Five talents to watch in 2024

A NEW football season is about to dawn and Mail Sport takes a look into the crystal ball to highlight five emerging talents who could be household names by the time the sun sets on the 2024 campaign.

Conor Gray (Meath)

The hope that last summer’s Tailteann Cup success can send Meath football down the same glorious path as their 1984 Centenary Cup win did extends beyond wishful thinking and the fact that Sean Boylan and Colm O’Rourke were involved in both.

It is to be found in the less abstract reason that when entering the secondtier championship last summer, O’Rourke ripped up the script to give youth its chance.

Conor Gray was one of three – Sean Brennan and Aaron Lynch were the others – handed his debut in the opening round of the Tailteann Cup match against Tipperary and would go on to play in every game.

Plucked straight from the Under 20s, O’Rourke put his trust in Gray’s size and powerful aerial ability.

He was a mainstay of the team right though and – with the exception of the final 15 minutes of the group game against Down – played right through the competition saving his best for last with a thundering performance in the final. By the season’s end, he was named on the Tailteann Cup team of the year and he will be one of the first names on O’Rourke’s team-sheet in the New Year.

Theo Clancy (Dublin)

Too young?

Perhaps that is what Michael Warnock thought back in January, when in the second quarter of the All-Ireland club final the Glen centre-back powered up the field only to be confronted by the 19year-old from Kilmacud.

His intention was to power through him, but as it turned out he hit something of a stone wall and crumpled to the ground, stripped of the ball.

If more evidence was needed to show that Clancy is ready and able, it came in October’s county final, where he held Ballyboden’s All-Star corner-forward Colm Basquel to just two points.

And, even allowing for Michael Fitzsimons’ All-Star season, Dessie Farrell will need to beef up his full-back line in defence of Sam. Clancy looks primed to make that step up.

Cillian Burke (Kerry)

Those neutral supporters who travelled to Austin Stack Park for this winter’s thrilling Kerry county intermediate final between Fossa and Milltown/ Castlemaine left with good reason to be buzzing.

As ever, the presence of the Clifford brothers lured them – and David hardly disappointed on an afternoon that he kicked 12 points – but it was the prospect of a member of the victorious Milltown team joining the siblings in the Kerry attack that gave them the sugar buzz.

Given Kerry’s pining for a dynamic attacking middle-eight presence, Burke looks by a distance the most likely to bring something new to the Kingdom, provided he curbs an instinct for taking his runs into the opposition traps. Exposure in the Allianz League should iron out that chink, and after that Jack O’Connor may well have unearthed the line-breaker he is desperate to find. Former Roscommon manager John Evans saw enough of him in that county final to make a bold prediction.

‘He is by far the find of the year, he’s going to come through as a big player for Kerry over the next two years. Guaranteed.’

Bob Tuohy (Mayo)

Sam Callinan is the more obvious Mayo youngster to point out, but the truth is that the Ballina man already enjoyed his breakthrough season this summer.

But his Mayo U20 team-mate Tuohy is set to follow, having already seen regular exposure in the county’s successful National League campaign, in which he started three games and came off the bench in four others, including in the final.

He pretty much disappeared for the summer, limited to a late cameo role against Louth, but that experience should leave him well placed to see more regular game-time in the new year.

A rangy midfielder, the Castlebar man has a penchant for breaking lines, adding to the resources of one of the game’s most powerful, athletic outfits.

David Buckley (Cork)

Already a member of John Cleary’s 2023 panel, he was limited to just one league appearance in 2023 but expect that window of opportunity to open a little wider in the New Year.

His man-of-thematch performance for Newcestown – he scored 0-9, with 0-6 coming from play – against Dohenys in the Senior A final grabbed attention, especially in a county where the deficit of free-scoring inside forward is long past the stage of being breaking news.

He is also a huge physical presence, making him an outlet for direct ball – again something that has been missing from the Rebels’ game-plan in recent times – while his talent has never been in doubt.

Indeed, when Cork won the provincial U20 championship in 2021, he was named as the Munster player of the year in the grade.

If he can stay fit, he will get the chance to deliver on that potential.