Trevor Mortimer and Andy Moran have both made it onto the shortlist (or should that be the longlist?) for this year’s All-Stars, while Aidan O’Shea has been rewarded for a storming first senior year by being shortlisted (this really is a shortlist, there are only three nominees on it) for Young Player of the Year.
This is the first year since 2006 that we’ve had any players nominated for All-Stars but the days are long gone when winning Connacht would guarantee you a place or two on the side. Last year, Galway failed to get a single player on the team – despite Mick Meehan’s stand-out performance in the quarter-final against Kerry – which means that the last Connacht All-Star would have been whoever it was from Sligo that got one in 2007 (I’m away from base at the minute and so not in a position to check my facts in this respect). As well as shifting away from recognising achievements at provincial level, All-Star selections have got plain odd in recent years too, with Westmeath getting two players on the side last year despite the fact that they weren’t even at the races in Leinster.
Our fade-out in the quarters dish ear means neither Trevor nor Andy are likely to come close to making the final fifteen but it’s good to see some of our lads back among the nominees all the same. It’s also great to see our young prodigy from Breaffy get a deserved inclusion in the YPOTY shortlist though you’d have to think that he’d be behind both Colm O’Neill (who should win it, I think) and Michael Murphy for that one. Aidan’s day will come, though, if he continues to perform like he did this year.
All Stars are a joke.
If Wicklow or some other minnow performed at the level Mayo performed in Connacht they would have one or two awards. We have one bad day and the whole season is written off!
Aidan O’Shea scored 5 goals in 6 starts but doesn’t warrant a nomination? Ridiculous
Hi WJ,
Good to see Aidan get on the ‘short shortlist’ alright, he deserves it. Like you though, I think he’d be third choice behind the other two.
Sure if Murphy gets it, we can claim it anyway can’t we?! Isn’t he a Belmullet man?
I don’t think Sligo got an all-star in 2007, could be wrong though. They had a couple of nominations alright, Donovan and someone else.
I think Dillon and Mortimer for us in ’06 were the last Connacht all-stars (which I think kind of sums up the standard of Connacht football of late).
I think we are very lucky to get any nominations. The only team of note we beat was a Galway in reverse. Moran was lucky to get a nomination and so too was Mortimor. Murphy from Donegal has to get the young player one simply because he was also nominated fro an All star as well. O Shea wasnt but his was a great achievement and should have been also nominated for the All stars. I thought O Malley the keeper deserved a nomination, certainly he was every bit as good as the medias favourite Dub, Cluxton. How he has got two or three already puzzles me. Anyway we are from Mayo so the Press dont rate us, Dave Brady, Noel Connelly, David Heaney, Peter Burke over the years ,and McGarrity (in 2004) all deserved an All Star. Instead luminories like Glenn Ryan, McCabe, Davy Dalton,Brian Lacey, Ray Cosgrove, Even Eelly, got them. Me thinks a lot of those were awarded on account of who the manager was rather than ability. Ryan a better leader than Connelly, McCabe a better player than Brady, Dalton better than Heaney…you gotta be joking.
I do not think we deserve an allstar.
The meath game saw to that.
OShea needed to get to semi to stake a claim for YPOY
I think that pretty much much hits the nail on the head, jr – we needed to get to a semi at least to be in with a shout for one (I mean, we’re not the Dubs after all – what’s the bets that, their annihilation by Kerry notwithstanding, they’ll still pick up at least one?) and AOS would have needed another game too to be in with a real shout for Young Player.
You’re correct, of course, Dan – 2006 was the last time any players from Connacht (Alan Dillon and Conor Mort) got All-Stars. That’s a fairly savage indictment of Connacht alright but also a reflection of how far off the rails the whole process has gone. Leinster haven’t produced a team of note since Meath last got to the All-Ireland final and they’re still good for 2 or 3 All-Stars every year. The journos, who do the voting, obviously know where most of their papers are being sold!