Matty Forde

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Matty Forde is a Gaelic footballer from Kilanerin, County Wexford, Ireland. In recent years, he has established himself as one of the top forwards in the game, regularly racking up high scores. He plays club football with Kilanerin and intercounty for Wexford.

In 2004, Forde was top scorer in both the National League and the Championship, culminating in him receiving a GAA All Stars Award in that year (making him the first Wexfordman to win a football All-Star), and representing Ireland in the 2004 International Rules series victory over Australia. He also represented Leinster in the interprovincial championship that year, where they reached the final. He helped steer Wexford to their first Leinster semi-final since 1994 where they lost out to Westmeath, and scored a massive 2-10 in a subsequent qualifier victory over Offaly, before Wexford made their exit in the 3rd qualifying round with defeat to Derry. His finest moment came when he was awarded GPA Footballer of the Year.

In 2005, Forde was again top scorer in the National League, where Wexford reached the final. He reached another Leinster semi-final with Wexford, where they narrowly lost out to Dublin, before bowing out to Monaghan in the qualifiers. He was again selected to represent Ireland in the International Rules series which was held in Australia.

2006 was a mixed year for Forde. Following fine performances in the National League, where he was top scorer in Division 1 despite Wexford being relegated to Division 2, he scored 0-12 against Meath in a famous Leinster senior football championship victory for the county. However, in the Leinster semi-final defeat to Offaly, Forde, who scored an impressive 1-7 in the game, was involved in a stamping incident, where he was caught on camera stamping on the back of the head of Offaly's Shane Sullivan. The referee did not see the incident, and Forde was allowed to play on, but the incident was caught on camera and relayed to the crowd on the stadium's big screen. While Forde did play in the following Saturday's qualifier victory over Monaghan, in which he was top scorer with 0-6, Forde was given a 3-month suspension at a meeting of the GAA's Central Disciplinary Committee a week later, and ruled out of Wexford's third round qualifier meeting with Fermanagh that day, which they subsequently lost.

Despite this, Forde is still recognised as one of the best and most skilful footballers of our time.^{[citation needed]}