All Stars and PotY

Usual controversial selection here. Donal Vaughan would not make my nominations. Like a lot of Mayo players, questions were asked of him only once this season and there were no answers coming – as with Aidan O’Shea who had one good performance against a demoralised team and was ridiculously being touted as PotY!

Speaking of which, Cluxton would be my pick without any doubt. He was the single biggest influence on Dublin winning Sam. Sorry to see no nomination for the Gooch who was super all season especially in the big games v Dublin and Cork. Hard to believe the best player of this generation has no PotY award while team-mates Donaghy and Galvin have.

Tony Kelly will win this.

Lock this thread

Joke of a process 
Any forum that nomiates Rory o Carroll is dead in water to start with. Outplayed in 90 percent of occasions this year.corner backs taken ashore to support the ego.

Tyrone All Star nominee Cathal McCarron has had a hell of a week! I was made aware of the story during the week and didn't know what to make of it but i believe it has since hit the local gutter press! One word, wow!

bald eagle wrote:Tyrone All Star nominee Cathal McCarron has had a hell of a week! I was made aware of the story during the week and didn't know what to make of it but i believe it has since hit the local gutter press! One word, wow!

Another word ... scumbag.

RMDrive wrote:

bald eagle wrote:Tyrone All Star nominee Cathal McCarron has had a hell of a week! I was made aware of the story during the week and didn't know what to make of it but i believe it has since hit the local gutter press! One word, wow!

Another word ... scumbag.

like BE i had heard the story was about to break but i didnt know there was a link to gambling - cant be a nice place he is in at the minute and the future doesnt look too bright.

Perhaps shouldnt be judging him with the use of terms such as scumbag

bocerty wrote:Perhaps shouldnt be judging him with the use of terms such as scumbag

Agree wholeheartedly. At least have due process. If the lad needs help I hope he gets it.

Dress it up how you like, texting a mate to wish him all the best in a club championship match, then getting caught robbing his house is a pretty scummy thing to do! Adiction does that to people though, and i'm sure Cathal wouldn't have done such an unthinkable act had this addiction been addressed earlier.

Mickey Harte intimated that this was something they were aware of with Cathal, hopefully now they can act and get the right people to offer support and help, it's just a pity he was driven to such an act before being offered help. Here's hoping he sorts things out, i like the lad and he seems a decent sort from the contact i've had with him.

bald eagle wrote:Dress it up how you like, texting a mate to wish him all the best in a club championship match, then getting caught robbing his house is a pretty scummy thing to do! Adiction does that to people though, and i'm sure Cathal wouldn't have done such an unthinkable act had this addiction been addressed earlier.

The actions are very low, but I wouldn't attribute the same label to the man. From what I've seen of Cathal, and what I've heard other players say about him, he seems like a decent fella who has felt driven to do some far from decent things.

I've heard that this is a very longstanding problem, and that previously help has at least been offered (perhaps given). He's only 25 and had become a very important part of the Tyrone defence, but I doubt if we'll see him in a red-hand jersey again. Of more importance would be sorting his life out, and perhaps this very public humiliation will the catalyst for that. I very much hope it is.

bald eagle wrote:Dress it up how you like, texting a mate to wish him all the best in a club championship match, then getting caught robbing his house is a pretty scummy thing to do! Adiction does that to people though, and i'm sure Cathal wouldn't have done such an unthinkable act had this addiction been addressed earlier.

Mickey Harte intimated that this was something they were aware of with Cathal, hopefully now they can act and get the right people to offer support and help, it's just a pity he was driven to such an act before being offered help. Here's hoping he sorts things out, i like the lad and he seems a decent sort from the contact i've had with him.

BE wasnt trying to dress it up anyway its a pretty low thing to do but addictions such as this drive people to desperate measures and none of it is pretty least of all a good mate whose house he had obviously frequented when he knew where the key to the house was kept.

Seems the management were aware of his problem though it seems he had it under control for a while at least but recently suffered a relapse. While my sympathy levels would be low i dont think using adjectives such as scumbag and the likes are going to help the lad.

I hope he gets help but part of me wonders if he wasnt a high profile player would he afforded the same treatment. I hope as an organisation who asked for help would get it regardless of their standing in the game.

bocerty wrote:
I hope he gets help but part of me wonders if he wasnt a high profile player would he afforded the same treatment.  I hope as an organisation who asked for help would get it regardless of their standing in the game.

The way I look at it Boc, is that if he wasn't a high profile player we wouldn't be talking about it, and it wouldn't have been plastered over the Sunday World. I'd say the lad wishes he wasn't a high profile player right now, so any preferential help that his status gets him is only fair.

Thomas Clarke wrote:

bocerty wrote:
I hope he gets help but part of me wonders if he wasnt a high profile player would he afforded the same treatment.  I hope as an organisation who asked for help would get it regardless of their standing in the game.

The way I look at it Boc, is that if he wasn't a high profile player we wouldn't be talking about it, and it wouldn't have been plastered over the Sunday World.  I'd say the lad wishes he wasn't a high profile player right now, so any preferential help that his status gets him is only fair.

totally agree TC i'm just concerned that Joe Bloggs who plays Junior football for some club team and has the same issue, he asks the GAA for help and is told where to go.

I dont think County Players should get preferential treatment

bocerty wrote:

Thomas Clarke wrote:

bocerty wrote:
I hope he gets help but part of me wonders if he wasnt a high profile player would he afforded the same treatment.  I hope as an organisation who asked for help would get it regardless of their standing in the game.

The way I look at it Boc, is that if he wasn't a high profile player we wouldn't be talking about it, and it wouldn't have been plastered over the Sunday World.  I'd say the lad wishes he wasn't a high profile player right now, so any preferential help that his status gets him is only fair.

totally agree TC i'm just concerned that Joe Bloggs who plays Junior football for some club team and has the same issue, he asks the GAA for help and is told where to go.

I dont think County Players should get preferential treatment

I agree with you and, if he's a member, the GPA should be getting the finger out on this and similar cases.

I guess what I'm saying is that these unsavoury things happen all day everyday in our country, but it is never front page news. The reason that McCarron is newsworthy is because he is a top GAA player. Given that his downfall/humiliation has been so public, he may need a different kind of help to some others. He'll need a lot of help to repair himself, and then more help to start repairing his reputation.

Thomas Clarke wrote:

bocerty wrote:

Thomas Clarke wrote:

bocerty wrote:
I hope he gets help but part of me wonders if he wasnt a high profile player would he afforded the same treatment.  I hope as an organisation who asked for help would get it regardless of their standing in the game.

The way I look at it Boc, is that if he wasn't a high profile player we wouldn't be talking about it, and it wouldn't have been plastered over the Sunday World.  I'd say the lad wishes he wasn't a high profile player right now, so any preferential help that his status gets him is only fair.

totally agree TC i'm just concerned that Joe Bloggs who plays Junior football for some club team and has the same issue, he asks the GAA for help and is told where to go.

I dont think County Players should get preferential treatment

I agree with you and, if he's a member, the GPA should be getting the finger out on this and similar cases.  

I guess what I'm saying is that these unsavoury things happen all day everyday in our country, but it is never front page news.  The reason that McCarron is newsworthy is because he is a top GAA player.  Given that his downfall/humiliation has been so public, he may need a different kind of help to some others.  He'll need a lot of help to repair himself, and then more help to start repairing his reputation.

what worries me most about this is that some gobshite from the County Board saw fit to speak to the Sunday World about this. I'd have thought that it wasnt in McCarrons best interests to talk to that rag. Mind you the Irish News have it plastered all over their front page too.

2 rags that I wouldn't buy.

I didn't see either article, so don't know the county board comments. Yeah, best thing is for no-one to say anything, other than the lad has an issue and is getting help (which I hope he is - everyone always says 'so and so is getting help', but it doesn't mean that they are).

It's crazy stuff really, and shows how all sense can leave a man under pressure.

very sad case if it has truth to the story haven't heard the full facts yet,how long before some professional syndicate target some gaa player to help them throw a game,as long as players have little funds it must be only a matter of time before it happens you would think

bronco wrote:very sad case if it has truth to the story haven't heard the full facts yet,how long before some professional syndicate target some gaa player to help them throw a game,as long as players have little funds it must be only a matter of time before it happens you would think

have some refs not been doing that for years ?????

bocerty wrote:

bronco wrote:very sad case if it has truth to the story haven't heard the full facts yet,how long before some professional syndicate target some gaa player to help them throw a game,as long as players have little funds it must be only a matter of time before it happens you would think

have some refs not been doing that for years ?????

not for personal gain

bronco wrote: how long before some professional syndicate target some gaa player to help them throw a game,as long as players have little funds it must be only a matter of time before it happens you would think

As always, Bronco is a man ahead of the curve. GPA also concerned about this:

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I have mixed thoughts on this.
If anyone read about this in the courts and crimes section of a local paper and the accused was not known to them the reaction of the man on the clapham omnibus would be that this guy is a toe - rag
We all have choices and in fact if anything given the opportunities and talents it makes it worse.
That's one polar view

On the other hand one has to appreciate that Gambling is an addiction and I do believe its a higher peril for high performance sports stars. They can't drink, smoke or take recreational drugs, they are on diet regimes all of which reduces their let off steam options and curtails the number of vices available , And as the saying goes every man has one, gambling being one with ever increasing access and infidelity( possibly being the vice of gaa heroes past ) given the social media risk an option that is curtailed


In that context I have every sympathy on the addiction and the GPA's need to support.
At the same time the means to fund in this case goes beyond stretching credit and family bail outs.
Which leans me closer to the RM drive verdict but with qualification

All this "if he wasn't a county player we'd never hear it mentioned" is just crap, he is a county footballer and amid the huge sacrifice he makes to play county football there is also a lot of benefits to playing county football. He deserves to be in the spotlight as he is an elite irish sportsman albiet an amatuer, and the story is newsworthy due to this. I'd say exactly the same if it were a Derry player.

Football All-Stars 2013:

Stephen Cluxton (Dublin)
Colm Walshe (Monaghan), Rory O’Carroll (Dublin), Keith Higgins (Mayo)
Lee Keegan (Mayo), Cian O’Sullivan (Dublin), Colm Boyle (Mayo)
Michael Darragh Macauley (Dublin), Aidan O’Shea (Mayo)
Paul Flynn (Dublin), Colm Cooper (Kerry), Seán Cavanagh (Tyrone)
James O’Donoghue (Kerry), Bernard Brogan (Dublin), Conor McManus (Monaghan).

So there they are. Rory O'Carroll could consider himself lucky, given that he got a few trimmings. That's not to say I'd have supported Ger Cafferky's claim either. I'd have gone with Monaghan's Drew Wylie in all honesty. Aidan O'Shea held off his brother by a snot I'd imagine....McAuley snuck in ahead of a few others, principally Paul Flynn for POTY. Flynn was excellent all year and would have been my call.

There's been worse selections down the years. I give this one 8.75/10.

2013 GAA GPA Allstars sponsored by Opel

Goalkeeper

1.Anthony Nash (Cork)

Full-backs

2. Richie McCarthy (Limerick)

3. Peter Kelly (Dublin)

4. David McInerney (Clare)

Half-backs

5. Brendan Bugler (Clare)

6. Liam Rushe (Dublin)

7. Patrick Donnellan (Clare)

Midfield

8. Colm Galvin (Clare)

9. Conor Ryan (Clare)

Half-forwards

10. Séamus Harnedy (Cork)

11. Tony Kelly (Clare)

12. Danny Sutcliffe (Dublin)

Full-forwards

13. Pádraic Collins (Clare)

14. Patrick Horgan (Cork)

15. Conor McGrath (Clare)


Contrary to the football selection this is a complete mish-mash of a job....
3 recognised full-backs accommodated across the last line of defence to the exclusion of Paul Murphy of Kilkenny who was tremendous all year (the outstanding corner back all year in fact).
Patrick Donnellan's positioning is a dubious choice and I'd have gone with Conal Keaney of Dublin in preference to Seamus Harnedy were I on the committee (next year possibly).

Overall 7/10.

Boxtyeater wrote:Football All-Stars 2013:

Stephen Cluxton (Dublin)
Colm Walshe (Monaghan), Rory O’Carroll (Dublin), Keith Higgins (Mayo)
Lee Keegan (Mayo), Cian O’Sullivan (Dublin), Colm Boyle (Mayo)
Michael Darragh Macauley (Dublin), Aidan O’Shea (Mayo)
Paul Flynn (Dublin), Colm Cooper (Kerry), Seán Cavanagh (Tyrone)
James O’Donoghue (Kerry), Bernard Brogan (Dublin), Conor McManus (Monaghan).

So there they are. Rory O'Carroll could consider himself lucky, given that he got a few trimmings. That's not to say I'd have supported Ger Cafferky's claim either. I'd have gone with Monaghan's Drew Wylie in all honesty. Aidan O'Shea held off his brother by a snot I'd imagine....McAuley snuck in ahead of a few others, principally Paul Flynn for POTY. Flynn was excellent all year and would have been my call.

There's been worse selections down the years. I give this one 8.75/10.

I agree that it was a good selection. A lot of people have complained about Cavanagh, Higgins & O'Sullivan being played out of position, but positions have become so fluid nowadays that it was seem trite to select lesser performers in their stead. O'Carroll is fortunate at fullback, and Id've had both Cafferky and Wylie ahead of him.

For footballer of the year, my 3 would have been Cluxton, Cavanagh & Cooper in no particular order. All of these were better in 2013 than McAuley. Flynn was very good too, but for me it would have been one of those 3 (probably Cluxton, as neither Cavanagh or Gooch made the final).

like a few others here i was a bit miffed at O'Carroll getting the full back berth there were better than him out there and as for MDMA getting player of the year well i just dont know, a guy who can barely kick a ball properly ends up lifting an award like this.

A great athlete yes but not even close to being considered a great footballer.