The best of the East are ho

Paul Brennan reports from the eighth East Kerry GAA All Star awards where the best performances in the O’Donoghue Cup were honoured

THE O’Donoghue Cup champions Rathmore, understandably, dominate the 2017 East Kerry GAA All Star team with six players named on the team at a gala dinner in the Gleneagle Hotel last Friday evening before a large crowd. For the first time since the 2011 All Star team six clubs were represented on the final fifteen, with eight footballers collecting their first East Kerry All Star.

It was also a night of firsts. Shane Ryan became the first player to be named Senior and Young (U-21) Footballer of the Championship, while the young Rathmore man is also the first to win back-to-back Young Footballer of the Championship awards, having collected that honour last year.

There was also successive awards for Paudie Clifford, whose brilliance and consistency in the Fr Galvin Cup earned him the Intermediate Championship Footballer of the Year award for two years running.

Aidan O’Mahony made more history by becoming the first player to win a sixth All Star award, as well as winning four awards in a row, the same feat achieved by his Rathmore club mate Cathal Murphy. Dr Crokes pair of Eoin Brosnan and Colm Cooper, along with Cathal Murphy, each hold four All Stars, two behind O’Mahony.

The six Rathmore men honoured on the All Star XV, which is testament to their four-in-a-row winning achievement in the East Kerry Championship, are O’Mahony and Murphy in the full back line, Donal O’Sullivan and Mark Ryan who were a formidable midfield partnership for their team, and Brian Friel and Shane Ryan in the forward unit. Semi-finalists Gneeveguilla have three players on the team with DJ Murphy winning his first All Star at right corner back, DJ O’Connor winning his first award at the opposite corner of the field at left corner back, and anotehr Kerry minor from last year, Patrick Warren named at wing back on the final selection. Beaten finalists Legion were rewarded with two awards, 2017 All-Ireland minor winner Cian Gammell at wing back, and James O’Donoghue at centre-forward, who was the Man of the Match winner in the O’Donoghue Cup final in December.

John Feerick, Managing Director of The Kerryman newspaper sponsor, Tim Ryan, East Kerry GAA Board Chairman, and Eamon Quigley, Manager of Th O’Sullivan Hall of Fame, Shane Ryan, Senior and U-21 Player of the Year, Donal O’Sullivan, Rathmore, Paudie...

Paudie Clifford, Intermediate Player of the Year, at the East Kerry GAA All Stars Dinner in the Gleneagle Hotel

Tadhg O’Donoghue with Pat Delaney, recipient of a Special Recognition award at the East Kerry GAA All Stars dinner