Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
STAR QUALITY
It dozen look good for rest with 12 Dubs in the running for team of the year for football
A DOZEN Dubs are in the running for PWC All-stars as the All-ireland champions look set to hoover up more honours.
All bar three of the four-in-a-row winning side make up the list of 45 players, with beaten finalists Tyrone on seven, a tally matched by semi-finalists Galway and Monaghan.
The list is completed by three players each from Donegal and Kildare, two from Kerry and one each from Laois, Fermanagh, Carlow and Armagh.
Dublin’s record tally on an All-star team is eight in 1977, though they had seven players chosen last year and in 2015.
The last team to achieve four-in-a-row, Kerry in 1981, earned nine All-stars that particular year.
The only members of Dublin’s Allireland final starting line up to miss out on a nomination are defensive trio Cian O’sullivan, John Small and Philly Mcmahon.
O’sullivan endured hamstring trouble before and during the Championship which impacted on his game time, with the Kilmacud Crokes man retiring early in both the All-ireland semi-final and final, while
Small suffered red cards in the Leinster and Allireland finals.
It’s a record number of nominations for Monaghan, while it’s Galway’s biggest representation since their last All-ireland success in 2001.
Indeed, Galway haven’t won an All-star since current manager Kevin
Walsh was selected at midfield in 2003.
Monaghan’s Conor
Mcmanus, an All-star winner in 2013 and ‘15, could become only the second player from the county to win three awards after Eugene ‘Nudie’ Hughes, who was honoured in 1979, ‘85 and ‘88.
Three Donegal players, Michael Murphy (inset), Eoghan Ban Gallagher and Ryan Mchugh, have also made the cut as they regained the Ulster title for the first time in four years, with Paddy Mcbrearty unlucky to miss out as his season was ended by a cruciate ligament injury in the provincial final.
Kildare’s mid-season renaissance has earned them three nominations while Kerry’s fadeout after storming to the Munster title means that only teen starlet David Clifford and Gavin White make the cut. Along with Carlow bridging the 24-year gap to their last nominee, their neighbours Laois have a representative for the first time since 2012 with goalkeeper Graham Brody (left, saving from Mcmanus) listed alongside Dublin captain Stephen Cluxton and Monaghan’s Rory Beggan. Rory Grugan’s string of impressive performances, as he almost single-handedly
dragged Armagh through to the last round of the qualifiers, is recognised in the shape of a nomination, while Che Cullen is Fermanagh first nominee since Sean Quigley in 2014 after they bridged a 10-year gap to reach an Ulster final.
There is no Mayo player nominated for the first time since 2010, a reflection of the fact that the serial All-ireland finalists made their earliest Championship exit in eight years following a third round qualifier defeat to
Kildare.
In all, there are just six players from last year’s team nominated, Jack Mccaffrey,
James Mccarthy, Dean Rock,
Con O’callaghan, Colm Cavanagh and Paul Mannion (right), largely due to the six
Mayo players chosen in 2017 failing to make the first 45 this time.
There is a slight deviation from the usual selection criteria for the All-star team from this year on with players now allowed to be selected in an area of the field other than that which they are nominated, though it would only happen in exceptional cases.
The All-star hurling nominations will be made public tomorrow, while the final selections for both codes will be made at the end of next month.
The football selection will be named on November 1 with the hurling team announced live at a banquet on November 2 at the Convention Centre, Dublin.