PFAI Team of the Year

The PFAI just announced the Premier Division's team of the year as voted by the players. As always I never really argue too much on this team as the players voting for who they found hardest to come up against is always a good barometer in my opinion (or course you’ll have some that politically vote but that’s part and parcel of it). In my opinion Redmond (or any Pats player being voted in) is a benefit of recency bias with pretty much all of them being poor in the first half of the season. Some others like Molloy and Jarvis maybe forgotten about after leaving but they were impressive for a large part of the 36 games.

Goalkeeper:
Brendan Clarke (Galway United)

Defenders:
Joe Redmond (St Patrick's Athletic)
Paddy Barrett (Shelbourne)
Mark Connolly (Derry City)
Josh Honohan (Shamrock Rovers)

Midfielders:
Dylan Watts (Shamrock Rovers)
Mark Coyle (Shelbourne)
Michael Duffy (Derry City)

Strikers:
Pádraig Amond (Waterford)
Patrick Hoban (Derry City)
Johnny Kenny (Shamrock Rovers)

Some stats on this years team, not one of them made the team of the year last year, 6 of them them are over 30 years old (one is 36 and one is 39) which is interesting considering how young the league is. There’s also a 2013 TOTY member (Clarke) and a 2010 TOTY member (Amond) among them.

Not sure who's putting Connolly in defence. Any time I've seen him play he spends more time flinging himself to the ground than he does trying to play football or defend. It's especially comical when he does it with strikers half his size. Probably a result of Molloy leaving half way through the campaign though.

These are just random players selecting who they feel are the best they’ve played against so pointless getting annoyed at which I’ve seen loads on twitter do,I’d have Gannon instead of Redmond at RB,maybe Redmond instead of Connolly or even Brouder or Slevin at Galway,Chapman at Sligo also a shout for midfield I think…..

Yeah true. It is a bit random in that regard. It's probably also not been a vintage year for the league so there's probably a wider spread of players getting votes as a result.

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Originally Posted by joey B

These are just random players selecting who they feel are the best they’ve played against so pointless getting annoyed at which I’ve seen loads on twitter do,I’d have Gannon instead of Redmond at RB,maybe Redmond instead of Connolly or even Brouder or Slevin at Galway,Chapman at Sligo also a shout for midfield I think…..

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Yeah agree with you there. I find people getting genuinely enraged with it funny though :)

I’d definitely be going Chapman in midfield too, he had a great season

The only Pats player I'd say deserves a shout of being in there is Brandon Kavanagh, who whilst not being our best player when we've been good of late still has (I believe) the most goals + assists in the league this season which should probably count for something.

A weird team on paper but I understand how it came to be given the process, and it's not worth getting bothered about as so many seem to every year without fail on social media. Just funny to see how shoehorned in half of the team is. At a minimum I think Gannon and Chapman have been hard done by, while I've no doubt Molloy and Jarvis would have ended up in had they not left the league.

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Originally Posted by Jack B

The only Pats player I'd say deserves a shout of being in there is Brandon Kavanagh, who whilst not being our best player when we've been good of late still has (I believe) the most goals + assists in the league this season which should probably count for something.

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True, Kavanagh's output of 14 assists and 5 goals is a brilliant return by any standards

Don’t understand deciding to pick 3 strikers when no one plays with 3 strikers

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Originally Posted by Nah Nah Nah Nah

Don’t understand deciding to pick 3 strikers when no one plays with 3 strikers

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Team of the year in most leagues is rarely a fully functional starting 11 to be fair. Players voting will just squeeze lads in because they feel they’re more deserving of a TOTY spot than someone that actually plays in that position. For example last year Archie Davies and Sam Curtis (both RB's) were in the team at the expense of a centre back

These teams are generally silly as voting takes place ages before season ends...but this one must've been polled mid March!
Clarke is unbelievable pick, lad's been hiding on his line for 21 years...

First Division Team of the Year is:

Goalkeeper:
Brad Wade (Cork City)

Defenders:
Cian Coleman (Cork City)
Eanna Clancy (UCD)
Charlie Lyons (Cork City)
Evan McLaughlin (Cork City)

Midfielders:
Sean Brennan (UCD)
Greg Bolger (Cork City)
Cathal O'Sullivan (Cork City)

Strikers:
Dean Ebbe (Athlone Town)
Ryan Kelliher (Kerry)
Aaron Dobbs (Wexford)

Dont know how Brendan Clarke is in Galway considering we had Pohls and Stacy at Rovers.

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Originally Posted by sbgawa

Dont know how Brendan Clarke is in Galway considering we had Pohls and Stacy at Rovers.

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Brilliant keeper. Mad to think Pats had all 3 of Clarke, Kearns and Maher in 2020 and lost all 3 of them by the end of the season as a result of Stephen O'Donnell treating them all like dirt

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Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract

Brilliant keeper. Mad to think Pats had all 3 of Clarke, Kearns and Maher in 2020 and lost all 3 of them by the end of the season as a result of Stephen O'Donnell treating them all like dirt

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Odumosu was on your books too who’s turned into a very decent goalkeeper at Cliftonville aswell apparently…..

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Originally Posted by joey B

Odumosu was on your books too who’s turned into a very decent goalkeeper at Cliftonville aswell apparently…..

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That was only the last couple of years he was at pats. Yeah I’ve heard he’s doing well up there and am happy for him. He looked totally shot of confidence when he played games for Pats. That and injuries at the wrong times stopped him playing more

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Originally Posted by 2 Year Contract

First Division Team of the Year is:

Goalkeeper:
Brad Wade (Cork City)

Defenders:
Cian Coleman (Cork City)
Eanna Clancy (UCD)
Charlie Lyons (Cork City)
Evan McLaughlin (Cork City)

Midfielders:
Sean Brennan (UCD)
Greg Bolger (Cork City)
Cathal O'Sullivan (Cork City)

Strikers:
Dean Ebbe (Athlone Town)
Ryan Kelliher (Kerry)
Aaron Dobbs (Wexford)

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Finn Harps robbed. Disgrace.

From Shels perspective both Barrett and Coyle fully deserve their inclusions, I'm sure had Jarvis and Molloy not moved they would have ended up in the XI too. I've seen some mentions for Gannon I agree he has possibly been unlucky he has mostly been excellent a few errors may have hurt an inclusion, JJ Lunney would be another unlucky one to get selected possibly missed out seen as an unfancied player

I would agree some players with reputations like Duffy, Watts, Redmond have had their inclusions based on their latter part of the season performances, Honohan is a surprise to me he has looked shaky nearly everytime I've seen him live or on TV