Photo: GAA
Time for some light relief, I reckon. The list of nominees – 45 in all – for this year’s GAA/GPA Football All-Stars was released overnight and we’ve seven players on the list. Chris Barrett, Keith Higgins, Lee Keegan, Tom Parsons, Diarmuid O’Connor, Aidan O’Shea and Cillian O’Connor all make this year’s shortlist. In addition, Diarmuid has, as expected, been nominated for the Young Player of the Year Award.
As is only right, Dublin lead the way this year with eleven nominations, while Kerry have eight, ourselves and Tyrone seven, Donegal five, Monaghan four and one each for Fermanagh, Laois and Westmeath.
Dublin are guaranteed the Player of the Year award, with Bernard Brogan, Jack McCaffrey and Philly McMahon the three nominees for this award while Diarmuid is up against last year’s recipient, Donegal’s Ryan McHugh, as well as Ryan Wylie of Monaghan for the Young Player award.
Well done to all of our lads who made the cut this year, in particular to Tom and Diarmuid, both of whom appear on the list for the first time.
The full list of the 2015 All-Star nominees is here.
Delighted for all nominees but in particular Tom Parsons & Diarmuid given 1st nomination
Really hope Tom Parsons gets one – I would have himself and Lee as the 2 most deserving Mayo players, although Aidan, Diarmuid and Cillian would also be quite deserving.
The Younger O’Connor should be nailed on for Young POTY anyway.
7? :O
Surprised Barrett is in there, big fan of him, but he only started three matches! Cathal Sweeney is incredibly unlucky from Galway to miss out
We’ll get two maximum, very possibly only one. Lee Keegan is a nailed on certainty, while they might put Aidan in full. Diarmuid will pick up YPOTY so they won’t give him an All Star
Probably looking at
Kealy
Enright ROC McMahon
Keegan COS McCaffrey (POTY)
Fenton Maher
Donnelly Connolly KK
Brogan AOS McManus
or along those lines. it would be hard to argue much with that in fairness if they do go with it, it hasn’t been a vintage year for stand out individuals
Well done to all those nominated. Very unusual to see a semi finalist get a similar amount to a finalist. Goes to show how little there is between the 2 teams.
Kerry got eight, JPM, with ourselves and Tyrone getting seven each. I think I read on the radio earlier on that it’s much the same breakdown based on how far the teams went in the championship as last year.
Ya I think semi-finallists (or one of them in certain cases) generally get the same or very close to a losing finallist pretty much every year
The recency effect plays a huge role in these so some guys who had a poor final will be left off altogether as it’s so fresh in the memory. For example Johnny Buckley would have got nominated if Kerry lost to Tyrone that day but a poor final means he’s left off
It worked to Mayo’s advantage here that they had the same amount of matches as Kerry too. For example no way Chris Barrett would be nominated if he didn’t get another match to start in, as was the case in the semi replay
The flipside of that is Aido would have been a certainty if Mayo lost first day out but after a largely ineffective replay will be pretty much touch and go. you’re as good as your last performance in these things (which to be fair in the case of a final and semi, should be given the most weight given you’re up against much better players in these matches)
Kealy
Enright ROC McMahon
Keegan COS McCaffrey (POTY)
Fenton Maher
Donnelly Connolly KK
Brogan AOS McManus
Ciaran – pretty good. IMO Enright takes too many chances to win an All Star. I agree Cathal Sweeney played very well this year – Enright out. Also Colm Cavanagh had a magnificent year and I would put him ahead of Maher. No Kerry forward in your team. Donnacha Walsh has to be worth his place. Brogan scored a lot but against a lot of poor opposition. I think the most improved team this year was Tyrone and when they did play football they displayed awesome skills in passing, kicking, tackling and off the ball running.
Well done to all our nominees. Personally thought Boyle had a great chance along with SOS. Delighted for Tom and Diarmuid.
Keegan, O’Shea nailed on for me. Parson I thought was the other high possibility but with Maher nailed on from Kerry, Fenton’s MOM final will probably see Tom come up short. Diarmaid OConnor has an outside (35%) chance i would say. Can’t see anyone else. My original prediction was 2-3 awards – would now think it will be straight 2. 4 awards for beaten semi-finalists i think would be unprecedented – but maybe some stato type could correct me on that from the history books.
Anyone see the 15 for 15 Today FM awards. 6 Kerry and 4 Tyrone I thought a bit generous – no Bernard Brogan a bit of joke too I think. Padraig Joyce – superb player – got full forward but 1998 performances wouldn’t count in last 15 years and can’t see how brogan with 3 AI medals, a player of the year and player of the year nomination doesn’t make the cut!
Footballer of the year has to be Phily. Nobody performed like him this year. Only one anyway near him IMO was Donnelly for Tyrone. As to whether he did this or that what has that got to do with it. Can only saints win these things? The best player is the best player. Period.
On Monday I heard an interview with Matt Copper & Philly McMahon, there is allot to admire about the guy. I won’t go into the details, the Guy is pretty good at getting a bit of good publicity, for his business and causes, and I guess most of ye posters will get to hear all about what’s good about Philly in the near future of ye haven’t already! .You have to admire him for that. But I sincerely hope he doesn’t pick up player of the year award. What he does on the field of play should decide what awards he gets. By my count he should have been sent off, three times V Mayo on the first game. He also feigned injury to try and get AOS sent off. He wasn’t alone in his endeavors, the Dublin boys, Doctors, Phyisos, and Trainer all rushed on the pitch to attend to their stricken hero with such coordination and urgency, you wouldn’t see as good inan Intensive Care Unit when a heard monitor sends out it’s warning alarm. I take Jim Gavin’s statements about respecting the game and opposition with a pinch of salt. But I digress, back to Philly, his MO for playing is not on the edge, but goes way beyond the edge. Philly has benefited from some incredibly lax referring and complete lack of interest by those charges with reviewing video evidence. His tranggressions have been carried out with impunity. Has Philly just been incredibly lucky? Or has Philly just benifited from the absolute shambles that all those committees charged with ensuring discipline and fair play have made of their mandate. At the moment it’s a Thugs charter, if you want to engage in tuggery on the pitch. Just make sure the Ref doesn’t see you! These review committee will undermine the Referee and clear you to play the next match. All in all its a poor example to give to the youth taking up this Game. At it’s best it’s a great game, it needs to be administered by the best. We need to sell it to our youth and to the wider world. So for me either Bernard Brogan or Jack McCaffrey would make worthy player of the year. A for awards for Mayo players, I think we’ll only get two All Stars, AOS & Leroy, with Dermot O Connor a week merited YPOTY award!
Some very strange nominations and omissions. Paul Durcan in goals for Donegal, come on he hardly deserves a nomination based on this years performances. I really don’t get the medias fascination with Durcan. Cluxton in spite of his few mistakes deserves to be nominated for his league & championship performances. Donie Kingston, how is he on this list? Comer or Conroy from Galway warranted inclusion over this Laois misfit. Sean Cavanagh by his own high standards had a very average season and does not deserve to make the list either. No doubt the final team will contain further surprises.
I would include Cavanaugh any time Tyrone get to an AI semi. He is their leader and one of the best in the business. Including Galway full forward now thats just having a laugh.
Sinabhuil
That isn’t my team per se, more the one I think will get it
I’d find it hard to pick an exact 15 myself, I barely watched the quarters involving Dub and Kerry as they were snoozefests and missed Cork Kerry replay. Watched very little of Dublin in Leinster.
On that basis, I’m not the most qualified to give a definitive one, but I’d have to include Kealy, McMahon, McCaffrey, Keegan, Fenton, KK, BB and McManus as the certainties from what I saw of them
Well done to the 7 lads nominated for an All-Star this year. At this stage I’d say since 2011 pretty much most of the players who have played regularly in our first 15 have at least got a nomination, so it just shows that their is a lot of very good players to work with. If we can just get this current mess sorted out quickly, our future should still be bright.
At the end of the day these players just want to have the most professional set-up as possible, we still might not win an All-Ireland title but at least we will have given ourselves the best possible chance of winning one. I can’t see anything been wrong with that stance.
Mayoman8 why insult a fine footballer like Donie Kingston by calling him a ‘misfit’ ? Uncalled for!
@Mayoman8
The “Laois misfit’s” nomination is probably something to do him having scored more from play in the championship that all the other players in the forwards list nominated from the honour outside Brogan. His 2-12 from play in 4 games stacks up pretty considering it was achieved in tight games as a minnow rather than big scores racked up against a minnow. So big of respect man.
The All stars are a joke in many ways because it is really a semi-finalist/finalist award scheme. Players from smaller counties have to be truly exceptional to even get a look in. Declan Browne managed it twice and Mattie forde just once – of the best forwards you will ever see.
In 2002 Sligo lost to Armagh in the All Ireland QF after a replay by 2 pts. 140 mins of pulsating football between the two teams left 2 points between them. A player called John McPartland ate Kieran McGeeney for breakfast in the replay down in Navan. Ultimately Armagh got 11 All Star nominations and McGeeney won player of the year – Sligo got 1 All Star nomination……
So the bottom line is that when a player from a small county gets even nominated – there should be absolutely no one questioning his selection because it is so hard to penetrate the norm. If he wins one, then he truly deserves a lot more credit than he is likely to get.
WJ there was so many typos in that last post i repost it here amended.
@Mayo8
The “Laois misfit’s” nomination is probably something to do him having scored more from play in the championship than all the other players in the forwards list nominated for the honour outside Brogan. His 2-12 from play in 4 games stacks up pretty well considering it was achieved in tight games AS a minnow rather than big scores racked up AGAINST a minnow. So bit of respect man.
The All stars are a joke in many ways because it is really a semi-finalist/finalist award scheme. Players from smaller counties have to be truly exceptional to even get a look in. Declan Browne managed it twice and Mattie forde just once – of the best forwards you will ever see.
In 2002 Sligo lost to Armagh in the All Ireland QF after a replay by 2 pts. 140 mins of pulsating football between the two teams left 2 points between them. A player called John McPartland ate Kieran McGeeney for breakfast in the replay down in Navan. Ultimately Armagh got 11 All Star nominations and McGeeney won player of the year – Sligo got 1 All Star nomination……
So the bottom line is that when a player from a small county gets even nominated – there should be absolutely no one questioning his selection because it is so hard to penetrate the norm. If he wins one, then he truly deserves a lot more credit than he is likely to get.
Well done to all the lads on the nominations. I would agree with those speculation on gongs for Lee and Aido, with YPOTY for Diarmuid.
It’s interesting to see the stuff being done with Philly McMahon at present to repair his image. Even the appeal against the latest suspension is being done to try to rewrite any damage done in the last few weeks. Smacks of a campaign for Player of the Year. If you were to take note of all the stuff that’s going around, you’d nearly think that he was a misunderstood saint.
Come to think of it, St Philly of Ballymun does have a ring to it!
Are you praising or belittling Donie Kingston, Mayoforever? Your original comment does not tally with this last assessment of him!
Sorry Cantini, the last post was actually yours! Fully agree with your views!!
We’ll definitely get 2 and maybe 3. I’ll never forget 1997, when we reached the AI final and got 2 all stars while kildare picked up 3 on the back of a Leinster semi final defeat! No back door back then.
The ultimate team selected is usually a bit of a joke as there is way too much emphasis placed on the AIFinal performers, which eliminates a whole swathe of players – just lazy populist journalism, as the poor dears couldnt be expected to have an ongoing marking system in place throughout the full championship. That would surely have guaranteed SOS a place amongst the nominees – not to mention CB.
Donie Livingston is a class footballer. Powerful in the air, strong skillful and well able to score. I only wish he was operating in the Mayo forward line.
Of course above should read Donie Kingston
I agree with the posts that on purely footballing terms, Philly McMahon deserves POTY. It will probably be between him and Jack McCaffery. But I also strongly agree that he should not receive it under any circumstances given his actions his media pieces recently are a laughable attempt to undo some of the nastiness associated with his play.
Of course you need to play on the edge, but alleged head-butting, eye-gouging, feigning, is where one draws the line. Any player can do that.
It’s rubbish to say stuff like, ‘fair play to him, I wish we had a couple of lads like him’…..the truth is he should have got the line several times. It’s not a level playing field when he continues to act without facing consequences.
We lost Seamie to that extremely harsh black card, and don’t get me started on the ridiculousness of Lee’s sending off last year (influenced directly by Dancing Donnchadh might I add), and these incidents were far more timid than McMahon’s.
Donaghy immediately protested to the ref the of alleged eye-gouging and he was right to do so.
Perhaps Coldrick should have consulted his linesman rather than that odd facial expression he pulled in response to the protestation.
Not having Cluxton as Goalie would be ridiculous. I dropped my opinion of Kealy as overrated this year but doesn’t compare to the influence of Cluxton with those kickouts.
Cillian lucky to get one but IMO brilliant from frees when it mattered but scoring from play below other seasons and many from around the Country had higher stats, some Tyrone lads were very good in the corners.
Midfield I don’t see why Maher or Fenton should get one ahead of Tom P. Fenton had a good year but we kept him very quiet in drawn game whereas Tom P was good in every game and his work rate unreal. Maher had a consistently good year too but I think Tom worked harder for his team. It’s people nominating listening too much to RTE pundits on Maher. Colm Cavanagh very good too and I wouldn’t begrudge him, this sector will probably be a wrong call.
On POTY I think Mattie Donnelly unlucky not to get nominated. Of the 3 Dubs I think Philly should win it based on football but his on field antics let him down most especially the eye gouging of Donaghy.
Not right just to make up a success story of philly off the field and ignore the unsavoury stuff on it. Bernard Brogan is exciting to watch and kicked some great scores most with his supposed weak foot so he would be a deserving winner. Pity Donnelly didn’t get nominated as he was really super this year.
Also Harte nominated in forwards probably plays in the backs but he has huge for Tyrone and deserves a place somewhere. Meant Tyrone’s tricky small inside men didn’t get a nomination though Sean C did who was good again but sure he probably had a bag of All Stars.
Willie Joe If ye could delete piece of my last comment about 2013 eye gouge of Gooch. The 2nd Dublin player was J Cooper (not philly) who looks to be trying to stop ROC not pinning Gooch down.
The pic is here..http://img.thesun.co.uk/aidemitlum/archive/01801/SNE0315A—_1801042a.jpg
The meeting doesn’t seem to have gone very well. Lasted under 15 minutes
Shuffly Deck – done.
The word was that Cillian and Keith were to attend but appears all the players turned up. Maybe they just read a statement and left. Sounds like only option is to remove the Managers and then try and sort things out the the players
@Shuffly
Agree with on merit I’d give parsons. If I was managing team tomorrow I’d pick parsons over Fenton ….but MOM in AI final rarely doesn’t get nod. I wouldn’t begrudge him….seems a really nice lad and has potential become a great. Parsons was in the wilderness and now no one can take away from him that he is marked down as a serious inter county player. So fair play to both however it goes…they are fine players.
Looking at the video there of the players leaving the meeting to-night, would suggest they mean business. That show of strength will leave the Co Board in no doubt these guys are looking for a head, or in this case two or maybe more. Interesting times for sure.
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/international/difference-between-black-and-white-while-england-hoped-nz-expected-1.2374966
Really interesting article about rugby…but very transferable. Do the players expect or hope?