Why I believe there are glaring All-Star omissions

by Martin Carney, Mayo's foremost GAA columnist

IT’S that in-between time when club championship games have run their courses nationwide and the new county season is still a few months away.

Provincial club games have started to find their voices. Beyond this, though, there is still much to reflect on.

For openers, we had the annual All-Stars on Friday night. Always an enjoyable evening, if for no other reason it allows players – recipients and nominees – the chance to relax and share time with one another.

To what extent trade secrets from the different camps are revealed is anyone’s guess. Disclosure usually goes in direct proportion to the amount of alcohol consumed, but from memory this award ceremony is generally very pleasant.

I have a bee in my bonnet in relation to this year’s final selection, however. That Mayo got just six places on the team of the year was a under-representation.

Mayo were the story of the summer. With the greatest respect to what Louth and Westmeath achieved, what Mayo did in winning their first Sam in 75 years eclipsed everything else.

A friend enquired whether this the lowest number of awards that an All-Ireland winning team garnered since the commencement of the scheme in 1971.

Meant to recognise and reward the achievements of the top players over the course of the championship, it is generally the case that the All-Ireland-winning team mops up the majority of places on offer.

Yet in that inaugural year, Offaly, the All-Ireland champions, merited just four players. Fast forward to 1983 and Dublin amassed the same return.

That year, the year of the infamous violent final with Galway when they finished with 12 men, there was little appetite for including any more.

Down, with four selected in 1991, complete the list of the winning teams with the lowest returns. In winning their first title in 1992, Donegal had seven selected on the All-Stars selection. A similar number went to Tyrone in 2003, their inaugural winning year.

With respect, and at the risk of being labelled parochial, I felt that there were glaring Mayo omissions from this year’s selected team.

There is no doubt that Ryan O’Donoghue, Kobe McDonald and Darragh Beirne deserved their selection in the forward division.

Jack Carney did more than most to merit his accolade. Indeed, he was one of the five Mayo players who Andy started in every game; that he was of the four who saw these games through to the final whistle makes his achievement more worthy again.

Enda Hession excelled in defence and his choice came as little surprise. Ballina’s Sam Callinan, though chosen in the corner-back position, was the understated firebrand that Mayo wouldn’t go to battle without.

How he managed to maintain his form during the season is anyone’s guess.

Central to Ballina’s quest for their three-in-a-row, this gave him little respite from club fare.

Colleges football was a constant, and strapped to that was the small matter of representing Mayo consistently with honour and distinction! Nobody gave as much in pursuit of the accolade.

But in ignoring the claims of Jordan Flynn in particular, the selectors turned a blind eye to the performances of the Crossmolina man and didn’t give him the reward his season deserved.

His tackle count game on game was phenomenal. Winning dirty ball or plucking the leather from the skies came easy to him.

Being a source of encouragement to team-mates and a trend-setter on the pitch never wavered. What more could he do, I ask?

Perhaps a total return of 13 points didn’t whet their appetite for selecting him but I believe that on the basis of graft, honesty and consistent application in every game, he was deserving of one.

The same fate befell another wing-forward of the generation just gone. Knockmore’s Kevin McLoughlin was a paragon of competitiveness season after season during his spell with Mayo.

Few wing-forwards matched the standards he set. Yet though nominated repeatedly, he was always overlooked. This constituted an injustice in my book.

David McBrien’s omission is the other one I have difficulty coming to terms with. Andy took his time in locating him at centre-back. In his opening games he was listed at full-back and midfield.

It wasn’t until the Tyrone game that he got selected in his best position: centre half-back. Fast-forward and it was McBrien who opened Mayo’s account in the final at a time when Kerry were on the crest of their early wave.

He reminded the boys from the Kingdom that he was there to scrap and not genuflect. Others took note and from his example. Exemplary throughout the championship season, he was one of those who played every minute and every second of their eight games.

Arguments raged and opinions differed since the All-Ireland as to who would get the honour of Player of the Year and indeed Young Player of the Year.

That two Mayo men were in the running for each category said all that was needed: when it came to excellence look no further than the Mayo stable.

Lovers of the game marvel at what David Clifford brings to Gaelic football. His score-taking, 360 degree vision, ball-winning ability, feints, shimmies and presence puts him up there with the most compelling figure I have seen in our sport.

The storied achievements of Best, Messi, Botham, Gareth Edwards and Christy Ring from other codes have straddled time. Clifford is a worthy addition to this club.

However, as time passes and other aspects of All-Ireland 2026 fog the memory bank, one thing will remain: this will be remembered as Ryan O’Donoghue’s final. This was the day the cruiserweight became the heavyweight and the Bemullet tyro embedded himself into the minds of everyone who was fortunate to see the game.

What O'Donoghue did for Mayo this year will forever elevate him into the pantheon of the all-time greats of his sport. As such, no one merited the Player of the Year award more than Belmullet’s Ryan O’Donoghue.

I’m convinced Darragh Beirne played the final with an ankle injury issue, but thank God he lined out. For in the final, Beirne gave us a demonstration not alone of his footballing calibre, but also a jolting preview of what still is to come from the Claremorris man.

This display, more than any other, earned him the accolade of Young Player of the Year. Recall his point struck from the Hill 16 corner and marvel at his calmness in steering the ball to the Kerry net. Take your pick.

Above all, to have displayed his levels of maturity in that heaving theatre that was Croke Park on July 26th did more than anything to rightfully earn Darragh Beirne the Young Player of the Year award.