Cluxton not the first to miss recognition

CIARÁN WHELAN found an interesting angle on the Stephen Cluxton All-Star story.

Talking to Morning Ireland on the day the football team was revealed, he wondered if Cluxton’s failure to win an award since 2013 was down to the stance he takes on media relations.

‘If you call a spade a spade, Stephen hasn’t engaged closely with the media over the last nine or 10 years and you wonder if that has come against him,’ said Whelan.

This does ignore the claims of those players who have been selected over Cluxton, even if one must acknowledge that it is extraordinary a player of his influence and consistency has not been deemed the best goalkeeper in the country in half a decade.

Yet Colm Cooper never won Footballer of the Year. In his decade and a half as an inter-county footballer, Cooper reached standards that ensured he will be celebrated as one of the best forwards to ever play the game.

But he was never officially decreed to be the best footballer in the country.

Cluxton is not being punished for not doing interviews. As Whelan must know, most intercounty players don’t give them now, unless they’re on sponsorship duty.