The nominations for this year’s football All-Star awards were announced this morning and four Mayo players are included on the list. Chris Barrett, Colm Boyle, Paddy Durcan and Aidan O’Shea are all among the 45 players nominated this year. Congrats to all of them.
As you’d expect, Dublin deservedly lead the way with 13 nominations, followed by Kerry on nine, Donegal on six, ourselves on four, Tyrone and Meath on three apiece, Armagh and Roscommon on two and Cavan, Clare and Cork on one. The full list is here.
We’re obviously only going to be bit players in the awards this year, which, when you don’t make the final, is always what happens. We had two players selected on the RTÉ’s Team of the Year on The Sunday Game – Colm and Paddy – but I doubt both will make it onto the All-Star team. Paddy appears to be bolted on for an award and I’d expect him to be our sole winner when the team is unveiled on 1st November.
Not a huge fan of the all-stars concept. Causes so much angst and really doesn’t add much.
Paddy Durkan a shoo in .. Hopefully Boyler gets one as well. Know where your coming from Rock .. Tom Parsons and Kevin McLoughlin over looked in the past . No forward from Mayo nominated.. Hard argue with that this year .
Durcan is nailed on.
Id say boyler in with a shout but could be pipped by Mccarthy or small
I would reckon Aiden has to have a chance although it would be a outside one with Fenton and Moran my tips. Certainly up to the second half of the semifinal Aiden would have been well in the hunt. Incidentally it’s nice to see a Roscommon man get a mention. You’d never think that they are Connacht champions reading that list. Must have been some miscue early in the summer.
Would love to see Boyler get another all star and hopefully Paddy Durcan will get one as well, Aidan will probably be pipped by Fenton and Moran but you never know. Hopefully soon the GAA will release the national league fixtures and we can start planning for matters on the pitch.
Would have to agree with you WJ Durcan should be a certainty and it would be a great bonus if Boyler got the nod The Hill 16 brigade will surely be happy with Poty nominations They are sure to win it this year No big bad Andy or Leeroy stealing their rightful award Hell even Cluxton might get an All Star after Clarke and Beggan Having the cheek to get voted for in years gone bye
I think Cluxton has a major shout for FOTY and it’d be appropriate if he were to win it.
My All-Stars
1 S Cluxton
2 D Byrne
3 M Fitzsimmons
4 T O Sullivan
5 J McCaffrey
6 C Boyle
7 P Durcan
8 D Moran
9 B Fenton
10 P Mannion
11 M Murphy
12 S O Brien
13 D Clifford
14 C McShane
15 C O Callaghan
FOTY Stephen Cluxton
Unlucky to lose out C Kilkenny & S O Shea.
Very difficult to pick just 6 forwards. My pick….
Cluxton
Fitzsimmons
Mcnamee
Tom o sullivan
Durcan
Small
Mccaffrey
Fenton
Moran
Callaghan
Murphy
Sean o shea
Mannion
Mcshane
Clifford
Seems a bit mental excluding stephen o brien and Howard but couldn’t find room for them
Its quite worrying that we don’t have a single forward nominated
Supermac in the last decade we have had loads of all star defenders. And goal keeper. Very few all star forwards. We need to reverse that stat a little if we are to get to holy grail
Not one All Star nomination in the forward line. The Achilles heel of Mayo football ! We consistently produce defenders and midfielders of the highest quality but until we get a similar return from our forwards, we will never climb those steps.
We simply have to put all of our efforts into producing All Star forwards, otherwise we’ll always be the bridesmaids.
All the way
Yet some posters on here think we have a defensive problem.The whole country knows its the forwards we struggle.1 to 9 we are as good as anyone in the country,but its from 10 to 15 I think we are behind Galway and Roscommon in Connacht alone.When we dominated posession in the 1st half of the Dublin game we did not attack Dublin enough, or link play was really poor and we kicked some really poor wides.We kicked 17 wides against Roscommon in June, which is criminal for a team looking to win an All Ireland.
@All the way, . Not strictly true, what you say… Andy Moran has been as good a Forward as has played this Decade, deserved more recognition than he got… Kevin McLoughlin has gotten no recognition in terms of All Star’s, but he has been fantastic for the entire Decade, Mayo forward’s do not have a national reputation for excellence, but lesser Player’s in better or successful team’s have All Star’s … Cillian is the highest scorer in the entire history of the Championship…. There is a difference in being recognized as one of the best, and actually being one of the best… I’ve seen one or two, selections for the team of the Decade, none have included Connor McManus ( over the Decade, who’s been better as a Forward?, I can’t think of one)…. All Star’s, PotY award and YPotY award, is a reflection of the perception of the player’s who plays for the prominent team’s…
How many All Star’s has Tipperary’s Michael Quinlivan?….Paddy Durcan is definitely Mayo’s best player this year, and had Mayo actually won the All Ireland, he would be odds on for a deserved in my opinion PotY award… should get an All Star tough… along with Jack McCaffrey, who possibly could finish the Half Back line with an All Star other than Colm Boyle… Good Luck to both Paddy Durcan and Colm Boyle in the All Star Award’s, both hughly deserving…. can’t see anyone else from Mayo in with a chance to be realistic…
Cluxton for PotY, possibly…. wasn’t tested too much in his primary responsibility of keeping goals out for most of the Championship, but when he was tested, he was still very good…. In my opinion, Cluxton deserves the Player of the Decade Award, revolutionised the position in this Decade, and probably the best Gaelic football Goalkeeper of All Time…. Incidentally how do Dublin keep coming up with Top Class Goalkeeper and make them last so long?…. Paddy Cullen started way back in the sixties, and lasted up until the early eighties won 3 All Ireland’s- John O Leary started early Eighties won 2 All Ireland’s and lasted up until the current incumbent early Naughties, when the Greatest of them All started, and he’s (Clucko) Still there, 7 All Ireland’s, including the Successful Drive for Five, probably be Still there for the Fix for Six, the Same for Seven, etc etc etc….We in Mayo, currently have two first choice Goalkeeper, and have had well into double figures since the sixties….in 2014 we won the Connacht Title all right, but not before using 3 first choice Goalkeeper’s in the process, Clarke, Hennelly and O Malley!
if we are going to produce very good forwards we need the likes of Ciaran McDonald and Kevin McStay as forward coaches , starting with an under sixteen panel and moving up with them through the grades.
I keep saying it we badly need a forwards coach Andy Moran would be a good start but if I was Horan I’d bring in a forward that has won a few all ireland senior finals with his role to solely coach the forwards. The likes of Peter Canavan in my opinion would be ideal. Stevie Wonder can see it’s our forwardline that is the weakest position on the team I believe we have good forwards if they were coached properly by a forwards coach Horan himself was an excellent forward but he can’t do it all he needs help
James Carr should have got a nomination. Galway game – that goal, Meath, Donegal and Dublin. Still, better for him that he didn’t. I said before, our lads may have come up short at times but they have been tested at the highest level. Donegal got 3 nominations – great in Ulster and in that Barbarians match against Kerry, but even Murphy struggled against us.
Andy should have a nomination also
Agree that we don’t have the greatest 6 forwards but I think we’re a bit blinkered if that’s our only problem. It wasn’t our forwards that lost us the first 10 minutes of the second half against Dublin. Not one of our players numbered 2-9 stood up when the pressure was on. I have the greatest respect for every player that puts on the jersey but is all our problems in the forwards?
Our present manager is one of the best forwards that ever played for Mayo–let him coach our forwards.
Exactly Jr, Horan knows all about forward play. In fairness part from the Holmes/Connelly debacle we have been blessed with our management and backroom teams for the last 10 years. People’s belief that a specific forward coach would solve everything are misplaced. At time under Rochford our forward play was the best it’s ever been. We hit something like 70% accuracy in an alll Ireland final.
jr and Niall we hit 17 wides against Roscommon that set us off on a journey that did untold damage with injuries and games coming thick and fast. Andy at age 36 was easily our best forward against Donegal, in the first half against Dublin Aidan hit a wide from 20 yards out that was harder to put wide than Score in my view we need a forwards coach
I know it’s a little off topic but is there any indication of when the league fixtures will be announced? I take it we’ll be playing Dublin in McHale Park this time?
Also the draw for next years championship must be happening soon as well?
If players are hitting a lot of wides, what will a forwards coach do? Tell them to practice shooting. There is a big craze in the GAA with getting outside coaches in at huge expense.
In any case, Donegal had a load of wides against us this summer while Kerry missed a huge number of chances over the 2 all Ireland finals. In our game vs Galway it was the 50th minute before a Galway forward scored from play, by which time 5 of ours had got on the scoresheet. Take Dublin out and our forward play is similar enough to the other contenders. That’s not to say we can’t improve of course.
Fair enough ye don’t want a forwards coach well expect more hard luck stories in the coming years we won’t be winning Sam until we hit opposing teams where it hurts on the scoreboard and there’s no sign of that happening soon
Our forward play in the first half against Dublin this year was very poor. We didn’t seem to have any plan to put the Dublin backs under real pressure. In tight games we always struggle to get scored. We do need to improve our forward play
Anyone stand out in the league ?its weird how inconsistent kiltimagh are terrible one week and beat claremorris comfortably the next week
You have to take league results with a pinch of salt at this time of year. Claremorris won their SFC relegation play off last week and are already safely in midfield table of division 1 so they had nothing to play for. Kiltimagh are trying to stay up so the game was much more important to them.
Claremorris had everyone out wideball except diskin and he came on in the start of the second half i just found it odd
Kmore are definitely darkhorses this year to win mayo championship
Knockmore are already out of the championship!
Sorry wideball my mistake didnt mean kmore
Ballina is the club i meant am not sure how i got them mixed up haha!
They are in my opinion the hardest working team left in this years championship and have the forwards inside to score if they can get a stranglehold in the middle they are trouble for any side
Padraic o hora is an impressive player with potential for ballina.
https://soundcloud.com/bcrfm/ah-ref-and-enda-mac-28th-sept our take on all the latest in mayo gaa circles
Kiltimagh are a terrible team. They don’t play for one another whatsoever. The giving out amongst themselves and amongst management was laughable in the championship this year.
Bad year this year southpaw and management has to go but i think your being extremely harsh
Kiltimagh wouldnt be a terrible team competing in division 1 and if they played the right players in championship theyd still be in it.
My opinion
Thanks Ah Ref .. Enjoyable piece !!
Thought the 12 O’Neills footballs bought for all the Clubs in Mayo was a great gesture by the Mayo Gaa foundation. Would like to see if a scholarship donation could be made to the most promising Mayo Under 17 players of this year only on the condition they are taking up playing Freshers or Sigerson football with a Third Level Institution preferably in the Galway or Sligo colleges.Ethan Henry,Paddy Heneghan, Frank Irwin, Dylan Thornton, Oisin Tunney and Ruairi Keane all have what it takes to become Top Inter County footballers, so they need to be looked after well I feel.
Gas how Breheny has an article on our financial woes today when the spotlight is going onto Galway s woes. Purely a coincidence I am sure.
The mayo news had a sequence of events for the mayo foundation dispute. It seems that mayo gaa board failed to respond to correspondence.
Re Galway and superman’s, this could get messy for Galway gaa board. Pat m Donagh won’t take anything lying down.
TH that minor team can produce a serious number of county stars as long as they stick at it a great team
Add paul walsh ciaran mylett and aidan cosgrove to that
Itsonly68, WRT Kiltimagh, I would put myself somewhere between you and Southpaw. I truly do believe that teams have windows of opportunity and Kiltimagh’s window may have closed this year.
Our best chance of winning promotion was two years ago in Drawn Final and then I need not remind you of what transpired in the Replay with Mulderrig’s thunderbolt.
The last two years, something’s amiss. Last year, I think the lads thought that all they had to do was show up but showing up wasn’t enough against a determined Belmullet side and this year I have to question whether we ever really showed up. Like you said, if we played the right players but that’s a big if……..
TH – I thought Owen McHale looked one of the most promising minors this year. These players are only 16/17 at the end of the day so it will be minimum 3 years before we see them in a senior jersey.
I see our first league game is away to Donegal on Saturday 25th January. A tough start, they’ll be gunning for revenge after the super 8s game!
Ive heard the league 2020 fixture list is out but cant find it anywhere. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Haven’t seen a list but I think we’re at home to Kerry, Dublin, Tyrone and away to Donegal, Monaghan, Meath, Galway. A much more difficult schedule than 2019.
Our first National League game is away to Donegal on Saturday evening January 25th in MacCumhaill Park ,Ballybofey!!
2020 will be a very tough campaign always hard for any team to win travelling to Ballybofey or Clones and then we have only 3 home games against the big 3 Dublin, Kerry and Tyrone!! Pre season training will have to start early like last year to maintain Division 1 status.
Great stuff there Ahref and Enda Mac. I feel I’ve got a thoughtful insight into the club scene, and the business end of the county championship. Keep it up!
Ballinrobe Community school hammered St Jarlaths of Tuam in the Connacht ‘A’ League 3-13 to 10 points this week.Ballinrobe who were never really strong at colleges level have been transformed the last few years producing very strong teams.Good to see that 5 out of the 7 teams in the Connacht A Colleges too are all from Mayo with St Colmans, St Geralds, St Muredachs and Rice College along with Ballinrobe Community school are all playing football in the top competition.
That’s good to hear Chris. We have to build up our underage. We seem to be getting by our act in order. Let’s hope these schools have the top class coaches that are needed.
St Jarlath’s have been transformed since they stopped taking boarders. The flood of top young players from Mayo, other parts of Galway and further afield has ceased and they are, like all other Connacht schools, dependant on players from their own hinterland. Nor do they have dedicated priest/coaches as in the past either. I suspect that when the archbishop was allocating duties to his cohort of priests in bygone days a priority was to have top coaches allocated to Jarlath’s.