GAA Top 20: Munnelly, Miller or Browne - who is the greatest Laois footballer of the last 50 years?

ONE Leinster, one Allianz League: that completes the title haul accumulated by Laois over the last 50 years. The previous half century yielded four Leinster and one NFL title.

It’s modest pickings for a county that produced so many excellent players. Indeed, there’s a sense that more should have been won, especially in the 1980s when they had a formidable squad and also in the noughties when their underage boom of the 1990s fed into the senior system.

For all that, and even with Mick O’Dwyer at the helm, all they managed was one Leinster SFC title. Still, they also reached three other provincial finals and a League final so it was exciting times by comparison with what went before.

That squad does not provide our No 1, however, an honour that goes to Colm Browne, captain of the team that won the League title for the first time in 60 years in 1986.

Browne had all the attributes required in wing-backs and while their role wasn’t as liberated as nowadays, he usually got the balance just right. He would, no doubt, have loved the modern game where half-backs get forward a lot more. In addition to his football acumen, he was also an inspiring leader.

At the age of 37, Ross Munnelly was into his 18th season when Covid-19 stopped play and with real doubts over whether there will be any more action this year, the clash with Kildare in early March may turn out to be his last with Laois.

Whether or not that’s the case, it certainly won’t take away from his superb career during which he set a record as the most ‘capped’ Laois player of all time.

Bobby Miller, who was nominated for an All Star four times without winning an award in the 1970s, and Joe Higgins, one of the best corner-backs of his generation, also deserve their high ratings.

LAOIS

1. Colm Browne

2. Ross Munnelly

3. Bobby Miller

4. Joe Higgins

5. Ian Fitzgerald

6. Tom Prendergast

7. Eamonn Whelan

8. Tom Kelly

9. John O’Loughlin

10. Fergal Byron

11. Brian ‘Beano’ McDonald

12. Pádraig Clancy

13. Martin Dempsey

14. Mick Lawlor

15. Aidan Fennelly

16. Pat Brophy

17. Willie Brennan

18. Colm Begley

19. Darren Rooney

20. Mark Timmons

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