READERS’ VERDICT MATCHES BREHENY JUDGMENTWITH KING HENRY AND JACKO TOPPING POLL

THE RESULTS are in and you, the readers, are in agreement with the Irish Independent’s Martin Breheny in declaring Kerry legend Jack O’Shea as the greatest Gaelic footballer of the last 50 years. The seven-time All-Ireland winner topped our readers’ poll by a huge margin with 26 per cent of the vote, a whopping 15 per cent clear of your second place man, Offaly’s Matt Connor, who finished sixth in Martin’s rankings. Third place was a three-way tie with Dublin’s number one, Stephen Cluxton, Tyrone great Peter Canavan and the Kingdom’s Maurice Fitzgerald all on eight per cent. The trio just squeezed out top Connacht man Pádraic Joyce of Galway and Colm ‘Gooch’ Cooper by a single percentage point.

Surprisingly, Martin’s

No 2, Independent.ie and Sunday World columnist Pat Spillane, only came in tenth in our poll with three per cent of the vote, level with Cork’s Larry Tompkins. Moving onto the smaller ball, there was no surprise with Henry Shefflin coasting home with 24 per cent of the vote to match Martin’s ranking as the finest hurler on the island in the last half century. You also agreed with Martin’s second place hurler as ‘King’ Henry’s former teammate DJ Carey pulled in 15 per cent of the vote to make it a one-two for the Cats. The differences start in third spot of our readers’ poll with

Galway legend Joe Canning moving up five places from Martin’s ranking of eighth.

Martin’s own third place man, Offaly’s two-time Liam MacCarthy winner Brian Whelahan, placed joint fourth with Tipp legend Nicky English on seven per cent.

And the generation game looks to have come into play with players from the ’60s and ’70s generally ranking lower than their modern counterparts. The most notable example was Kilkenny’s six-time All-Ireland champion Eddie Keher, who only garnered one per cent of the vote despite Martin’s ranking of him in fourth.

So, who came where in your own county? Check out all the individual results at the links below.