Conor McKeon

It was before, like, 1999, that was before Duff and Robbie Keane and Richard Dunne, even John O'Shea.

So I think that was kind of the dregs of, the dregs of the kind of last...

Last team around.

I don't know, it comes back to what we expect from the teams that represent us.

Do they owe us anything necessarily?

But I think the thing that really pisses people off, and maybe this is the reason that the analysis has been a little bit soft or the public reaction has been more charitable, is that for a long time we were really clueless.

It looked like players, not that they didn't care, but you know when the team on the pitch doesn't believe that what they're doing is going to get them anywhere, they sort of, in some ways, give up.

Whereas with this team, like they gave it everything that they had and they weren't good enough and they made mistakes.

And afterwards, I think, and this goes back to the connection with the team and the public, is that Troy Parent's interviews were really, really good.

All the interviews were really good.

Hamer's interviews have been really, really good.

There's no spikiness there.

They're not putting up a shambolic performance and then coming over all kind of passive aggressive afterwards.

And I think that resonates with people as well.

And I think two things can be true at the same time.

I think Ireland threw that away.

But I think the way they've kind of handled themselves on the pitch in terms of their kind of effort levels and how they've come across to the public

It just shows how powerful that can be in how we all perceive them.

That the reaction afterwards was kind of sympathy and kind of pride as opposed to what the emailer is saying here.

It's sad, really, isn't it?