Close calls but no big surprises

GAELIC GAMES/2006 Football All Stars: When GAA president Nickey Brennan suggested the football All Stars for 2006 were selected in a "world record time" he wasn't just attempting to divert the usual question of controversial inclusions and omissions. The team did follow expected lines from one through to 15, although inevitably there were some surprise winners and unlucky losers.

Naturally, All-Ireland champions Kerry have the greatest representation with six players, with the remaining nine places spread among five further counties: Mayo, Cork and Dublin, who each boast two selections, and Donegal, Fermanagh and Armagh, who each boast one. Interestingly, 10 of the team are first-time winners.

But it's clear where some of the closer calls lay. Donegal's Karl Lacey wins his first All Star at left corner back, with Kerry's Tom O'Sullivan and Dublin's Paul Griffin the obvious losers there. Yet Lacey's pace and consistency in Donegal's run to the All-Ireland quarter-finals, where they narrowly fell to Cork, had caught the attention of many throughout the summer.

Probably the main controversy then surrounds the centre-back position, which the selection committee felt should go to Cork's Ger Spillane. Dublin's Bryan Cullen was clearly challenging hard for that place, having established himself as one of the key players in Dublin's run to the All-Ireland semi-final.

Spillane had his moments, though, not least of all in the Munster final replay win over Kerry in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, and, like Lacey, collects his first All Star. Dublin still get two All Stars, in goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton and centre forward Alan Brogan - both as expected as they were deserved.

Kerry take both the wing-back positions, with Séamus Moynihan winning his third All Star in the right half-back position (having previously won at left half back and full back) and Aidan O'Mahony winning his first award at left half back.

The midfield pairing was always set to be Kerry's Darragh Ó Sé and Cork's Nicholas Murphy - with Ó Sé also likely to be in the running for the footballer of the year award.

There are a couple selections in the forward line that could have also gone one way or the other. Kerry's Paul Galvin is named at right half forward, winning his second All Star, with Mayo's Ciarán McDonald the most likely to have missed out.

McDonald could just as easily been selected in the full-forward line, but instead it's his team-mate Conor Mortimer who joins Kerry's Kieran Donaghy and Armagh's Ronan Clarke - both of whom were certainties.

In a slight break from tradition, Brennan announced the line-up immediately after the final selection meeting at Dublin's Westbury Hotel. The hurling All Star line-up, and the various players of the year awards, are being held over until tomorrow evening, where they'll be announced "live" during the television broadcast of the awards banquet.

As president, Brennan got to oversee the final selection process, and he believed the chosen 15 were both deserving and representative of the high points in the football season.

"I think it's a very honest reflection of the year we had in football," he said. "I know the selection process was a little different this year, nominating nine full backs, half backs, and so on, probably helped the final process. It's my understanding that the team was selected in the fastest time ever. It must have been a world record time. So it all went quite smoothly.

"But one of the things that jumped out at me was the fact that there are 10 first-time winners. To me, that seems high, but is a good thing. And also the fact that Marc Ó Sé is among them.

"To me he seems to be one of those players around at the top for a very long while, and yet he's here for the first time. And seven counties is a fair spread.

"Of course there were still some tough calls. There always are. And the selection panel had to do a little bit of arguing. And having chaired my first selection, I was surprised to see the selectors arguing so strongly, which I wouldn't normally see. And again that was a good thing."

The other inevitable talking point from the All Star selection is how it compares to the new Gaelic Players Association team of the year, which staged its inaugural awards banquet earlier this month. Brennan, however, wasn't about to make comparisons.

"Today is about the Vodafone All Stars," he continued, "and I'm not going to comment on any other awards. There's another time for that. This is the official GAA selection and that's all I'm interested in today."

However, the contrasts between both teams were few. The only three differences from the GPA team were Lacey, Spillane and Galvin in place of O'Sullivan, Cullen and McDonald.

Brennan also defended the GAA's decision to continue with the All Star tour, which has the football selections of both 2006 and last year travelling to Dubai from January 23rd to 28th of next year - where the itinerary includes an exhibition game. Recent tours have seen a high level of All Star withdrawal, with other nominated players taking their place, primarily because of the clash with team holidays.

"We'll we'd like to think there is still room for the tour," said Brennan, "and we're already looking at a couple of locations for the hurling trip in January of 2008. Clearly there is the issue of counties going on holidays of their own at this time of the year, but we still feel it's an opportunity to bring our players away. Vodafone are very keen to do it too, and so the trip is still an important element to the overall awards scheme.

"I think it's still a great honour for all the players that get them. They're worthy of it and great ambassadors of the game. Unless we hear otherwise from the players we'll stick with.

"We'll ask players their views, but for me, anyway, having gone to Singapore last year, I think it is a great opportunity for the players. So we're certainly not looking to stop it, put it that way."

ALL STARS SELECTION COMMITTEE: Martin Breheny (Irish Independent), Jim O'Sullivan (Irish Examiner), Brian Carthy (RTÉ Radio), Michael Lyster (RTÉ TV), Eamon O'Hara (Irish News), Peter Sweeney (Irish Star), Martan Ó Ciadhra (RnaG), Seán Moran (The Irish Times), Adrian Logan (UTV), Alan Milton (Irish Sun), Keith Duggan (The Irish Times), Colm Keys (Irish Independent), Frank Roche (Evening Herald) and Seán McGoldrick (Sunday World).

GPA TEAM OF THE YEAR: 1 S Cluxton (Dublin); 2 M Ó Sé (Kerry), 3 B Owens (Fermanagh) 4 T O'Sullivan (Kerry); 5 S Moynihan (Kerry), 6 B Cullen (Dublin), 7 A O'Mahony (Kerry); 8 N Murphy (Cork), 9 D Ó Sé (Kerry); 10 A Dillon (Mayo), 11 A Brogan (Dublin), 12 C McDonald (Mayo); 13 C Mortimer (Mayo), 14 K Donaghy (Kerry), 15 R Clarke (Armagh).