15 of the finest.
A brilliant year for football. Donegal, Kerry are among the teams that came of age but Dublin are still on a different level. They still reign supreme and it’s clear that they’re one of the greatest teams ever to have played the game.
On Saturday’s date with destiny, they showed exactly what they’re all about. Finely tuned machines, they didn’t kick a wide until the 44th minute for God’s sake.
They kicked on in the third quarter and went out on a high playing some of the most free-flowing football you could ever hope to see. They really are deserving champions.
Unsurprisingly, they are predicted to dominate the individual awards in the months to come and they lead the way on The Sunday Game’s Team of the Year with seven of their players chosen.
One who can count himself unlucky to miss out is Ciaran Kilkenny, arguably the man of the match on Saturday. Other notable absentees include Stephen O’Brien and Tadhg Morley while David Clifford’s omission is unforgivable.
1. Stephen Cluxton (Dublin)
2. Michael Fitzsimons (Dublin)
3. Ronan McNamee (Tyrone)
4. Tom O’Sullivan (Kerry)
5. Paddy Durcan (Mayo)
6. Colm Boyle (Mayo)
7. Jack McCaffrey (Dublin)
8. Brian Fenton (Dublin)
9. David Moran (Kerry)
10. Michael Murphy (Donegal)
11. Sean O’Shea (Kerry)
12. Brian Howard (Dublin)
13. Paul Mannion (Dublin)
14. Cathal McShane (Tyrone)
15. Con O’Callaghan (Dublin)
Meanwhile, Tomás Ó Sé, Sean Cavanagh and Colm O’Rourke all agreed on Con O’Callaghan as their Footballer of the Year.
“He was an amazing player last year, but the transformation, the goals he got against Lee Keegan. There’s a real wow factor about Con at the minute,” said Cavanagh.
