11 first-time winners on what must have been one of the hardest All-Star teams ever to pick

Niall McIntyre

There are seven Kerry men, five Galway men, two Derry men and a Dub on the 2022 All-Star Gaelic football team.

Inevitably, given the year that was, there are a number of unlucky absentees but that’s only because the football was so competitive this year. There were so many outstanding performers from so many counties in defence, in particular, that the back-line must have been next to impossible to pick.

None-the-less, despite the fact that the impressive Brian Ó Beaglaoich doesn’t make the cut, as well as Galway duo Sean Kelly and Kieran Molloy (who somehow wasn’t even nominated), it’s quite to argue that back-line. Ó Beaglaoich for White is the first change from this perspective while we’d also be doing everything we could to get Kelly in there.

Chrissy McKaigue, meanwhile, becomes Slaughtneil’s first ever All-Star winner in their history. The Derryman is one of 11 first-time winners on this team – Kilkenny, the two Cliffords and Sean O’Shea are the only exceptions to that while with John Daly in defence, himself and his father Val join the illustrious list of father-son combos to have won All-Stars.

In midfield, it’s unsurprising that Cillian McDaid is joined by Conor Glass, though Rian O’Neill, who spent much of his summer around the middle third, will be disappointed to be pipped by his fellow Ulster man.

From then on, the forward line is fairly self-explanatory. Ciaran Kilkenny had yet another big year for Dublin and he’s their sole award winner and he’s joined by the two Cliffords, Comer, Walsh and Sean O’Shea.

Meanwhile, Shane Ryan got the nod in the goals ahead of Ethan Rafferty who can count himself unlucky.