Gaa 2007

[Rovers fan]

have no fear ireland...Gaillimh will be back next yr(or defo within 2/3 years), we are near enough now having a completly differant 15 that even started back in 2001.

Gooch??.... wait till Damien Reddington hits the senior panel....some player, best ive seen in minor for a long time(2 footed, very fast)!!. plus we might get what we've been missing the past few years..... A MID-FIELD!!.




Ya galway should improve when the tired older players like joyce retire. they have nothing to offer imo. Reddington is an excellent prospect

[Aberdonian Stu]

Excluding Paul Griffin from the nominees is a joke. He was Dublin's best defender by far. Cahill getting a nod makes no sense.

[Superhoops]

my problem with the ALL-STARS is that your inclusion depends on your counties progression in the championship!!... .........
.........

Dont think that is the case.

Look at John Doyle of Kildare. What has he done to merit inclusion? :confused: :confused: Kildare got beaten in the first round of Leinster, won the first qualifer then went out to Louth in the second qualifer.

I know I am biased but I thought Wicklow's Leighton Glynn was worth a nomination. Wicklow played 6 games this summer, 3 in the Leinster championship where they lost to Louth after a second replay, then three in winning the Tommy Murphy Cup. Glynn was outstanding in 5 of those games, especially in the final against Antrim. :mad:

[gilberto_eire]

Dont think that is the case.

Look at John Doyle of Kildare. What has he done to merit inclusion? :confused: :confused: Kildare got beaten in the first round of Leinster, won the first qualifer then went out to Louth in the second qualifer.

I know I am biased but I thought Wicklow's Leighton Glynn was worth a nomination. Wicklow played 6 games this summer, 3 in the Leinster championship where they lost to Louth after a second replay, then three in winning the Tommy Murphy Cup. Glynn was outstanding in 5 of those games, especially in the final against Antrim. :mad:

yes he got a nomination i was talking about making the team, when the 15 are picked it will be mostly dublin(cause there the dubs and they got far enough to be given some),kerry and cork......

[OneRedArmy]

I'd hate to see Paddy Bradley go through his whole career and not get an All Star. Going to be tough for him again this year.

[geysir]

Dont think that is the case.

Look at John Doyle of Kildare. What has he done to merit inclusion? :confused: :confused: Kildare got beaten in the first round of Leinster, won the first qualifer then went out to Louth in the second qualifer.
I know I am biased ....
I suppose it doesn't help that Doyle knocked Wicklow out of Leinster a couple of years ago :)
I don't know much about Doyle this year, I remember he was rampant against Roscommon.

[gustavo]

Delighted for Ross , he certainly deserved it as he was top class for us all Summer

[Kingdom]

Good list of nominations. From a Kerry aspect they got them all correct with the exception of Padraig Reidy.
One would have to feel a bit sorry for Shane Ryan, had a consistent season I thought, obviously he wouldn't win won but if Doherty and Keenan can be nominated then is just as deserving.

Delighted the judges didn't believe the local hype and nominate O'Hara. Having said that they made some crazy picks imo. Cussen didn't deserve to be nominated. Not in any way shape or form. He had 15 mins in the Munster Final. He is a good player, Cork just didn't play him enough. I mean he was absolutely anonymous in the Louth match.

Its nice to recognise the achievements of the so-called lesser counties by giving out nominations but do Sligo really deserve one?
I don't believe they do. I was delighted (as most people were) to see them win Connaught, but it was without doubt the worst Provinical Championship in years, certainly the worst I've watched in my few years following Gaa. And they did little to endear themselves with the performance against Cork. Sometimes a team can do well without having great individual performances and I think Sligo were one of those cases. Did well in winning Connaught but no-one player deserved a nomination.
Just look at Cork. In the build up to the final they had the best 1-9 in the country. How many of them were nominated? 3. Kerry had 6. Dublin had 4.

Obviously we all have our own opinions in who should be selected. I mean Masters finished top scorer of the championship. Was he Corks player of the year? No, there are a couple ahead of him I reckon. For a man who scores so freely does he contribute much to the team, or much to play? I don't believe so.

I reckon maybe 9 of the places are certs,

GK Cluxton

CB Marc O Sé
FB Graham Canty
CB Mone/McCloy/Gormley

HB Tomás O Sé
CB Aidan O'Mahony
HB Young/Cahill/King

MF Dara O Sé/Murphy/Whelan
MF

HF Declan O'Sullivan
CF Galvin/Bray/Brogan
HF Alan Brogan

CF The Gooch
FF Bradley/O'Connor/Donaghy
CF Thomas Freeman

there are still some interesting quirks and twists there this year.

The full back line has one very open spot. For me Kevin McCloy should get it as the few games I saw I thought he was impressive. Having said that if Tyrone were to get a nod somewhere for reaching the QF ( i know ridiculous:rolleyes:) then Gormley is the only one I could see being represented considering Monaghan have a nailed on spot in Tomas Freeman.
For the 2nd wing back spot I'm convinced Barry Cahill was nominated because of the coverage his blocks got against Derry. Whereas Caoimhin King had a very good campaign. Killian Young has had a fantabulous season and will get young player of the year (And deservedly so for any Dubs who think it should be Brogan), but will the selectors pick an All Kerry half back line? I doubt it. So they will probably pick between King and Cahill for the final spot.

Midfield will be unusual too insofar as any of three could get it. Nicholas Murphy was nailed on before the final but was eclipsed by Dara. But I thought Murphy was definitely better than Whelan all season. A nod to history might get it for Dara (when have 3 brothers been on the same team before?) and the Dublin bias would get Whelan selected.

There is good competition for places in the forwards despite it not being a great football year. Certs are sure to be Declan O'Sullivan, The Gooch, Thomas Freeman and Alan Brogan. Then its a half forward fight between Galvin, Stephen Bray and Bernard Brogan. I've a feeling the younger Brogan will get it, especially if he's in with a shout of getting young player of the year, but I would myself give it to Stephen Bray, as he did a fair bit early on in the championship.
The last place is fairly up for grabs if only because there was no outstanding full forward this year. My own choice would be Donncha O'Connor who had a fine year, but I'd fear he'll lose out to Paddy Bradley, who in fairness had a fine year too.
Player of the Year: Declan O'Sullivan
Young Player of the Year: Killian Young

[Aberdonian Stu]

Remember the positions may be neatly assigned on the day but the selection process means a corner forward, for example, could easily be given the nod over a full forward and vice versa. Effectively they look for the three best players in a line (two in midfield and 1 in nets though obviously). This format was brought in after Brian Whelehan missed out despite being named players' player of the year.

In goals I'd have to go with Cluxton, another excellent year from a superb goalkeeping talent.

In the full forward line I don't rate Donaghy and Bradley to me was probably the third best player between full and corner forwards so I'd stick him in with the Gooch and Freeman. I don't think anyone doubts Gooch will get the nod, Freeman is just as deserving of an All Star but isn't quite the lock with the voters that Cooper is. I still think Freeman will get it and deservedly so.

Haven't made up my mind on the rest of the field yet. Will look into it further.

[Kingdom]

If we're giving opinions on what we want ourselves I'll go for this: Kerry 9 cork 3 Derry 1 Dublin 1 Monaghan 1

Murphy

Marc O'Se
Kevin McCloy
Graham Canty

Tomas O'Se
Aidan O'Mahony
Killian Young

Dara OSe
Nicholas Murphy

Declan O'Sullivan
Alan Brogan
Paul Galvin (this man doesn't get enough credit as a footballer-every county in the country would start him)

The Gooch
Tomas Freeman
Donnacha O'Connor

However if we're going on what team we think will be picked Kerry 5 Dublin 3 Cork 2 Monaghan 2 Meath 2 Derry 2.

Cluxton
O'Se
Canty
Mone
O'Se
O'Leary
King
Whelan
O'Se
O'Sullivan
Brogan
Bray
Gooch
Bradley
freeman

A lot will depend on who they pick for Young Player of the year also. The chances of them not giving YPOY an All-Star are slim and while the popular opinion is that its between young and Brogan this would mean either O'Leary, King or Bray missing out.

I feel this Kerry team isn't getting the credit it deserves. The shift in opinion in the papers from the Sunday to the Monday was incredible and there are a lot of shams that I won't pay any heed to anymore. That fcuker Paidi for one. The boll1x. Definitely we had it tougher this year than any since 2000, lost some key players (not just the Pony and Mike Mac, but also Guiney (who was due a run this year) and while the transition was choppy to start with by the end of the year it appeared seamless, with more to come next year.

[gustavo]

Its nice to recognise the achievements of the so-called lesser counties by giving out nominations but do Sligo really deserve one?
I don't believe they do. I was delighted (as most people were) to see them win Connaught, but it was without doubt the worst Provinical Championship in years, certainly the worst I've watched in my few years following Gaa. And they did little to endear themselves with the performance against Cork. Sometimes a team can do well without having great individual performances and I think Sligo were one of those cases. Did well in winning Connaught but no-one player deserved a nomination.
Just look at Cork. In the build up to the final they had the best 1-9 in the country. How many of them were nominated? 3. Kerry had 6. Dublin had 4.


Dont know what you mean about local hype about O'Hara , no one in Sligo was saying he should get All Star nom. In regards saying if Sligo players desrved nominations you may have a point , but the fact is they won Connacht , its not their fault if it was deemed as being a bad year , not sure the same would have been said if it was Gallway that won by a point . All i know is that the Sligo players nominiated play extremely well in their 4 championship games.

[Kingdom]

Dont know what you mean about local hype about O'Hara , no one in Sligo was saying he should get All Star nom. In regards saying if Sligo players desrved nominations you may have a point , but the fact is they won Connacht , its not their fault if it was deemed as being a bad year , not sure the same would have been said if it was Gallway that won by a point . All i know is that the Sligo players nominiated play extremely well in their 4 championship games.

Fair nuff maybe on this board, boards.ie perhaps. Definitely in the media in general (a lot coming from people who would only name a player they recognise - O'hara being the seminal Sligo player of the decade) there was a big push for him.
I don't begrudge any Sligo player a nomination, just don't necessarily believe its deserved. And I would say that about Galway, definitely not deserved.

[Aberdonian Stu]

I think O'Hara earned his nod this year in spite of the players around him. He put in the performances required to be nominated even if the team he played on wasn't great.

[Kingdom]

I think O'Hara earned his nod this year in spite of the players around him. He put in the performances required to be nominated even if the team he played on wasn't great.

erm, don't think he was nominated AS

[geysir]

Sligo didn't do enough to deserve this amount of discussion:)
Imo, the stand out obvious nomination from the Sligo team was Ross Donovan. He is there on merit without a trace of tokenism involved

Who selects the all stars anyway?

[Kingdom]

Sligo didn't do enough to deserve this amount of discussion:)
Imo, the stand out obvious nomination from the Sligo team was Ross Donovan. He is there on merit without a trace of tokenism involved

Who selects the all stars anyway?

Touché. A bunch of journo's pick it.

Who do people think were the Player and young player of the year then!

[Aberdonian Stu]

Oops, I foolishly made the assumption that the Sligo player nominated was he. Mea culpa.

I agree with the point that we've discussed Sligo too much.

Who do you guys feel are locks, sure things so to speak, to get awards?

O'Sullivan, Gooch and Freeman (despite my earlier limited reservations about his prospects) are three that I think are shoo-ins.

[Kingdom]

Oops, I foolishly made the assumption that the Sligo player nominated was he. Mea culpa.

I agree with the point that we've discussed Sligo too much.

Who do you guys feel are locks, sure things so to speak, to get awards?

O'Sullivan, Gooch and Freeman (despite my earlier limited reservations about his prospects) are three that I think are shoo-ins.

I'm probably getting irritating on the subject but these are my locks of the year!

Marc O'Sé
Tomas O'Sé
Declan O'Sullivan
Aidan O'Mahony
Alan Brogan
Colm Cooper
Tomas Freeman

Player of the year Cooper/o'Sullivan (nobody else near it)

[Aberdonian Stu]

I wouldn't call Brogan a lock. To me the Dub most likely to get the nod is Cluxton.

[Kingdom]

I wouldn't call Brogan a lock. To me the Dub most likely to get the nod is Cluxton.

Ok. These are the half-forwards.
Half-forwards: Declan O'Sullivan (Kerry); Paul Galvin (Kerry); Alan Brogan (Dublin); Bernard Brogan (Dublin); Anthony Moyles (Meath); Stephen Bray (Meath); Raymond Mulgrew (Tyrone); John Doyle (Kildare); Nicky Joyce (Galway).

Declan is guarenteed a spot. So that leaves realistically

Half-forwards: Alan Brogan (Dublin); Stephen Bray (Meath); Raymond Mulgrew (Tyrone); Nicky Joyce (Galway). Bernard Brogan (Dublin); Anthony Moyles (Meath);

Do you still think he isn't a lock. he's a media darling and the fact the media gimps are gonna shaft Killian Young for YPOY with Bernard Brogan, that nails it on even more for me.

[geysir]

I have already picked Cooper or was it O'Sullivan.
A MOM AIF performance is worth about 50% (last impressions)
therefore Cooper gets it, for a skinny underfed looking runt he is a tough fellah.
There is no competition to Killian Young for the young player award and he is good enough for an All Star.

Apart from that, youthwise, the Minor Championship threw up some great football.

[Kingdom]

I have already picked Cooper or was it O'Sullivan.
A MOM AIF performance is worth about 50% (last impressions)
therefore Cooper gets it, for a skinny underfed looking runt he is a tough fellah.
There is no competition to Killian Young for the young player award and he is good enough for an All Star.

Apart from that, youthwise, the Minor Championship threw up some great football.

Geysir, you'd be surprised with the all-stars. Kerry played the best football in 20 years the year they got to the final in 2002. They had a bad 15 min spell in the final and as a result they got 2 all-stars.
The youth championship was quite good and without doubt eclipsed the seniors.

[Aberdonian Stu]

I think Brogan is in the running and a favourite but not a lock and wouldn't be stunned if he was omitted. To me a lock is someone who is a near dead cert and a shock if omitted. There's only ever a handful of locks and to give some idea of the standard I'm talking about I'd have Freeman on the borderline for that status, though on the right side of it.

[DiscoPants]

http://www.setantasports.com/en/Sport/News/Other-sports/2007/09/26/GAA-Feature-Football-Season-Review/?facets/sport-space/great-britain-locale/gaa

Found this on Setanta. Fairly good 'highlights' of the season.
I also noticed that they started an EL section, which can only be a good thing. Good website actually, seems to have been totally made over.

[geysir]

Yeah it's a good read of the highlights, though I would have had the nr.4 at nr.1 :)
His highlight was my grief.

Despite that it was my game of the Championship. The Marc O' Sé full length block on Freeman alone nullifies the Cahill block and there was so much more of the game encapsulated into those 70 minutes.
An absorbing game rescued for Kerry by the O'Sé trio championship resurrection shuffle.

Although he didn't win anything, Monaghan manager Pat McEneaney would be the connoisseurs choice for manager of the year. Over the past few years he has set in motion a "professional" county set up, has instilled a sense of deep pride, has developed a squad with a blend of hardness, tactical nous, quality play with fast exciting wing forwards.
This year he had 2 goals, the first was to get out of the doldrums in the League, the second to win the All Ireland. He had every player believing they were good enough and every last one them gave their all.

[DiscoPants]

I can only imagine they were not in any order, but who is to know. I though the Dubs arrogance and triumphalism at the end of the Laois match would have been worth a mention. You'd have to call that a lowlight though. and that's from someone with a soft spot for their footballers.

I can only imagine you're a Derry man Geysir, but you have to admit you really wouldn't have deserved the draw against them. Poor old Paddy Bradley muxt have a sore back from carrying ye :).

Billy Morgan and the hack is a laugh though. He's a head the ball, but truly passionate about the game.

[geysir]

As a Monaghan man I was just pointing out that that the journo's highlight was Monaghan's devastation.

I didn't have enough time after the last qualifier to book a plane ticket for the QF but I had booked a ticket with confidence for the SF. I really believed that Kerry would not be prepared for what was going to happen in the QF game, that they were going to be bushwhacked, crushed mercilessly into the Croke Park turf and Dublin were next on the menu.
The journo got it right, even after the Marc O Sé block on Freeman, a late equalising chance fell to Meegan who was only about 20% concious after a boot to the head, the devastation of defeat deadened every tissue and every emotion in my body. The crafty Kerry b@stards escaped from the firing squad. The Monaghan player's demeanour, the post match interviews with Rory Woods and manager McEneaney showed to the country what this game really meant to them what their belief was and nobody nowhere could question their courage or effort.
It was a highlight, an example to all teams.

[DiscoPants]

Get you now geysir. I must say I thought Monaghan were brilliant. Everything about them oozed class. I bumped into Tommy Freeman the day after the Kerry match (think he was still in Dublin for some award) and the poor guy was devastated. He had this haunted look in his eyes and I felt so sorry for him. He hadn't trained all week after he got an infection in his arm and it was all plastered up.

As that article says, I hope ye will be back to establish a new world order up the north. Armagh will have a period of transition under McDonnell, but young Dyas heading off to Australia is a huge blow to them.

McEnaney must be the most honest, passionate manager in the country and has to be a shoe-in for manager of the year.

best of luck next season and I really hope ye can go all the way! All the way to the final only to get bate by a rejuvinated Cork that is:).