Earlier on Thursday morning, it seemed that most people were happy enough not violently offended by the 2018 All-Stars selection.
The team is a good one full of deserving candidates but, gradually throughout the day, issues were taken.
The shuffling around of a few positions was always going to pose questions. The idea was to accommodate the best players of the year so placing them in numbered jerseys they might not look completely out of water in wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if it didn’t mean that better players in those exact positions were being screwed over.
Ryan Wylie unlucky but All-Star selection as good as it’s been
Colm Cavanagh, for example, deserved an All-Star. But he didn’t play at full back. He played at midfield and he covered back in front of goals – as a midfielder.
He was put back there though because Brian Howard was put into midfield where he never played and Paul Mannion was at wing forward when he played at 13.
All that was done to get deserving men onto the team rather than leave them out but all it did too was leave out others who were better in those positions. And that just caused more uproar.
Because the argument is weaker when you’re trying to say that Colm Cavanagh was a better full back than, say, Ryan Wylie.
The argument for Paul Mannion over Shane Walsh or Brian Howard is weaker when you’re pitting them at wing forward. In general, it might be a good 15, but head to head in those positions, players should be judged and that’s why the All-Stars are so cherished.
If you were moving players around the team to get the best of them in, how on earth has Stephen Cluxton not been fitted in since 2013?
He was nominated for the player of the year on time – the top three in the country – and still didn’t get in.
If Colm Cavanagh can play full back or Brian Howard at midfield, can Cluxton and all his skills not be thrown in there somewhere too because they’re not actually going out to play a game and, if they were, the team would quickly be reshuffled accordingly.
Cavanagh at full back, another strange decision. When they couldn’t find a place in goal for Cluxton why not name him wing r Corner back. All-Stars were once cherished now they are a joke.
— Alan Moran (@AlanMoran7) November 1, 2018
https://twitter.com/MarkDow97133063/status/1057931832002519042
Rory Beggan was better than Cluxton this year by the way. But Ryan Wylie was a better full back than Cavanagh. And Cavanagh was a better midfielder than Howard who was a better wing forward than McHugh and Mannion.
