glory run under Mick O’Dwyer.
He is a member of the exclusive five All-Stars club, having won four at full-back and one at midfield (’73, ’75, ’76, ’78 and ’79).”
Other Kerry players featuring in the list are Sean Walsh (12), Seamus Moynihan (14), Paudie O’Donoghue (19), Tom O’Sullivan (33).
Marc Ó Sé and Mike McCarthy were excluded on the basis that while both played at full-back at various times, they mostly played in other positions, where they gained most of their accolades.
See Breheny’s full list here
