Paddy’s All-Star

Willie Joe
Photo: Connaught Telegraph

The 2019 All-Star football team has just been unveiled. As we’d expected and hoped, Paddy Durcan has been named at right half-back on the team. It’s his first All-Star award.

Paddy is our sole All-Star winner this year but it was great to see the Mitchels man claim the award. He had an outstanding summer in the Green and Red, during which he stood up as one of the true leaders on the team. Hearty congrats to him.

58 thoughts on “Paddy’s All-Star”

  2. Well done Paddy, no doubt our stand out player this year, and great to see him recognised at national level.

  4. First all star from Castlebar which is amazing. Well done Paddy. His performance in against Donegal was epic. Class act. But Howard at no 6? Come on…….

  6. Well done Paddy ,two all stars for Tyrone a joke if they could make a centre back out of Howard surely they could have given the full back to a half back

  7. Congratulations to Paddy Durcan, very well deserved first award … Cluxton well deserved PotY award, came close a few times before, Probably the Player of the Decade…I think if Mayo had made it to the All Ireland Final, Paddy Durcan would have had a great chance at the PotY award as well…Colm Boyle was very unlucky not to be picking up a fifth award tonight… The All Star’s always brings plenty of Debate, apart from Colm Boyle not picking up an award, I taught Dean Rock was a bit unlucky!

  8. Congratulations PADDY DURCAN, fantastic achievement, Conor wil be happy.
    Howard at centre half back is some gaff.
    Sad reflection on all the quality players who played number 6 all year.

  10. Well done Paddy Tough on Boyler but I suppose they felt the need to give it to the most consistent centre half back in the country Howard. Oh hold on he doesn’t play in that position. A wonder they didn’t give the 6 jersey to Dean Rock surely as much a chb as Howard. Meanwhile the guy who manned No 6 extremely well all year is omitted.

  11. Not One Forward All Star nomination,we all know where our real problem is leaving all the other problems aside County Board, Mayo Foundation, Lough Lannagh etc.We have no real scoring forward to rely on in the big games outside of Cillian and with Andy now retired and a cruciate ligament Injury to Jason Doherty there will be big boots to fill up front.The hard works starts now for the likes of James Carr , Darren Coen, Fionn McDonagh ,Fergal Boland, Ciaran Treacy, Gary Boylan, Brian Reape , Conor Diskin, Tommy Conroy, Liam Irwin and Ryan O’Donoghue to step up to the mark in 2020.Cause if our forwards don’t make an impact we are not going to make it past the Super 8s next year in my opinion, never mind trying to beat Dublin or Kerry.

  12. Wasn’t Pat Holmes a Castlebar player when he won his 1996 All Star? Well done Paddy. I’d say Boyle or MacCarthy are scratching their heads. Howard at 6 was wrong.

  17. Well done Paddy. Fabulous footballer and leader on the field for club and county. His best years still ahead of him. Tyrone bagging more than us is an absolute joke….we would have wiped the floor with them had we met them in the latter stages of the championship.

  18. Hon the Bar. Congrats Paddy – fantastic performances all year. Captain in 2020?

    Pondering why no forward got a nomination:

    Fionn MacD – injured for a large part of the championship
    Jason Doc – cruciate blow in Donegal match
    Diarmuid – injured at a crucial stage and only back for Dublin game
    Cillian – not at his best this year, but again, the long lay off wasn’t a help
    James Carr – should have been nominated, but glad he wasn’t
    Darren Coen – dropped at the QF stage
    Andy – should have got a nomination, but journos probably said if he’s not getting a start, we should look at others

  19. A well deserved acknowledgement for Paddy. One of our key performers now – has even stepped ahead of the likes of Keegan.

  20. Well done Paddy, his performances against Donegal and Dublin were spectacular.

    The whole selection criteria needs to be changed though. People talking as if James McCarthy hard done by. He is a tremendous footballer, but from what I recall, he missed most of early part of championship and wasn’t his brilliant best when he returned. Recency bias perhaps. I thought Keoghan hard done by and Ryan McHugh was probably nailed on until the mayo match

  21. Well done Paddy. Well deserved and great achievement. Showing great maturity and now one of the first names on the team sheet. Hopefully you can continue to improve and be a real leader for us in 2020.

  22. Colm Boyle and Stephen o Brien should have got All Stars.
    I have lost all faith in the voting process.
    Stephen o Brien was a big part why Kerry got to AI Final Replay.

  24. If there is to be a change of captain, it should be Steven Coen. He seems to have a habit of winning with any team when he is the captain. Napoleon always liked his generals to be lucky! But I think Diarmuid is an excellent captain

  25. I am a big fan of Cluxton , the best goalie I have seen and deserved player of the year. But when I saw his interview about the demands required to play county football I had to smile. He was telling us what time he finished work (before 4) and the huge effort then between travelling, team meetings training etc. I wonder how would he have coped if he was a Mayo player living in Dublin. Travel to Castle bar for training. Arrive back in Dublin in the early hours,.Grab some food before or on the return journey. Up early next morning,Train in Dublin with some fellow Mayo men before heading west for weekend games or training. Do it for years without ever winning the ultimate prize but do it because you love the county and everything the gaa represents. It just shows what fantastic commitment our lads have given and not a word of complaint. As I said Cluxton has been brilliant but really the odds are stacked in his county’s favour in comparison to the counties who encounter such obstacles that Stephen is not or will ever be familiar with.

  26. Stephen O Briens best performance was v Tyrone. His displays in both AI finals were less than great. Matter of fact him choosing to go for goal in the replay instead of laying it off to unmarked player in the box with 20 minutes to play proved a key moment and one would expect an experienced player like him to have better decision making than that.

  27. Not making an issue Opt2misteek but decision making is critical – think Kevin Mac’s free against the Rossies.

  28. He may lead by example, opt2misteek, but his decision to opt for Kevin McLoughlin against Loftus in that last free v Roscommon last summer leaves lots of questions about his judgement. An awful lot of questions. It wasn’t fatal to our All Ireland ambitions but I would hate to see him make a similar call in a crucial game where it did matter.

  29. Well done to Paddy to misquote another Castlebar man he’s a class act. Fair play to him a credit to his club county and family. On The topic of none of our forwards not being nominated for an all start I firmly believe (rightly or wrongly) that if we had a dedicated forwards coach such as Peter Canavan to work soley with the forwards we’d be unstoppable. We have loads of good talented forwards but we never seem to have a cohesive forward plan. To me In the stands anyway our forward play resembles something like a rugby play over and back the field every which way but forward

  32. I couldnt agree more with you ‘Our Time Has Come’ – Hanley was a massive loss and I think it’s very fair to say that had he not left us, we would have gotten over the line at once if not more in the past decade.

    It’s also fair to say that our time is far less likely to come if someone of Mattie’s calibre opts out.

    Mayo GAA and powers that be (major sponsors whose interest it is that we have our best team possible) should be doing everything in it’s power to hold onto our best talent. Other counties do. IMO Hanley leaving set a bad precedent for other talented youngsters. Compare with Sean Cavanagh and Ciaran Kilkenny; both offered professional contracts in Australia. Both declined stating their preference was to win an All Ireland with their county.

  33. His peers too should be doing their utmost – I am sure the Mayo players want the best around.

  34. What coaching has Peter Canavan & Kieran McDonald done that makes them so popular on this forum?

  35. If Mattie gets selected, and wishes to try out a professional sports career, it will be difficult to keep him, sincerely hope he stays, we just cannot afford to lose this talent, he had a fabulous debut season, really pity he got injured in middle of championship. For those of us based in Galway, am looking forward to seeing him and Stephen Brennan line out for NUIG in the Sigerson. Are there any other Mayo lads lining out for Nuig this season?

  36. To anwser your question JR Peter Canavan has won a few all Ireland’s with Tyrone and has experience coaching Fermanagh ok he didn’t set the world alight with them but we have better talent in Mayo and he could be given a dedicated role of coaching the forwards. We haven’t a single person in Mayo that has an all Ireland senior medal even Paddy Prendergast lives in Kerry it’s no harm to bring in outside help if I had Tim O Leary’s money I’d bring Horan and Canavan into a room and work something out. On the captaincy I’d make Paddy Durcan our captain he’s a born leader and current all star nothing against Diarmuid being captain but Paddy imo is more consistent

  39. It is far too late to bring in coaches at senior level it must be done at under twevles at least,but we do need forward coaches at under twelves and upwards

  42. Mayonaze
    Ciaran Kilkenny did not “decline a career in Australia.
    He went out in October 2012 and was back in January 2013.
    He didn’t make it in professional sports

  43. Was in Tuam today for the Corofin and Tuam Stars replay.A crowd of over 6 thousand turned up on a very wet miserable day.I felt there was a buzz back in Galway football that I hadn’t seen since the O’Mahony years 1998-2004.Maybe its the excitement about Padraic Joyces appointment. Hes holding a series of trial games in Galway in the next few weeks.From what I hear hes going to have a very strong backroom team in with him.If he can get the best 15 Galway footballers on the field which I don’t think Kevin Walsh ever did ,especially in defence and playing a man on man attacking style game, I think Galway could go very well next year they are sure to gey a bounce from PJs appointment.If I was in the Galway Football County Board at the minute though I would be making Tuam Stadium the home venue for Galway footballers in Fbd and NFL from now on, Its the real Home of Galway football you could see that today with the crowd and atmosphere and the big number of neutrals at the game,the crowds you would get there for Division 1 National League games alone in comparison to Pearce Stadium where they can’t hold Saturday night evenings games cause they have no permission for floodnights.It would probably need alot more work yet to hold Home championship games tho.

  44. Agree Jr. People make out all we need is a McDonald/Canavan coaching the forwards. Good forwards don’t automatically make good coaches…such basic thinking. Agree U10/U12’s is the age that basic skills are honed. Under our master plan we need to implement/employ suitability qualified personnel all through the grades not just look for a miracle to happen at Senior by getting a ‘big name’ in. Let McDonald earn his spurs with the Academy first. At Senior age ones ability to change has passed(a player can learn better methods ie Andy Moran but their natural instinct is set).

    Also IMO if Ruane is trialling for AFL then so be it…it would be a big loss but that’s his choice….a player has to be 100% in. None of this nonsense please of trying to keep him happy…also Ciaran Kilkenny did try out AFL but made decision to return to GAA.

  45. Very poor showing by Ballintubber this afternoon. Granted the game was played in very slippery conditions against a dogged & determined Glencar Manorhamilton team and having to contend with a very poor referee. Very poor handling, sloppy play and lethargic performances by a number of players saw them really struggle through much of the game. Without Cillian their attack looked toothless which will be a big worry for them going up against the class of Corofin next Sunday. Lots of room for improvement over the coming week.

  46. Mattie would obviously be a huge loss but if that’s what he wants to pursue then I will wish he the best and hope he is a success. If it doesn’t work out then we will welcome him back to the fold.

    Team sheet, I would agree with you, it is nonsense talk of “keep him happy”. If he wants a career in professional sports then it’s his best avenue, those who try to pressure him into staying don’t have his best interests at heart. The idea of getting some business to take care of him is ridiculous, if one player gets a special arrangement then every player will demand it.

    Gaa is an amateur sport, players are free to come and go as they please. If the GAA want to keep players in the country then they either sort out the mess that is the fixture calendar and give these guys time to have a life or pay them what they deserve for the unbelievable commitment they put in.

  47. I wouldn’t be Iinclined to get them in a twist about Mattie trialling for Afl. That lad’s blood runs red and green. He will probably do it to improve his own skill set. I can not see him signing a contract….on a separate note, did anyone else think 20euro into McHale park for 60 minutes of November football was excessive??? Well done Ballintubber.

  48. Couldn’t believe the price 2 hops when i arrived. 20 euro was day light robbery. No wonder the crowd was so small.

  49. I think it’s unlikely that Mattie would get offered a contract when he’s 22/23 now. Even the Irish lads that head over as teenagers struggle to make the transition. Hopefully he stays around as our midfield options aren’t that plentiful when you take into account Tom Parsons and Seamie O’Shea’s ages.

  50. I was shocked when I was asked to pay €20 for a ticket for today’s game. Really disgusted. For a quarter final Connacht club championship game it was plain wrong

  51. @TH I don’t think Galway have enough quality defenders to play a man on man attacking style of game and be successful with it.

  52. Peter Canavan an outstanding tactician and very able communicator. KMcD for coaching the uncoachable, we haven’t produced a forward of his flair and unpredictability since his retirement. Both of them imo very high up in skills level
    I would use them if they were available.
    We have some nice young forwards coming along. They need to be allowed express themselves with confidence.

  53. Coaches need a proven track record.People from Galway here in Meath keep talking about P Joyce–i ask them do they think he will play FF or CHF end of discussion.

  54. Jesus, TH, have you been appointed PRO for Galway?

    Padraig Joyce is completely untested. He may turn out to be a genius, but he has no track record to go on. Again, do I detect a Mayo inferiority complex at work? Why wouldn’t there be a big crowd at a Galway county final with the AI champs and the local team in? Two local teams you could say.

    As of now, we have nothing to fear from our Connacht competitions IMO, if we bring on our newbies, hold on to existing oldies, and stay injury free. Really 2019 was crucifying in injury terms.

    On our own management I do think some slight tweaks are needed. JH made them in 2012 in his second year. It will be interesting to see if he repeats the trick.

  55. Truly wish those AFL people would stop poaching players out of this country and our national sports

  56. Young athletes can make a good living/attractive lifestyle. To reach the top in gaa you have to train like a professional, sacrifice your time, education, work, and all as an amateur. Unless star players see that there is a possibility of being involved with a team that can go to the top, they are going to walk. Hard to blame them….

  57. Ontheditch – you are spot on. The commitment required at the very top level of intercounty football is crazy. The players in Dublin and Kerry will give the level of commitment as they are guaranteed to win at least one all Ireland in a 10 year intercounty career.
    It’s much harder to get or expect that level of total commitment from players in other counties. Why would they do it? To represent your county? That was fine when the commitment wasn’t as demanding. The gap between the top and the rest is going to get wider over next few years.

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