JACKO RULES SUPREME AS FOOTBALL’S MODERN BEST

Kerry’s golden men in front but Cluxton, Mullins, McCarthy and Fenton fly blue flag

AND so to the Super 20. We started with a cast of thousands and worked it down to 465, comprised of the top 20 in every county. The next step involved reducing it to 80, 20 each from the four provinces, before completing the process today with the top 20 nationally.

The No 1 spot goes to Jack O’Shea, the super-charged Kerry midfielder who delivered at such a consistently high level in the late 1970s and through the 1980s. Six successive All-Stars (1980-’85) was an amazing personal achievement, beaten only by winning the Footballer of the Year awards in four of those years.

Kerry colleagues Pat Spillane and Mikey Sheehy, who between them won 16 All-Star and two Footballer of the Year awards, fill second and fifth positions respectively, with the modern generation coming between them.

Peter Canavan and Stephen Cluxton operated at opposite ends of the pitch, but both exerted major influence, not just in the manner they discharged their responsibilities, but also with the leadership they provided. Cluxton is, of course, still active so his story still has some way to run. As ever with an exercise like this, dozens of brilliant players were omitted, so it’s only fair to name a group (in no particular order) who came closest to making the final 20: John O’Leary, Graham Geraghty, Martin O’Connell, Anthony Tohill, Billy Morgan, Dermot Earley, Martin Furlong, ‘Bomber’ Liston, Kieran McGeeney, Lee Keegan, Ja Fallon, Greg Blaney, Michael Donnellan, Martin McHugh, Mickey Linden, Mickey Kearins, Tony McManus.