THE FAVOURITE 15
Aughrim’s Donal Lenihan selects his star colleagues
THIS week’s special guest for the Favourite 15 article is former Aughrim and Wicklow star Donal Lenihan.
Donal played both codes for his county at the highest level and is one of a very small number of players who possess national league medals for football and hurling from the same year (1990/91).
Donal would consider himself a better hurler than a footballer but it is a footballing 15 that we have asked him to select and he has duly obliged.
A very committed and talented athlete, Donal won places on Wicklow hurling and football sides that will be remembered as possibly the best teams in living memory who were more than capable of mixing it with the top teams. Indeed, he was on the football team that defeated Donegal in Aughrim in 1992, the year they went on to win the All-Ireland.
Donal’s time with the footballers coincided with the management of Niall Rennick and the Aughrim native strongly believes that the Meath man was one of the best trainers he ever had the pleasure of training under.
He pays particular tribute to the selectors of that era, Owen Doyle from Avondale, Tony Norton from Baltinglass, Bobby Dignam from Rathnew and Laragh’s Mick Cahill for their efforts at bringing that team to the heights they went.
Donal remains involved in Aughrim GAA Club at committee level and helps out regularly at all levels when require.
He is married to Ann (a Carnew woman) who is a nurse in the Mater Hospital and has two children, Sean (17) and Aoife (15). We’ll let Donal take it from here: When Brendan Lawrence contacted me last week wondering would I contribute to this week’s Favourite 15 article I said, ‘Jaysus, Brendan, I would have to go back a good few year to try and remember games and teammates.’
He then let it be known that I can’t pick my own clubmates. That would make it a little harder, I thought. I replied, ‘Brendan you may give me a few days and I’ll come back to you’.
I then went back through some old newspaper articles to jog the auld memory.
‘I was teammates with some very good players in college 1987/1988 and I was a member of Wicklow Senior football panel from 1989 to 1994.
I marked some great players over those years: Seamus Moynihan, Charlie Redmond, Kieran Duff, Jim Gavin, Niall Guiden, Vinny Murphy, Brian Stynes, Tommy Dowd, Johnny McDonald, Peter Brady, Vinny Claffey, Barry McGowan, Joyce McMullan, Tony Morley, amd Seamus Fitzhenry to name but a few. Here are my top 30 players I lined out with:
(Sorry Brendan: I had to make an exception and have included my clubmate Pat O’Byrne as we played on the same Wicklow team).
1: John Walsh
Bray Emmets
A great goalkeeper with unreal shot stopping ability. Very strong in the air as well.
Played midfield for his club, Bray Emmets. Very vocal and great communicator.
Calm under pressure and very good distributor. Set up many attacks with well-placed kickouts. Also played League of Ireland soccer.
Made some miraculous saves in Croke Park against Meath in 1991
2: Nick O’Neill
Strafford
A great defender and one of the very best readers of the game. Great anticipation and never wasted a ball when in possession. Calmness personified under pressure. A top-class man marker. Not many got the better of Nicko.
3: Hugh Kenny
Baltinglass
Had a massive career with both Wicklow and Baltinglass. One of Wicklow best ever full-backs.
Great anticipation, very quick, tough, uncompromising and another great reader of the game. Cleaned out many big-name forwards over the years. Had a great ability to prevent his opponent gaining possession. Very vocal and great communicator. Won a bucketload of medals with his club, Baltinglass
4: Mick Murtagh
Dunlavin
One of the more versatile players on the panel at the time. Could play in the full-back line, half-back line, midfield or half-forward line. Very experienced player that also had great high-fielding ability.
Rarely wasted possession and could kick a score when needed. A great attitude and very competitive.
5: Paul Allen
Hollywood
Paul could play in the half-back line or the half-forward line. When playing at wing back, he had a great ability to surge forward and cause problems for opposition. Wellabletokickascoreortwoas well. A fiery, tough operator he was too. Great pace and ball carrying ability also. Paul’s brothers, Robert and Terry, were on Wicklow panel at this time too. Great servants to Wicklow and Hollywood
6: Seamus Morris (RIP)
Tinahely
One of the fittest players I have seen. Seamus was very versatile and could play in any position on the field. Had great anticipation, positional sense and ability to win ball. An intelligent player that always gave the right pass at the right time. Seamus had a great attitude to training and match preparation. Another great servant to Wicklow and Tinahely. Was a key player on the Tinahely championship winning team of 1984.
7: Billy Kenny
Baltinglass
A master at the art of defending. Blanked out many a forward over the years. Strong in the air. Great ability to block. Always seemed to be in the right place at the right time and had the ability to intercept and break down opposition attacks with his excellent positional sense. Gave a man of the match performance in the All-Ireland ‘B’ final in 1992 against Antrim in Navan. Another Wicklow and Baltinglass great.
8: Pat O’Byrne
Aughrim
What can I say about this man? Legend. Strongest player I have seen in Gaelic football. Great high-fielding ability. Played 17/18 years as an inter-county midfielder which must be a record. A real leader on the field over the years. Represented Ireland in the compromise rules series along with
Kevin O’Brien. One of Wicklow’s greatest servants. Also won a Leinster club medal with Raheens in Kildare.
9: Fergus Daly
Blessington
One of the best high fielders in the game in the 1990s. Great ball winner from kickouts that helped the team start many an attack. Gained a lot of primary possession over the years for Wicklow. Himself and Pat O’Byrne were one of the best midfield pairings in the countryatthetime.
10: Ashley O’Sullivan
Dunlavin
Another speed machine. A defender’s nightmare. Pace to burn (always at the front in sprints in training). Ashley was prone to the odd hamstring injury but when fully fit was a nightmare for any defender to mark. Great ability to win breaking ball and start an attack. Kicked many a score for Wicklow over the years. Ashley always gave it his all and worked hard for the team.
11: Robert McHugh
Baltinglass
Playmaker extraordinaire. A fantastic link player. Had all the skills. Robert was a key player in the great Baltinglass eight-in-a-row team as well. Very experienced player that had a great awareness of space and had a great telepathy with Kevin O’Brien. One of the most accurate place kickers I have seen.
12: Trevor Doyle
Rathnew
A very confident player. Massive talent. Had a great ability to both set up and score goals. Caused a lot of problems for defenders over the years. Tomas O Sé (Kerry) being one of them. Trevor was a key player in the great Rathnew team that won eight in a row. Also has a cabinet full of medals. A fantastic soccer player too.
13: Conan Daye
Éire Óg
A very lively corner-forward. Extremely fit player. In long stamina training runs Conan was always up front. Kicked points with ease and scored a lot of crucial goals in big games. High workrate and ability to move off the ball created space for other forwards also. Gave great service to Wicklow over the years.
14: Pat Baker
Avondale
Class operator. Very skillful footballer for a big man. Great ability to carry a ball. Very confident player that could kick points with aplomb off both feet. A very accurate place kicker too. Had the ability to make a killer pass also. One of Wicklow’s greatest servants also.
15: Kevin O’Brien
Baltinglass
Probably Wicklow’s greatest ever footballer. Extremely talented player. Great scoring ability off both feet. Goal-getter supreme. Had that innate ability to win possession and turn his opponent at the same time. A very competitive and determined player that had all the skills. Won many a game for Wicklow and Baltinglass over the years. Won Wicklow’s only All Star award in 1990.
SUBSTITUTES:
16: Sean O’Brien (Baltinglass) 17: David Gordon (Carnew) 18: Raymond Danne (Baltinglass)
19: Terry Allen (Hollywood) 20: Robert Allen (Hollywood) 20: Denis Kilbride (Carnew) 21: Brendan Brady (An Tochar) 22: Thomas Donohue (Baltinglass)
23: Ronan Coffey (Rathnew) 24: John Coogan (Knockananna)
25: Ciaran Shannon (Annacurra) (RIP)
26: Darren Behan (Blessington) 27: Mark Mullins (Cork, Na Piarsigh)
28: Tommy Murphy (Rathnew) 29: John Traynor (Hollywood) 30: Willie Carey (St. Patrick’s)