History beckons as curtain falls on season with All Star banquet

In other words, the deadline is fast approaching and a GAA column needs to be filed.

It is nearly fifteen weeks since the All-Ireland football final and we are another 11 weeks away from the start of the 2024 Allianz Leagues. So on-field GAA topics to write about are in short supply.

And I doubt if anybody wants to read another tome about the perilous state of Gaelic football.

The All Star football team is the obvious topic, but I’m handicapped by the fact that as a selector I know the team but am obliged to stay silent until it is announced tonight on RTE television.

I sure the armchair critics will be out in force again claiming that Player X, Y or Z was disgracefully treated by being left out.

Fair enough but the critics’ cases would be much more valid if they also identified the player who should have been left out in order to make way for their preferred choice.

And just to note journalists do not select the Player or Young Player of the Year in either code. We nominate the candidates, but it is the current players who make the decision.

The nominees for Hurler of the Year are the Limerick trio of Kylie Hayes, Aaron Gillane, and last year’s winner Diarmuid Byrnes.

The latter became the all-time highest scoring defender in championship hurling this summer; Hayes drove his side forward with his athleticism and strength particularly in their tight matches while Gillane was unmarkable at times giving a series of tour de force performances in the full forward line.

Henry Shefflin heads the Hurler of the Year list three wins (2002, 2006, 2012). Remarkably the only other hurler to win the award more than once is Limerick’s Cian Lynch (2018 and 2021) and no hurler has retained the title.

Two of the 2023 nominees, Byrnes and Gillane are members of the Patrickswell club and should one of their names be called tonight it will represent a historic moment for Limerick’s most successful club.

Cian Lynch is also a member of Patrickswell which means that the club are heading for a unique hat-trick (as well as four wins in six years) and if Gillane is named as Hurler of the Year the award will have gone to three different Patrickswell players (Lynch, Byrnes and Gillane) in the last three years.

By the way Patrickswell are not even the current Limerick club championship – they lost to Na Piarsaigh in last month’s final.

Incidentally the PwC GAA/GPA Young Hurler of the Year award will be decided by the players also, with the Clare duo of Adam Hogan and Mark Rodgers joined by Cork’s Ciaran Joyce.

In terms of talent spotting this category is one of watch. Kylie Hayes won the award in 2018. Last year’s winner Mikey Butler is now a double All Star.

Other previous winners include Tipperary’s Eoin Kelly, Noel McGrath and Brendan Maher as well as Galway’s Joe Canning. All four went on to win All-Ireland senior medals.

The battle for Footballer of the Year is no less intriguing.

The nominated players are last year’s PwC GAA/GPA Footballer of the Year David Clifford together with two midfielders Brian Fenton (Dublin) and Brendan Rogers (Derry).

In the event of either Clifford or Fenton winning the big prize it will be a historic achievement.

Clifford can become the first player to retain the award while Fenton can become the first player to be named Footballer of the Year on three occasions – having previously being awarded the accolade in 2018 and 2020.

The only other footballer to win it more than once was Meath’s Trevor Giles in 1996 and 1999

Derry duo Ethan Doherty and Eoin McEvoy together with Roscommon’s Conor Carroll are the candidates for Young Footballer of the Year.

Like its hurling equivalent the winners usually go on to achieve more success in football.

David Clifford was the 2018 Young Player of the Year while other past winners include Donegal’s Michael Murphy (2009), Dublin duo Jack McCaffrey (2013) and Con O’Callaghan (2017) as well as Sean O’Shea (Kerry) 2019.

Finally, the All Star banquet has a new venue in the RDS tonight. Long associated with the Burlington Hotel, the black-tie function has also been hosted by Croke Park, the City West Hotel while in recent years it took place in the Convention Centre.

Unofficially it brings the curtain down on the inter county season though for the Clifford brothers there is no end in sight.

They will be in action for their club Fossa on Sunday in the eagerly awaited Kerry intermediate club final against Milltown/Castlemaine in Tralee.

Theirs is a season without end.