The REAL team of the year

johnnyrotten123

the GPA selection is the true team of the year - forget the All-Stars, they are with O'Leary in the grave - this is the equivalent of the Players Team of the Year in England - and Fitzhenry gets his reward for being the best keeper this year and rightly so...not to sure about Comerford ahead of Molumphy though and you could argue all day about Foley ahead of Browne, but under the GPA system, Browne was up against Tommy Walsh so that is fair enough I suppose...

premierstone

dont know about this johnny just because they play the game does not mean they are good judges and of course you will have biased views cos of county allegiances and personal like or dislike of certain players for example if you were a laois footballer would you vote for Alan Brogan or Mark Vaughan or if you were a clare hurler would you vote for Donal og or Sean og

johnnyrotten123

to be honest I think most players would. I think you are underestimating them in this regard. Most players realise that whatever skulduggery goes on between the white lines should not influence their opionion on whether a players deserves his place on the team of the year. I think the player who would not vote for a rival county player just because he is from a rival county are few and far between. Don't forget that many of the top players know each other well from All-Star trips, college and generally just playing against each other. Players may be rivals and some may be dirty or unpopular, but if he is good at what he does, he earns respect.

Tomthepost

Johnny you must be a wexford man trying to cling to something from a disappointing season in both codes. Bar the camogie girls of course.
The GPA awards will have to be around a long-time before they are to be taken seriously.
Do you honestly think Fitz would prefer the GPA award ahead of the All-Star?
Donal Og should have been selected on both anyway in my opinion.

cruiserweight

Tomthepost wrote: »

Johnny you must be a wexford man trying to cling to something from a disappointing season in both codes. Bar the camogie girls of course.
The GPA awards will have to be around a long-time before they are to be taken seriously.
Do you honestly think Fitz would prefer the GPA award ahead of the All-Star?
Donal Og should have been selected on both anyway in my opinion.

Yeah didn't do as well as was hoped in the senior football. But made the junior football all-ireland final. Made the semis of the league and the all-ireland series in the hurling. Won the intermediate hurling title. Was an okay season could have been better.

Why shouldn't the GPA awards be taken seriously? IMO Fitzhenry should have won the GPA and the all-star award

jacksman

Tomthepost wrote: »

Johnny you must be a wexford man trying to cling to something from a disappointing season in both codes. Bar the camogie girls of course.
The GPA awards will have to be around a long-time before they are to be taken seriously.
Do you honestly think Fitz would prefer the GPA award ahead of the All-Star?
Donal Og should have been selected on both anyway in my opinion.

can you tell me why exactly the GPA awards have to be around longer to be more credible Tom????

cruiserweight

premierstone wrote: »

dont know about this johnny just because they play the game does not mean they are good judges and of course you will have biased views cos of county allegiances and personal like or dislike of certain players for example if you were a laois footballer would you vote for Alan Brogan or Mark Vaughan or if you were a clare hurler would you vote for Donal og or Sean og

So the commentators and writers that decide the all-stars have less bias than the players? I don't think so

premierstone

cruiserweight wrote: »

So the commentators and writers that decide the all-stars have less bias than the players? I don't think so

No didnt say that, nobody can be 100% biased free all the time - just not in human nature, but the people who pick the all-stars are at every match and analyse every game its their job not every inter county player would have the same exposure to the games especially once his team has been knocked out.

For example a player i greatly admire and imo would walk on to any inter county team Kilkenny included is James Young of Laois - now how many of the players eligible to vote even seen him play this year??

Im not trying to take away from the GPA awards in any way but what annoyed me really about the OP was that how can you say the all-stars are nothing, the GPA awards are great and the two teams selected are almost identical

Tomthepost

A few things


1: GPA Awards

I don't question their crediblity its just that we have got to the stage in this country that there is awards for everything, All-Stars, GPA, Texaco sports awards, Philips Manager of Year Awards, RTE Sports Awards etc etc etc.
Indeed we don't have one both two bookies that sponsor sports book of the year awards.
The players have every right to have their awards its just that because they have only been doing it a few years nobody remembers who wins.
Does anybody really think that a player would honestly feel happier with a place on the GPA team or to be an All-Star???

2: Wexford

Whatever about Junior level and Intermediate level the truth is that the Wexford hurlers could have and in many peoples eyes should have been beaten by Dublin in the Leinster Championship.
Their wooden performances against Kilkenny were two of the lowest points of the 2007 Championship.
In relation to the footballers I genuinely thought that they could have moved on from last season and really have a go in Leinster this year. Unfortunately that didn;t transpire. Like the Limerick footballers a few years back I'm afraid having failed to win anything of significance may cause them regress again
Now don't get me wrong I have nothing against the county except they disappointed me for 2 simple reasons.

1: I thought they were the only hurling team in Leinster that could give Kilkenny a game. They didnt

2: I thought that they might have been good enough to prevent us hearing this rubbish about Dublins three in a row in football.

johnnyrotten123

premierstone wrote: »

No didnt say that, nobody can be 100% biased free all the time - just not in human nature, but the people who pick the all-stars are at every match and analyse every game its their job not every inter county player would have the same exposure to the games especially once his team has been knocked out.

For example a player i greatly admire and imo would walk on to any inter county team Kilkenny included is James Young of Laois - now how many of the players eligible to vote even seen him play this year??

Im not trying to take away from the GPA awards in any way but what annoyed me really about the OP was that how can you say the all-stars are nothing, the GPA awards are great and the two teams selected are almost identical

okay, fair comment. I was delighted to see Fitzhenry selected by his fellow players obviously (and yes TomthePost I reckon that would mean more to him than the All-Star award - who does HE respect the opinion of more, his fellow players or the sports writers?) and I felt he should have been on the All-Star team too, leaving all bias aside.
The All-Star awards aren't nothing and the GPA awards aren't great. They are both imperfect and will remain so as long as the championship structure remains the same. Yes James Young is a fine hurler, but until teams like Laois get to play four or five championship games a year at least, then players like Young will rarely get a look in.

cruiserweight

Tomthepost wrote: »

A few things


1: GPA Awards

I don't question their crediblity its just that we have got to the stage in this country that there is awards for everything, All-Stars, GPA, Texaco sports awards, Philips Manager of Year Awards, RTE Sports Awards etc etc etc.
Indeed we don't have one both two bookies that sponsor sports book of the year awards.
The players have every right to have their awards its just that because they have only been doing it a few years nobody remembers who wins.
Does anybody really think that a player would honestly feel happier with a place on the GPA team or to be an All-Star???

2: Wexford

Whatever about Junior level and Intermediate level the truth is that the Wexford hurlers could have and in many peoples eyes should have been beaten by Dublin in the Leinster Championship.
Their wooden performances against Kilkenny were two of the lowest points of the 2007 Championship.
In relation to the footballers I genuinely thought that they could have moved on from last season and really have a go in Leinster this year. Unfortunately that didn;t transpire. Like the Limerick footballers a few years back I'm afraid having failed to win anything of significance may cause them regress again
Now don't get me wrong I have nothing against the county except they disappointed me for 2 simple reasons.

1: I thought they were the only hurling team in Leinster that could give Kilkenny a game. They didnt

2: I thought that they might have been good enough to prevent us hearing this rubbish about Dublins three in a row in football.

They let Dublin back into that game unfortunately. They were terrible against Kilkenny both times, but in fairness, nobody had a really close game against Kilkenny (with the exception of Galway for 55 minutes).

As for the football team, I think a lot of the failures this year can be attributed to the management. In many respects it was a case of so near and yet so far in terms of league and Leinster championship. The next management appointment will be crucial, although looks like it could be a problem. Hopefully we will go the way of Sligo and Westmeath, where it took them a number of seasons to achieve success rather than Limerick.

premierstone wrote: »

No didnt say that, nobody can be 100% biased free all the time - just not in human nature, but the people who pick the all-stars are at every match and analyse every game its their job not every inter county player would have the same exposure to the games especially once his team has been knocked out.

For example a player i greatly admire and imo would walk on to any inter county team Kilkenny included is James Young of Laois - now how many of the players eligible to vote even seen him play this year??

Im not trying to take away from the GPA awards in any way but what annoyed me really about the OP was that how can you say the all-stars are nothing, the GPA awards are great and the two teams selected are almost identical

Anyway back on topic. I think that players would get as much exposure to the weaker teams, as some of the pundits would. Be it through the league or challenge games. But obviously the further a team gets in the league or championship, then the more exposure that team and it's players get. I think it is interestnig that the pundits and players agree on a lot of the players. One of the reasons for some the differences being in selection of players in particular positions for the GPA awards, instead of the freedom allowed in selections for the all stars.

For the record I think James Young is a great hurler and would make any team in Ireland, unfortunately for him unless Laois progress it is highly unlikely that he will get wider recognition. Having said that he did get an all-star nomination last year.

Tomthepost

If a player was honest they would say All-Star but in the current envirnoment of not being able to have an opinion you would never get a straight answer. After all they didn't grow up dreaming about winning GPA Awards and why?Because they didn't exist of course.
The GAA is over 120 years old and it has taken until now to come up with these 'oh so real' awards and lets face it somebody in Opel probably came up with the concept.

cruiserweight

Tomthepost wrote: »

If a player was honest they would say All-Star but in the current envirnoment of not being able to have an opinion you would never get a straight answer. After all they didn't grow up dreaming about winning GPA Awards and why?Because they didn't exist of course.
The GAA is over 120 years old and it has taken until now to come up with these 'oh so real' awards and lets face it somebody in Opel probably came up with the concept.

Of course they didn't grow up dreaming of one. But what player wouldn't want to be recognised by his fellow players as the best player in his position? The GPA awards don't have the history that the all-stars have. But both are prestigous in their own right, and awarded by different groups. If I was good enough to be an inter-county player I would want both

jacksman

Tomthepost wrote: »

A few things


1: GPA Awards

I don't question their crediblity its just that we have got to the stage in this country that there is awards for everything, All-Stars, GPA, Texaco sports awards, Philips Manager of Year Awards, RTE Sports Awards etc etc etc.
Indeed we don't have one both two bookies that sponsor sports book of the year awards.
The players have every right to have their awards its just that because they have only been doing it a few years nobody remembers who wins.
Does anybody really think that a player would honestly feel happier with a place on the GPA team or to be an All-Star???

2: Wexford

Whatever about Junior level and Intermediate level the truth is that the Wexford hurlers could have and in many peoples eyes should have been beaten by Dublin in the Leinster Championship.
Their wooden performances against Kilkenny were two of the lowest points of the 2007 Championship.
In relation to the footballers I genuinely thought that they could have moved on from last season and really have a go in Leinster this year. Unfortunately that didn;t transpire. Like the Limerick footballers a few years back I'm afraid having failed to win anything of significance may cause them regress again
Now don't get me wrong I have nothing against the county except they disappointed me for 2 simple reasons.

1: I thought they were the only hurling team in Leinster that could give Kilkenny a game. They didnt

2: I thought that they might have been good enough to prevent us hearing this rubbish about Dublins three in a row in football.

The rubbish about the three-in-a-row?? Why is that rubbish exactly?? And who is 'us'. Is 'us' a Meathman or are you from further afield? Maybe you are running scared already... ha ha!

Tomthepost

jacksman wrote: »

The rubbish about the three-in-a-row?? Why is that rubbish exactly?? And who is 'us'. Is 'us' a Meathman or are you from further afield? Maybe you are running scared already... ha ha!

The Us Jackman is everybody outside of Dublin. As for 'running scared' well 'I'm actually from Kerry
Three Munster titles in a row wouldn't even get a mention back home and considering Cork hammered the team considered second best in Leinster its a weak honour.

jacksman

I might have known you were a cocky Kerryman. We will talk again as the year progresses I'm sure, but no doubt it will all be surrounding football. I wouldn't expect an intelligent discussion on hurling from a Kerryman...later!