Right, the voting has now closed on our Player of the Year poll and, after the biggest vote ever in any poll held here on the site, we have a winner, a decisive one at that. With 56% of all votes cast, you have chosen Lee Keegan as the Mayo GAA Blog Player of the Year for 2021.
This is Lee’s second time to win this prize, having done so in 2016 as well, the year in which also won the GAA/GPA Footballer of the Year award. He won an All-Star that year too and you’d have to think that he’s nailed-on to win another one – which would be his fifth in all – this year.
Lee’s big performances this year came – as they’ve almost always done in his time as a Mayo player – in the biggest games, where the stakes were highest. Up until the All-Ireland semi-final, his year in the Green and Red had been fairly unremarkable but from then on it was little short of sensational.
He was key to our comeback win over Dublin, covering ferociously at the back and driving us forward relentlessly. In the final, on a day when very few Mayo players could have been proud of their displays, Lee constantly took the fight to Tyrone, right to the bitter end.
Congrats to Lee on winning the vote for our Player of the Year for 2021. We can only hope that the Westport man will remain in the thick of the action for us for a few years more.
Couldn’t really have been anyone else really.. Lee Mayo’s greatest of all time.
What a player. An absolute titan for Mayo. Pleasure to watch the man play ball.
Phenomenal footballer, phenomenal leader – here’s hoping Lee stays on for another few years.
Well done Lee. Hopefully he sticks it out for another few seasons. After the unreal effort he has put in over the last 10 or so years. With his best performances usually kept for the final. He’s probably wondering what more he can do to win one at this stage. More players need to step up to the mark when it matters most to help him from here on in. Here’s hoping.
The man.
If we can’t get our act together as a county in every way possible for Lee Keegan and send him into retirement with a Celtic Cross then it’s time to start taking heed of our critics, because all we are doing is proving them right.
The man is a legend but we need to make sure he is a winning legend and start to fix our serious issues right away.
We are all fed up and embarrassed by throwing away finals we should be winning and it’s time someone got this project by the scruff of the neck and shake the hell out of it and stop this sleep walking from one final loss to another.
If we have any ounce of machismo about us we can start right now to put the structures in place to give us the best chance possible of winning the All-Ireland in 2022.
Our goal should be to win the All-Ireland in 2022, no more excuses.
We owe it to Lee Keegan.
Enough is enough.
One of the finest on and off the pitch I know one man that is in heaven that wud be so happy for u Keegan as he used to call u a happy man the day ye visited him in his home in westmeath god bless u (Keegan,).
Probably the best in my time watching mayo since the 70s. A mighty bit of stuff. Leader. Big game player. The full package. I pray he gets the celtic cross. Nobody deserves it more. . A god of mayo football
Incredible footballer and as humble as you can get. A rare trait at Lee’s level.
My alternate Mayo team for next year.
Rob
Harrison, Coen, O’Hora,
Lee, Mullin, E MC
Matty, Paddy D
Hession, Tommy, Ryan
Aidan, Cillian, Diarmuid.
I can dream
I’d make two changes to your team there Kieran Matthew Flanagan for Rob Hennelly and James Carr for Aidan, Aidan can be used as a super sub role and I’d give him and Rob and Diarmuid the league off to rest and get their hunger back they have played an enormous amount of football and the miles are clocking up plus Diarmuid has had injuries. I’d leave Diarmuid there but warn him he’s not to leave his position. Of course the full forward line would need the right type of ball and the half backs need to kick it in long and not smother the half forward the game is called football at the end of the day. It will never happen under James but we can dream. And well done to Lee Keegan absolute legend does his talking on the pitch I hope he becomes Mayo manager one day
Well done Lee. Think we can get a few seasons more with Lee if his game time is managed, he doesn’t always need to start.
@Kieran Campbell, I don’t think you can tog a middle eight with only one player over six foot. The opposition would just select tall and wipe out that team on kickouts and physicality.
I voted for Ryan but it’s hard to argue with that selection. The Real Deal. Well done Lee. Again!
Congratulations Lee, totally deserve it, hope there will be plenty more in store for him in the future….
well done.
Well done to Lee. I’m glad he has been playing with us all these years. I wouldn’t have liked to have been facing him. Up there with the very best to have played the game.
Well said Viper.
I voted for Leroy, but when you look at the managerial firepower that is being gathered in other counties – and you can be damn sure they will not misfire under pressure – we have to change fundamentally including the management set-up or the cultural inertia will persist and blind loyalty betray honest mature effort again