The results are a joke. How Maurice Fitzgerald came 33rd is an absolute mystery. He is the purest footballer Kerry ever produced. How Larry Tompkins finished way ahead of him is a farce.

Tompkins wouldn't be heard of only he went to Cork and it gave them all they could to beat an ageing Kerry team. When it came to the rough stuff in Croke Park he was always found wanting. He was one man Cork could not rely on.

Ger Martin (via email)

Martin Breheny: Surely being ranked 33rd of all time is quite an honour. As for Tompkins, are we talking about the same man? The one I know played senior football for Kildare at the age of 16, was the catalyst (with fellow Kildare man, Shea Fahy) which changed the course of Cork history from 1987 and was one they could definitely rely on, in Croke Park or elsewhere.

I'm a 16-year-old footballer and hurler from Dublin and I really enjoyed your 125 countdown. I agree with a lot of the choices, including your No 1s but I would have to question how Kieran McGeeney is not in your top 10, never mind the top 50. His leadership alone was worth a number of points in every game.

Mark O'Dea (via email)

MB: He was ranked at 60, but then it was the most competitive field in the history of Gaelic football, so even getting into the top 125, let alone finishing halfway up, was a major achievement.

It was with great interest that I followed the top 125 GAA stars all week. Obviously, it's impossible to please everyone as people will have their own views of what defines 'great'. In my view, I believe the hurlers of the past could not live with the physical fitness and speed of the game today.

As a Wexford man I was shocked and disappointed by the omission of the great Tim Flood who many would regard as one of the greatest hurlers of all time. Not including him is a cardinal sin.

Brian McGee (via email)

MB: A good case for Tim Flood, but overall Wexford can't complain, having had 14 on the hurling selection.

It's a disgrace that you have ignored the merits of great footballers in Carlow, Westmeath, Longford, Tipperary, Waterford, Clare, Limerick and Antrim. There were many players that could have been included but you guys probably don't even know of them -- and I'm talking hurling and football here.

We (Carlow) have had little success nationally, but we nevertheless produced our fair share of talent. I can recall Paddy Quirke playing midfield for Leinster hurlers and being the best man on the pitch in Ballinasloe where the Connollys were in opposition. There were many other great Carlow men too -- Jimmy Rea, Peenie Whelan, John Doyle, Cran Hogan, Buller Canavan, Johnny Nevin, Cyril Hughes to name but a few.

Other counties can speak for themselves, but they should have been included too.

T O'Brien, Carlow

MB: Would it not have been patronising to include players just for the sake of it because they were from weaker counties?

I enjoyed the top 125 series, but was flabbergasted with the omission of Ciaran McDonald. He didn't win an All-Ireland with Mayo, but his performances deserved recognition.

His skill level is unmatched. Obviously your lists are opinions, but maybe I have put a cat among the pigeons by recommending Ciaran.

Michael McEvilly, Dublin

MB: There's plenty room for cats among pigeons in this exercise!

I am totally disgusted that you have not included Jim Reilly of Cavan. He was once described by Joe Keohane, your No 35, as the "the player I would most like to buy to play with Kerry."

The idea of the top 125 players was wonderful as it made for great reading, but not including Reilly made it a farce.

Barry Reilly (via email)

MB: Cavan got six players on the 125. Not bad for a county that hasn't won an All-Ireland for 57 years.

Surely Declan Browne deserved to get into the football list. He was one of the best corner-forwards of the modern era and to win two All Star awards playing for a pretty poor team like Tipperary shows exactly how good he was.

Darragh Farrell, Offaly

MB: No argument about his talent but the top 125 is a competitive place. Now if we had extended it to 150...

Well done. It appears that the selection in both codes was about right, although I would have opted for Mick O'Connell as No 1 footballer.

I have a friend in Australia who has asked me for the names of the adjudication committee and the selection criteria.

Eddie Flynn (via email)

MB: Thank God! A reader who agrees with the ratings (well almost). As for the adjudication panels, they were comprised of people with vast knowledge and experience from all over the country.

They came up with suggestions which we turned into trends before drawing up the final lists.

The absence of John Keenan, John Donnellan, Pat Donnellan or Michael Donnellan -- who between them have 11 All-Ireland senior football medals -- demonstrates the futility of asking 'so-called experts' to perform a task which is clearly beyond them.

Michael Corcoran, (via email)

MB: Compiling a 125 list from 125 years is beyond everybody, experts or not. It's still fun to try it though.

Congratulations on listing the 125 greatest stars of the GAA. I agree with most of the ratings, but I feel that the placing of Roscommon's Gerry O'Malley at 116 was way off the mark.

I'm a Roscommon man and I'm sure I will be accused of bias, but O'Malley is generally regarded as one of the greatest centre-backs.

The great Sean Purcell said he was the best footballer he ever played on.

Many of the players you have rated were on teams where it was easy to play well, whereas O'Malley had to carry poor teams on his back.

Liam Devine, Roscommon

MB: O'Malley's reputation is recognised country-wide, but then so are all of the 125 and many more besides.

I was shocked to see that Carlow have no players in the hurling or football 125, yet Leitrim do.

Can I have an honest answer why that happened?

Darragh Fitzpatrick (via email)

MB: This wasn't about comparing who should get on from the weaker counties. Leitrim's Packy McGarty got into the football selection, based on his nationwide reputation.

As a Laois man, I'm disappointed with the selections. Tommy Murphy is our only representative.

Surely some of the Delaneys deserved to be included.

Bill was one of the greatest footballers of his time and Jack won eight Railway Cup medals at a time when it was a prestigious competition.

And what about Harry Gray one of the best hurlers in the 1940s?

The greatest hurler ever? Great as Shefflin is, I still think Christy Ring was the greatest of them all.

Bosco M Mulhare (via email)

MB: Laois people feel aggrieved, but then we only had 125 places.

Christy Ring excelled when hurling was a man's game. You also omitted two great players, Harry Gray (Laois and Dublin) and Kerry Leahy (Kilkenny).

John Fitzgerald, Abbeyleix

MB: This year's hurling final was probably as manly a game of the ancient craft as the GAA has ever seen.

I am amazed that Paul Flynn, Ciaran Carey and Michael Donnellan have not made the 125 best players. Surely each of them would have to be included in at least the best 50.

Seamus Walsh, Limerick

MB: All three were unlucky to miss the 125, but hardly the 50 cut-off.

I live and work abroad in Budapest, but manage to read the Independent online most days.

This past Monday, I saw that the paper was going to count down the top 125 GAA stars. Things were going well right up until this morning.

I must say that as a Monaghan man, I thought you did 'Nudie' (Hughes) a massive disservice by having him outside the top 100, but apart from that and one or two others, I largely agreed with your choices.

So, back to this morning, just as I was finishing off number 30, I glanced in disbelief as to who you had chosen as the 29th greatest star, John O'Leary.

May I add, he was the third goalkeeper from 50-25. Anyway, still horrified at seeing the name of John O'Leary, I read on. What followed both baffled and mildly angered me.

Playing 70 successive championship games isn't a big deal for a goalkeeper, it's not as if they will rip their hamstring sprinting during a game. Are Sean Cavanagh or Graham Geraghty lesser lights than John O'Leary?

Gerald McCaul, Budapest.

MB: O'Leary is the only goalkeeper in football history to have played 70 consecutive championship games over 18 seasons, during which he kept 32 clean sheets and conceded a goal, on average, every 98 minutes. Surely that deserves a high rating.

Brian Mullins and Larry Tompkins ahead of Darragh O Se, who is the greatest midfielder of all time. Never.

Why isn't Brian Murphy, one of Cork's greatest dual stars, on either list? How does a poor hurler like Sean Og O hAilpin make it? Peter Canavan better than Pat Spillane? Never. I don't see any mention of Limerick's Mark Foley.

Michael Greaney (via email)

MB: Enough points to start a whole lot of rows there. Murphy is unlucky to lose out. Maybe we'll do a best dual player series sometime in the future -- he would be high up that list.

To paraphrase John McEnroe 'you cannot be serious.' No James McGarry. Have you checked his total of clean sheets in All-Ireland finals? Has any other goalie matched it?

Eoin Kelly 67 places behind Henry Shefflin. To add insult to injury (Pete) Finnerty is ranked almost 30 places ahead of Kelly. No Paul Flynn, no Ciaran Carey or Tommy Dunne. No 'Drug' Walsh, no Simon Walton, no Kelleher, no Semple no Martin Kennedy.

Finally, your Killinascully moment. You rate Sylvie Linnane eight places ahead of John Leahy.

Jim Fogarty, Kilkenny

MB: That's nine more players who should have been included. So, who should be left out? Re: the 'Killinascully moment', Linnane played for Galway for 15 years, won three All-Ireland medals and three All

Star awards and was chosen on their Team of the Millennium. Not bad.

As for Killinascully, we're waiting for their team of the Millennium.

A strange thing happened on Saturday night's vigil Mass here in Dungannon.

A missionary priest who introduced himself as being from Galway and had been in the Philippines for 40 years, said that when he was growing up his idol was none other than the legendary Iggy Jones from Tyrone.

That just added fuel to the fire that burned within me at the idea that an all-time great such as Jones could be overlooked in the 125 best footballers.

Damien Cullen (via email)

MB: Jones is certainly one of the absentees that keep cropping up. Maybe on reflection...

I have been waiting for the end of the series to see where Jack O'Shea would be placed.

I have watched football since 1946 and have seen all the greats in that time, not only those fortunate enough to play for prominent teams, but also those with lesser ones who never got the (silver) rewards.

For overall efficiency, constant reliability, though not style, and in all parts of the field, Jack O'Shea stands supreme. It was indeed a pleasure to have seen him over his long reign.

W Prendiville, OSA, Limerick

MB: At last someone who agrees with us! We placed Jacko at No 1 for all the above reasons and more.

Two questions. How could you choose Joe Salmon (Galway) on the hurling team and leave out John 'Jobber' McGrath? How could you select Stephen White (Louth) and leave out Jack Bell?

Michael Weymes (via email)

MB: White was selected on the GAA's Team of the Century. Salmon v McGrath... a straight call between two players who were selected on the best team comprised of players who never won All-Ireland medals.

It's obvious from the selections that only players who have appeared in finals count. If your panel thinks that not one Laois hurler in 125 years was good enough to be named, it shows how little knowledge of hurling they have and how few times they saw Laois playing.

Have they never heard of Harry Gray, Tommy Maher, Jimmy Murray, Timmy Fitzpatrick, Fr Sean Collier, Billy Bohane, Joe Stiles? As for football, Tommy Murphy got in, but what about the Delaney brothers, Danny Doogue, Danny Walsh, Jack Kenna, Tom Kelly, Fergal Byron, Tom Prendergast?

Noel Campion (via email)

MB: Now you can see the extent of the challenge in keeping people happy, while trying to pick 125 players from 32 counties over 125 years.

I am biased and I wouldn't have seen much hurling before the 1980s, but if John Troy and Joe Dooley are not in the top 125, then I just don't know. Is the poll based on impact or skill?

I saw John Troy doing some things that I never saw before or since.

Mike Glennon, Offaly

MB: The lists are based on several aspects, but we could only choose 125 players from a cast of thousands.

Well done on all the trojan work in endeavouring to choose the top 125. I would agree with most of your choices, but would feel the following are unlucky to have missed out in hurling.

Jim Treacy & John Power (Kilkenny), Tom Neville and Willie Murphy (Wexford), John Crowley & Dermot McCurtain (Cork), John Callinan & Ollie Baker (Clare), Declan Ryan & Tommy Dunne (Tipperary), Bernie Hartigan (Limerick), Sean Silke (Galway), Joachim Kelly (Offaly), Mick Bermingham (Dublin)

William Ryan, Ballyhaunis.

MB: You're right -- they are unlucky as are so many others.

- MARTIN BREHENY

Irish Independent