Duffy’s just rewards after another year of true grit
FROM Brighton Rock to Ireland’s Rock of Gibraltar, Shane Duffy clocks in for international duty this morning walking taller than his usual six foot and five inches.
Hours after helping Brighton reach their first FA Cup semi-final in 36 years yesterday, via a nervejangling penalty shoot-out against Millwall, Duffy was confirmed as the Republic of Ireland senior Player of the Year for 2018.
It was back-to-back recognition for the Derry native, who has followed Paul McGrath (1990 and 1991) and Shay Given (2005 and 2006) as the only players to win successive awards.
Four others have also won twice, Roy Keane, Richard Dunne, Kevin Doyle and Robbie Keane, the current Republic of Ireland coach.
Once again, Duffy was unable to attend the presentation, which was shown live on RTÉ.
Last March, snow prevented him from travelling from London to Dublin while yesterday, it was extra-time and penalties at The Den, where fellow internationals Alex Pearce and Aiden O’Brien scored for Millwall in a 2-2 draw, which delayed him.
Duffy edged out Darren Randolph and Declan Rice after a difficult year for Ireland in which Duffy started eight internationals out of nine to take his tally to 25 appearances.
The 27-year-old central defender played every minute of the Nations League games, three of which yielded clean sheets.
Under the returning Mick McCarthy as Ireland manager, Duffy will be a cornerstone of the team which embarks on a Euro 2020 campaign next Saturday in Gibraltar.
After going without a goal in 2018, Duffy will seek to add to his two goals for Ireland — he is on a decent run at Brighton with five in 26 Premier League appearances this season.
The involvement of Rice on the short-list will again raise hackles in light of his defection to England and subsequent selection by Gareth Southgate, but the Londoner was eligible for consideration at the time of the voting.
His Young Player of the Year award was flagged in advance, as was his non-attendance.
The Under-21 award went to Ronan Curtis of Portsmouth, who had to withdraw from the senior squad for the Euro 2020 doubleheader against Gibraltar and Georgia following a gruesome injury.
The former Derry City star required emergency surgery to reattach part of a finger that was severed last week. Curtis caught it in a door at home and will now face a period on the sidelines.
O’Brien’s excellent header away to Poland in Wroclaw won Goal of the Year in a skinny category as the short-list included goals by Curtis for the Under-21s and by Troy Parrott for the U-17s – the highly-regarded Parrott won the U-16 award.
The SSE Airtricity League Player of the Year gong went to Chris Shields of Dundalk, a fitting reward for the whole-hearted midfielder, who has been at the fulcrum of the border club’s success story.
Richard Dunne, winner of 80 senior caps and a defensive pivot for McCarthy, Brian Kerr, Steve Staunton and Giovanni Trapattoni, was inducted into the Hall of Fame jointly with Emma Byrne.
The highly-respected former goalkeeper won a record 134 caps for Ireland between 1996 and 2017. Byrne fought successfully for improved conditions for the women’s senior team before her retirement.
Brendan Bradley, the all-time League of Ireland leading goalscorer on 235 goals scooped the Special Merit award, while the choice of Kakha Kaladze as the International Personality award was a first as no Georgian had been recognised before.
Kaladze, 41, won eight successive League titles with Dinamo Tbilisi and Dinamo Kiev before a decade of trophy-laden seasons at AC Milan where he won Serie A, Coppa Italia, European Super Cup, Champions League (twice) and World Club Cup honours.
He was a five-time Player of the Year for Georgia, for whom he made 83 appearances.
Kaladze was a very fine full-back but perhaps the FAI missed a trick on Trapattoni’s 80th birthday yesterday.
It’s the little details, as Trap used to say.