It’s all over bar the shouting (which there is sure to be plenty of on O’Connell Street this evening) but as the dust settles on another All-Ireland senior football Championship we reflect on the summer just gone.
Many will feel its sodden, error-strewn finale was a fitting finish for a championship that failed to hit the heights but there was still much to enjoy.
Dublin are champs for the third time in five renewals after a year that saw Mayo and Kerry consolidate their provincial seats of power, but there were minor rebellions from Tyrone, Fermanagh and Kildare; major controversies involving Tiernan McCann and Dublin’s Diarmuid Connolly and Philly McMahon; and managerial sacrifices in Cork, Roscommon and Kildare… among others.
So please sit back and enjoy, or get uncontrollably enraged as we hand out our first annual football championship awards.
Player of the Year – Diarmuid Connolly
His summer was not without controversy but, apart from a distracted performance in the replayed semi-final against Mayo, the St Vincent’s man barely put a foot wrong.
In the aftermath of Connolly’s red card Lee Keegan admitted feeling a need to stop Connolly ‘anyway I can’ and it is easy to see where the Mayo wing-back was coming from. All summer the Dublin man was virtually unplayable, spraying passes, demanding possession and adding handsomely to his growing repertoire of ridiculously pretty scores.
Honourable mentions to his team-mates McMahon, Ciarán Kilkenny and Bernard Brogan, Kerry midfielders David Moran and Anthony Maher, andConor McManus of Monaghan, but Connolly was the man of the summer.
Newcomer of the Year – Brian Fenton
The last time Dublin won the All-Ireland, in 2013, the player of the year was Michael Darragh Macauley, who could not hold down a place in the team this year because of Fenton.
A clubmate of former midfield colossus Ciarán Whelan, the Raheny man had barely nailed down a starting place before the end of the National League, but would finish the season being named man of the match in the All-Ireland final.
Not noted for his scoring ability, the 22 year old would finish the decider with a point and came within inches of burying Kerry with a second half goal after a surprisingly mazy run.
MDMA has his work cut out to get back in the Dublin engine room.
Goal of the Year – Gary Sice
Galway have endured a difficult time of it against Connacht rivals Mayo of late and that continued in this year’s provincial semi-final, but wing-forward Sice provided one bright moment for Kevin Walsh’s men.
Receiving a pass 45 yards from the Mayo goal, Sice dropped a shoulder to leave Keith Higgins on the seat of his pants before haring towards goal and unleashing a lasher into the top corner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_hhc_Qs2hw
Galway were on the receiving end of a delicious Donegal goal themselves, finished by Ryan McHugh, but as pretty as that team effort was, it lacked the visceral aggression of Sice’s humdinger.
Point of the Year – Diarmuid Connolly
Again there were no shortage of contenders here, with Michael Murphy, Conor McManus and Paul Geaney unlucky to miss out but man of the moment Connolly cannot be overlooked.
He had some pearlers this summer but there is something about this laconic outside-of-the-foot effort from the Westmeath final that grabs the eye.
Save of the Year – Brendan Kealy
The Kerry netminder arguably has three of the best saves of the summer to his name. The All-Ireland final denial of Dean Rock was good, the strong hand against Tyrone was better but we like this one best.
Cork would have been leading at half-time of the Munster final replay were it not for Kealy’s sprawling denial of Stephen Cronin. The Cork attacker tried to pick his spot, in the top corner, but the Kingdom keeper made a superb reflex save.
Controversy of the Year – Tiernan McCann
Who else? Philly McMahon’s alleged eye-gouging of Kieran Donaghy and Diarmuid Connolly’s trip to DRA are still left in the ha’penny place by McCann’s ridiculous dive and the GAA’s even more ridiculous response.
The coiffured Tyrone attacker was in the wrong to react so dramatically to the slightest contact from Monaghan’s Darren Hughes in the closing minutes of their stultifying All-Ireland quarter-final but the court of public opinion handed out the sternest sentence possible.
Playing with Mila's hair this past 20 mins and she hasn't budged!#puppystrong pic.twitter.com/3bM9PsgH4t
— Darren Hughes (@darrenqz) August 9, 2015
After all the ridicule, including some wonderful trolling from Hughes and his dog, the GAA tried to make an example of McCann with an eight-week ban that had less chance of standing up than McCann’s product-less fringe.
Administrator of the Year – Cork County Board
What started as a statement of thanks to departing football manager Brian Cuthbert somehow spiralled into a tirade against referee Padraig Hughes, the weather and the days of the week – who all conspired to deny the Rebels a place in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
As well as possibly libeling Munster final referee Hughes, it was quite dismissive of Kildare after their wonderful qualifier win over Cork. Needless to say several statements followed to clarify the statement.
