Today's nominees for the Terry Phelan Hall of Fame have a 'heatwave' theme ... kind of ...
They're two corner forwards that spent many years absolutely roasting a plethora of unfortunate defenders, and now you have to decide which of them gets the honour of being inducted into the TPHOF. A place where sport's most under-appreciated stars gather to eat Brunches and talk about times gone by.
It's Ollie Murphy, a Meath man who would have fetched a fair few pound if he'd been sold in Carnaross mart, against Cavan's mythical corner-forward, Larry Reilly.
The case for Ollie Murphy
Sure after marking Hank Traynor every week at Meath training, playing against other counties proved a doddle for Ollie; proving himself to be one of the Royals' most important players during their All-Ireland winning year in 1999.
Indeed the man from the Cavan border had made a name for himself long before then. A wirey corner-forward who was as hard as nails, he was never a man to shy away from a good battle. A great man to grab a goal late on too.
Together with Trevor Giles and Graham Geraghty, he was part of a golden era for Meath at the turn of the century. And while the other two grabbed many a headline, Murphy was every bit as important to the county's success. His two All-Star awards are case enough for his induction, but then of course there's also his ranging hairstyles – from afro to bald – which spawned a great 'he has no hair, we don't care' chant.
The case for Larry Reilly
I may have been preparing for this day for a long time. Here's something I prepared (five years) earlier. It's a list of reasons of why Larry's better than not just Murphy, but also Pele AND Maradona.
- People thought Pele was great because he played for Brazil in the World Cup when he was seventeen. When Larry was s>eventeen he was playing with Knockbride minors, Knockbride junior B’s, the odd senior game, St. Brigids u21’s, Bailieborough schools u18’s, the Cavan Vocational schools team, AND the Cavan Minors.
- Maradona may have used the hand of God to beat England, but only Larry could get away with hoping the ball twice and scoring the equalising point in an Ulster final.
- Pele and Maradona would run the length of the field, go around every opposition player including the goalkeeper and tap it into the empty net, Larry just runs to the corner and scores from there.
- Pele needed to advertise viagra to turn people on. Larry Reilly just has to play football.
- Because there’s only one great team play in blue and white, and it’s not Argentina.
- In Brazil there’s a special edition toilet paper called ’Pele’. There was going to be a toilet paper called ’Larry’, but Larry Reilly doesn’t take crap from anyone.
- Pele and Maradona had some of the world’s greatest ever players playing alongside them. Who had Larry?
- I’ve never seen Pele bust through two Aussie Rules players and come out with the ball.
- If Larry was a bullock, you’d say, " he’s winthered well!"
- Pele and Maadona played in some of the biggest and finest stadiums in the world, but you’d never see them scoring 1-8 against Killagarry of a winters evenin’.
- Larry Reilly defies physics, no man weighing fifteen stone could be that fast.
- There’d be no point in ringing Maradona if you had a pipe leaking.
- Larry Reilly says shin gaurds are for babies.
- Pele and Maradona may have come up against defenders from every corner of the world but did they ever skin Francie Bellew?...Larry sure did.
- You always hear players being branded ’the new Maradona’, or ’the new Pele’. You’ll never hear anyone being called ’the new Larry’. You know why?...Because there’ll only ever be one Larry Reilly.
So good he could float on air.
They live just half an hour apart but only one of these men will be making the journey to the Terry Phelan Hall of Fame. You decide...
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