ON the 134th anniversary of the founding of the GAA the altered realities of modern football are reflected in this year’s PwC GAA/GPA Football Allstars.
Dublin dominance, Tyrone’s tactical flexibility and team ethos, ‘middle eight’ players, a great year for Monaghan, and the brilliance of many current forwards were the main factors in the 15 selected.
The line-out may be the main talking point, more so than the players included, with Tyrone’s Colm Cavanagh placed at full-back as a consequence of the defensive work he does as a sweeper.
His selection, alongside county colleague Padraig Hampsey, means Cavanagh and his brother Sean are in elevated company as siblings who have won more than one Allstar, along with the Spillanes and Ó Sés of Kerry, and Dublin’s Brogans.
Instead of Cavanagh at midfield is Dublin’s only first-time winner this year, Brian Howard, whose placement there means that, for the first time ever, that pairing comes from the same club, alongside fellow Raheny man Brian Fenton.
Indeed this is only the third time the same county has provided the centre-field combination, after Kerry in 1981 (Jack O’Shea and Sean Walsh) and Derry in 1993 (Anthony Tohill and Brian McGilligan).
Read more: The Allstars profiled
In all, four-in-a-row All-Ireland champions Dublin have seven players in the team – one more than the total of six Ulstermen – but that does not include their skipper and goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton, for the fifth consecutive season.
Instead, the number one jersey went to Monaghan’s Rory Beggan, the Scotstown man one of six first-time winners in the side. Beggan’s inclusion makes it the fifth year in a row that the Allstar goalkeeper has not come from the Al-Ireland champions.
For the first time, the Farneymen have three Allstars in the same year, with another inaugural winner in Karl O’Connell of Tyholland and a third award for Clontibret forward Conor McManus, reaching the same tally as Eugene ‘Nudie’ Hughes.
That meant Monaghan outdoing Tyrone on the individual front, with just two Red Hands included, both in defence, the aforementioned Cavanagh and Hampsey.
Cavanagh, who won his first Allstar at midfield last season, has had his excellence in the ‘sweeping’ role recognised – but the Red Hands are the least-decorated finalists since Cork received just one in 2007.
The other Ulsterman named as an Allstar is Donegal’s Ryan McHugh, who joins his father Martin as a two-time winner, with Ryan’s brother Mark also lauded in 2012.
McHugh’s county colleague Eoghan ‘Ban’ Gallagher was unfortunate to miss out on a place in defence, as in this writer’s opinion, was Monaghan man-marker Ryan Wylie. Arguably he should have been a ‘cert’ in this side, giving up only 0-5 to direct opponents over nine Championship matches, including holding Paul Geaney, Mark Bradley, and Lee Brennan scoreless, and Galway’s Ian Burke to a single point.
Kerry’s teenage sensation David Clifford was an obvious inclusion in attack, and the 15 is completed by Galway playmaker Ian Burke, who held off challenges from fellow Tribesmen Damien Comer and Shane Walsh. Both of those are first-time winners of the Allstar accolade.
Jonny Cooper is the first Dub named and after several Ulstermen there will then be six consecutive Dubs called up onto the stage at the Convention Centre tomorrow night – Jack McCaffrey, James McCarthy, Fenton, Howard, Paul Mannion, and Ciaran Kilkenny.
One of those Dubs will also be named ‘Footballer of the Year’, with the GPA membership voting between McCaffrey, Fenton, and Kilkenny.
Howard is in the running for the ‘Young Footballer of the Year’ accolade, along with Clifford and Tyrone defender Michael McKernan.
Only four players – Cavanagh, McCaffrey, McCarthy, and Mannion – return from last year’s selection, making for a new-look team in more ways than one.
2018 PwC GAA/GPA Football Allstars
1. Rory Beggan (Monaghan)
2. Jonny Cooper (Dublin)
3. Colm Cavanagh (Tyrone)
4. Padraig Hampsey (Tyrone)
5. Karl O’Connell (Monaghan)
6. James McCarthy (Dublin)
7. Jack McCaffrey (Dublin)
8. Brian Fenton (Dublin)
9. Brian Howard (Dublin)
10. Paul Mannion (Dublin)
11. Ciaran Kilkenny (Dublin)
12. Ryan McHugh (Donegal)
13. David Clifford (Kerry)
14. Conor McManus (Monaghan)
15. Ian Burke (Galway)
Read more: The Allstars profiled
