GAA Top 20: Quirke, Nevin or Carpenter - who is the greatest Carlow footballer of the last 50 years?

SOME less successful counties have stand-out No 1 choices – Kevin O’Brien in Wicklow and Matty Forde in Wexford being examples – but it’s not as clear-cut in Carlow.

We settled for Paddy Quirke – and yes, he’s No 1 in hurling too – taking him into the unique position of being the only dual player in any county to take the top spot in both codes. Jimmy Barry-Murphy (Cork) is the highest ranked dual star elsewhere.

Quirke is a clear winner in Carlow hurling, but has several rivals in football, led by fellow dual star, Johnny Nevin.

Both gave incredible service over very long careers, displaying a range of talents which drew regular attention from the Leinster selectors.

Quirke was chosen as a replacement All Star for both the footballers and hurlers on their US trip in 1980 and made such a big contribution to the footballers’ win over Kerry that he was named man-of-the-match.

Nevin comes a close second after a career where the football high-point was winning an All-Ireland ‘B’ title in 1994. Carlow beat Westmeath in the final, with Nevin scoring two points from centre-forward in their 2-10 to 1-11 win.

A busy, energetic attacker, his 16-year career spanned three decades, starting in the late 1980s. Quirke and Nevin would have been successful in both codes in stronger counties, but never allowed the lack of title-winning opportunities in Carlow to dim their enthusiasm or application to the cause.

Mark Carpenter comes third after a fine career while Brendan Murphy is top-ranked of the current squad. In addition to Nevin, Seán Kavanagh, Anthony Keating and Colm Hayden, all of whom were on the 1994 All-Ireland ‘B’ winning team are in the top 20. So too is Tommy Dwyer, the giant midfielder, who won International Rules recognition.

CARLOW

1. Paddy Quirke

2. Johnny Nevin

3. Mark Carpenter

4. Brendan Murphy

5. Seán Kavanagh

6. Cyril Hughes

7. Seán Gannon

8. Anthony Keating

9. Jody Morrissey

10. Paul Broderick

11. Tommy Dwyer

12. Lar Molloy

13. Hughie Brennan

14. Willie Quinlan

15. Colm Hayden

16. Tom Cullen

17. Darragh Foley

18. Garvan Ware

19. Simon Rea

20. Shane Redmond

See Tuesday's Irish Independent and Independent.ie to find out who has made the grade for each team in Munster and have your say on each county's poll below