Short-list reflects strength of O’Donoghue Cup

WHATEVER player makes the team at right corner forward, he will have the distinction of being the 150th East Kerry GAA All Star. It will be a singular honour for no.150, but it won’t set him apart from the other 14 footballers who will be honoured this Friday night in the Brehon Hotel in Killarney as the 10th East Kerry GAA All Stars banquet. Indeed, it won’t set him apart from the other 149 footballers who will, at that stage, count themselves All Stars; instead that player will consider himself one of an elite, and ever-expanding, group of special footballers, who will forever more be regarded as the crème de la crème of the Dr O’Donoghue Cup.

That the East Kerry All Stars selection has reached its tenth year is both a milestone and a testament to the East Kerry Board. Things of this nature tend to have a shelf life, but it’s fair to say that in the decade since these awards started, they have gone from strength to strength. It’s helpful when an awards such as this reaches a critical mass, and it’s reasonable to say now that in its tenth year there is a body of All Stars - as well as the individual Player of the Championship awards - that is now well worth joining.

The All Star team of 2019 will be joining exulted company: who wouldn’t want to be in the came pantheon as Seamus Moynihan, Colm Cooper, Tom O’Sullivan, Padraig Reidy, Aidan O’Mahony, Eoin Brosnan and Paul Murphy to name just a few of the men who have received that coveted statuette and taken their place on one or more All Star teams.

Indeed, in another 10 years the All Star nominees of 2029 will be privately hoping to take their place alongside not only those aforementioned greats, but also the All Stars of 2019, who by then will also have settled into their rightful place in history and East Kerry GAA lore.

On Friday night another 24 young men will gather in the Brehon Hotel as club men, and as East Kerry men, when the latest team of All Stars will be announced. The success of the East Kerry senior team winning the county championship last November will add to the sense of occasion, and even those players and clubs from the district not involved with the divisional team in 2019 will acknowledge the huge achievement of team manager Jerry O’Sullivan, his management team, the players and the officers of the East kerry Board, all of whom played their part in bringing the Bishop Moynihan Cup to the district to the Spa home of team captain Dan O’Donoghue.

Of course, ‘The Bishop’ has hardly been a stranger to the district this last decade, with the habitual success of Dr Crokes in the county championship, and when the Crokes had to relinquish their county title, it was, perhaps, fitting that it passed to East Kerry: after all, any football success in the district can only be good for all football in the district.

It was, then, also fitting that the Dr O’Donoghue Cup should find new ownership this year too (even if outgoing champions Dr Crokes would disagree!”). After a decade of East Kerry Championships that saw Dr Crokes (5) and Rathmore (4) between them win almost every one on offer, it was refreshing and healthy that the famed cup will winter in a new clubhouse. That Legion ended a 43-year wait for their fifth East Kerry title merely added to the sense of occasion and romance as joint-captains Padraig Lucey and Damien O’Sullivan received the Dr O’Donoghue Cup in mid-December after their 1-18 to 3-6 win over Dr Crokes.

It’s no surprise that the two finalists dominate the 24-man short-list of All Star nominations,

2019 East Kerry GAA All Stars nominations

with Legion’s eight nominees and Dr Crokes’ six accounting for over half of the total. Gneeveguilla have three nominations, Spa have two, while there is one each for Cordal, Currow, Glenflesk, Kilcummin and Rathmore.

The Goalkeepers

THE goalkeeper All Star will be in a very safe pair of hands no matter which one of Shane Murphy and Sean Óg Ó Ciardubháin take the gong.

Murphy has the unique distinction of winning East Kerry All Stars with two different clubs: his native Kilcummin in 2012 and then with Dr Crokes in 2016.

Cordal goalkeeper Ó Ciardubháin, who was short-listed in 2017, is looking for his first All Star.

The Defenders

LEGION dominate the nominations in defence, with Cian Gammell, Rob Leen, Jonathan Lyne, Podge O’Connor and Kieran Slattery all making the short-list, after all consitently impressed the judges throughout the championship.

The strength of unity in the Legion defence in the O’Donoghue

Cup was particularly noted by the judges, but whether or not that works in favour of the individual players or not remains to be seen.

Certainly the ‘Legion Five’ face stiff competition from Owen Fitzgerald, DJ Murphy, Brendan O’Keeffe and Garreth O’Connor, all of whom brought outstanding defensive qualities, as well as some attacking verve, which caught the eye of the judges.

AT midfield it’s interesting to see that the champions have received one nomination, while the beaten finalists have two nominees for the middle of the park All Stars. Dr Crokes players, Johnny Buckley and Daithi Casey - both previous All Star winners, Buckley at midfield in 2012 and 2013, and Casey as a forward in 2010, 2011 and 2013 - are nominated this year, along with Darragh Lyne from Legion and Liam Kearney from Spa.

It’s certainly a case of two old dogs, Buckley and Casey, going up against two young pups, Lyne and Kearney, and it will be interesting to see if the judges came down on the side of youth and exuberance or maturity and experience, or if they’ve gone for some combination of both.

The Forwards

UP front the champions are again outnumbered by their town rivals on the short-list: Legion have two players nominated while Dr Crokes have three.

The presence of Spa, Kilcummin, Gneeveguilla and Glenflesk among the nominated forwards is an indication of the widespread talent in the district and the championship, and also proof positive that all players and teams and games are assessed equally and thoroughly, and that every player and performance has the same chance of making the short-list and of winning an All Star.

The champions have Thomas Moriarty and James O’Donoghue nominated, and while the judges acknowledged that Legion were the quintessential ‘team’ in the Championship, Moriarty and O’Donoghue were particularly important to the Legion attack and carried the fight that little bit more than their colleagues in what was a very unified attack.

Dr Crokes are represented on the short-list by previous All Star winners Brian Looney, Micheal Burns and Tony Brosnan, all of whom, the judges notes, were in excellent form for the defending champions and who all put in really notable performances at different stages through the competition.

Darragh Roche, Paul O’Shea, Shane O’Sullivan and Evan Cronin complete the short-list and all four would be worthy recipients of a first All Star in the case of the first three, while Cronin is looking to pick up his second All Star.

IN 2013 the Intermediate Championship (Fr Galvin Cup) was rightfully recognised as an important competition in the East Kerry calendar, and the players’ accomplishments in that championship were recognised with their own Player of the Championship award.

The first winner was Gary O’Sullivan from Listry, and since then Tadhg O’Shea (Fossa, 2014), Brendan Rahillys (Scartaglin, 2015), Paudie Clifford (Fossa, 2016 & 2017) and Anthony Sweeney (Listry 2018) have won the award.

This year the IFC Player of the Year nominees are Ronan Buckley - Listry; Padraig Doyle - Gneeveguilla; Eddie Horan - Scartaglen; Mike Murphy - Gneeveguilla; and Philip O’Connor - Cordal