WTF, no Gooch in GPA nominations?

homerjay2005

Kingdom top Opel GPA nominees list

Kerry and Crokes Colm Cooper
12 October 2009


The nominees for the 2009 Opel GPA Football Team of the Year have been announced, with 11 of Kerry's All-Ireland winning team being short-listed.

Forty-five players have made the shortlist with two - Paul Galvin and Tomás O'Sé - nominated for the Opel GPA Footballer of the Year award.

The list contains players from 12 counties but is dominated by Kerry. Eyebrows will be raised, however, at the exclusion of Colm 'Gooch' Cooper who, despite struggling in the early rounds, was outstanding in the All-Ireland quarter-final rout of Dublin and finished as the championship's top scorer.
Cork, Tyrone, Dublin, Kildare, Donegal, Antrim, Meath, Wicklow, Sligo, Mayo and Derry are also represented.



All-Ireland finalists Cork have nine nominees while Tyrone and Dublin have four each.

The selection committee consisted of Chairman Martin McHugh and Keith Barr and Paddy Heaney. The winners will be picked by GPA members.

McHugh said: "These type of awards are entirely subjective and don't always attract everyone's approval but the over-riding objective is to get the best 15 players for the 15 individual positions.
"Those of us on the committee believe that the overall aim can be achieved from the 45 players whom we have chosen for the nominations.'

Nominees for Opel GPA Football Team of the Year:

1. Stephen Cluxton (Dublin), Diarmuid Murphy (Kerry), Alan Quirke (Cork)
2. Colm Brady (Antrim), Karl Lacey (Donegal), Marc Ó Sé (Kerry)
3. Tommy Griffin (Kerry), Justin McMahon (Tyrone), Michael Shields (Cork)
4. Ciaran Hyland (Wicklow), Tom O'Sullivan (Kerry), Gerard O'Kane (Derry)
5. Peadar Gardiner (Mayo), James Loughrey (Antrim), Tomás Ó Sé (Kerry)
6. Graham Canty (Cork), Michael McCarthy (Kerry), Ryan McMenamin (Tyrone)
7. Barry Cahill (Dublin), Mikey Conway (Kildare), John Miskella (Cork)
8/9. Dermot Earley (Kildare), Kevin Hughes (Tyrone), Nigel Crawford (Meath), Ronan McGarrity (Mayo), Nicholas Murphy (Cork), Seamus Scanlon (Kerry)
10. Alan Brogan (Dublin), Paul Galvin (Kerry), Paul Kerrigan (Cork),
11. Tadhg Kennelly (Kerry), Pearse O'Neill (Cork), Joe Sheridan (Meath)
12. Leighton Glynn (Wicklow), Paddy Kelly (Cork), James Kavanagh (Kildare)
13. Eoin Bradley (Derry), Daniel Goulding (Cork), Stephen O'Neill (Tyrone)
14. Michael Murphy (Donegal), Aidan O'Shea (Mayo), Declan O'Sullivan (Kerry)
15. Bernard Brogan (Dublin), David Kelly (Sligo), Tommy Walsh (Kerry)

Nominees for Opel GPA Player of the Year for Football:
Paul Galvin (Kerry) and Tomás Ó Sé (Kerry)

deisedude

In fairness he was muck for most of the year

dcr22B

True but he stood up when it most mattered especially unfortunately against the Dubs!

Surprised at his omission myself.

deisedude

dcr22B wrote: »

True but he stood up when it most mattered especially unfortunately against the Dubs!

Surprised at his omission myself.

The point of the award though is for consistently producing good performances. Something Gooch didnt do this year. I hate to see players win awards based on reputation

sam34

gooch has another NFL medal and yet another celtic cross in his pocket after this years campaigns... i doubt he gives a flying f**k about the GPA awards.

hawker

Does a player have to be a member of te GPA to get a nomination? If so, then Gooch may not be a member.

LeoB

hawker wrote: »

Does a player have to be a member of te GPA to get a nomination? If so, then Gooch may not be a member.

Whether he is a member or not he does not deserve one this year. I hope Leighton Glynn gets one. He deserves it but probably only nominated to keep Wicklow happy. A really fine player.

Paul Galvin player of the year

homerjay2005

lads, i honestly think people only go on what they read in teh papers. gooch, while not at his best, was still excellent this year for us. i thought he had a great final and was excellent against Sligo deppite scoring little. his performance against the Dubs was unreal. some players get all starts and the like for one game. gooch had 3 or 4 solid games this year. and as i already pointed out, he was fouled for alot of those frees he pointed, which lef him to being the top scorer this year.

he also im sure, set up more scores than anybody else.

premierstone

homerjay2005 wrote: »

lads, i honestly think people only go on what they read in teh papers. gooch, while not at his best, was still excellent this year for us. i thought he had a great final and was excellent against Sligo deppite scoring little. his performance against the Dubs was unreal. some players get all starts and the like for one game. gooch had 3 or 4 solid games this year. and as i already pointed out, he was fouled for alot of those frees he pointed, which lef him to being the top scorer this year.

he also im sure, set up more scores than anybody else.

I agree cant believe people agreeing with the ommission here, he was imo the difference between the early season Kerry and the team that won the AI, when he's form picked up when it counted most Kerry were a different team, from he's performance against Dublin and also making Anthony Lynch look average alone deserves to be on the final 15 let alone the nominations.

Tomthepost

premierstone wrote: »

I agree cant believe people agreeing with the ommission here, he was imo the difference between the early season Kerry and the team that won the AI, when he's form picked up when it counted most Kerry were a different team, from he's performance against Dublin and also making Anthony Lynch look average alone deserves to be on the final 15 let alone the nominations.

I don't agree that he should be in the 15 however the top scorer in the championship surely deserves a place in the top 45.
He will have to give up that Lucozade Sport:D
Mind you Shefflin can get away with drinking it.

premierstone

Tomthepost wrote: »

I don't agree that he should be in the 15 however the top scorer in the championship surely deserves a place in the top 45.
He will have to give up that Lucozade Sport:D
Mind you Shefflin can get away with drinking it.

Ronan o'Gara, Alan Kelly and Colin Cooper - I'm telling you that stuff is cursed.

Frogdog

deisedude wrote: »

The point of the award though is for consistently producing good performances. Something Gooch didnt do this year. I hate to see players win awards based on reputation

Explain Stephen O' Neill's nomination so!? Obviously while bearing in mind why you think Gooch shouldn't have been nominated (nomination based on reputation, only played well in a couple of games etc). :rolleyes:

Lads, it's simple. It comes down to politics. Gooch left the GPA a few years ago. They weren't best pleased. Obvious enough as Gooch is arguably the most talented footballer in Ireland.

This year we've all seen the ads throughout the Summer with Gooch sucking out of a Lucozade Sport bottle. Club Energise (the GPA endorsed sports drink) mustn't have been best pleased.

And people are surprised how he wasn't nominated by the GPA? :rolleyes:

deisedude

Frogdog wrote: »

Explain Stephen O' Neill's nomination so!? Obviously while bearing in mind why you think Gooch shouldn't have been nominated (nomination based on reputation, only played well in a couple of games etc). :rolleyes:

Lads, it's simple. It comes down to politics. Gooch left the GPA a few years ago. They weren't best pleased. Obvious enough as Gooch is arguably the most talented footballer in Ireland.

This year we've all seen the ads throughout the Summer with Gooch sucking out of a Lucozade Sport bottle. Club Energise (the GPA endorsed sports drink) mustn't have been best pleased.

And people are surprised how he wasn't nominated by the GPA? :rolleyes:

He was on the 2008 and 2007 GPA teams of the year so your conspiracy theory is farcical

Mr. Incognito

How the top scorer on the all ireland champions doesn't get nominated is beyond me.

Frogdog

deisedude wrote: »

He was on the 2008 and 2007 GPA teams of the year so your conspiracy theory is farcical

Nope.

I said he left the GPA team a few years ago, maybe I was wrong. Perhaps he only left the GPA in the last year.

Where does that leave your argument about "not wanting players nominated on reputation" (paraphrasing) with regards to Stephen O' Neill's inclusion? You avoided that one I see...........

deisedude

Frogdog wrote: »

Nope.

I said he left the GPA team a few years ago, maybe I was wrong. Perhaps he only left the GPA in the last year.

Where does that leave your argument about "not wanting players nominated on reputation" (paraphrasing) with regards to Stephen O' Neill's inclusion? You avoided that one I see...........

Did i say Stephen O Neill deserved one? No i didnt

Anyway, the nominations arent decided by the players just the team so even if they had taken umbrage with what Cooper did they couldnt do anything about it

dhorgan3

cannot keep these kerry folk happy

FFS he was not consistent through out the year...yes his game picked up towards the latter stages but...

there have been better players than gooch this year

hence his exclusion and there inclusion

simple theory lads

homerjay2005

everybody has declan sullivan tipped for an all star. was he any more influential than Gooch? no he wasnt. they both had similar years.

both had similar performances against cork.
both were as influential as each other in the longford, sligo and antrim games.
injury kept them off form in a game or 2.
both distroyed dublin.
both were quite in the semi.
both won a fair share of ball in the final and were fouled for 2 frees each which were pointed.

lads, we are also forgetting that gooch was wonderful in the league, a league that we won, unbeaten. remember back to games in march and april in tralee when he was winning them on his own.

Frogdog

dhorgan3 wrote: »

cannot keep these kerry folk happy

FFS he was not consistent through out the year...yes his game picked up towards the latter stages but...

there have been better players than gooch this year

hence his exclusion and there inclusion

simple theory lads

His exclusion and Stephen O' Neill's inclusion??? Did Stephen O' Neill have a better year than Gooch?

dhorgan3

I dont know froggy....I have not seen tyrone play much this year so it wouldnt be fair of me to make a judgement...

Are u one of these anti-north folk??

I think the kerry players selected for awards are the right ones

My opinion

like it or loathe it

helpisontheway

premierstone wrote: »

Ronan o'Gara, Alan Kelly and Colin Cooper - I'm telling you that stuff is cursed.

Bernard Dunne:D

Tomthepost

helpisontheway wrote: »

Bernard Dunne:D

In fairness Bernard didn't even see the last 15 minutes!

deisedude

Tomthepost wrote: »

In fairness Bernard didn't even see the last 15 minutes!

Zing:D

Nalced_irl

While im not his biggest fan and wouldnt have him in the last 15, i think he does deserve a place in the last 45 alright. His later performances probably give him a reason to be in the shortlist but the earlier ones definately count him out of the 15 imo

useurename

gooch out,stephen o' neill in. what about tommy walsh.e is going to be unreal in the next few years.i think that most of the winners will be more concerned with the county championships than the awards.i doubt the booze will be flowin in the city west.it would have been funny to see marty morrisey interviewing cody again:cool:

Frogdog

dhorgan3 wrote: »

I dont know froggy....I have not seen tyrone play much this year so it wouldnt be fair of me to make a judgement...

Are u one of these anti-north folk??

I think the kerry players selected for awards are the right ones

My opinion

like it or loathe it

Oh I'm anti-North now because I think Gooch deserved a nomination ahead of Stephen O' Neill??? Ridiculous.

dhorgan3

Frogdog wrote: »

Oh I'm anti-North now because I think Gooch deserved a nomination ahead of Stephen O' Neill??? Ridiculous.

It was a question...not a statement

homerjay2005

By Eugene McGee

Gooch omission a travesty in flawed all star process


Monday October 19 2009

Can this really be true? Twenty-nine of the 31 Irish counties in the All-Ireland football championship could only muster three players to be listed on the best 15 in Ireland between them.

That is the considered opinion of a bunch of GAA media people who deliberated long and hard before announcing the 15 players who were presented with All Star awards on Friday night.

According to these wise people, Kerry and Cork contained a staggering 80pc of the best footballers that Gaelic football could provide in 2009.

That would indicate that the other leading teams in the game are miles behind Kerry and Cork, which is hard to accept.

And there were some strange decisions at individual level also, most notably, in my opinion, the ignoring of Colm 'Gooch' Cooper.

Now, there are many ways of measuring a player's qualification for an All Star award and everybody has their own terms of reference, but I have always regarded the contribution a player makes towards the winning of an All-Ireland title as the most important criterion, regardless of the player's general play throughout the year.

This only applies to Kerry this year, of course, and in my book, the presence of Cooper was critical in Kerry's success.

mediocre

He had, by his own standards, a mediocre year, but his one-man demolition of Dublin in the All-Ireland quarter-final was the real turning point for the previously stuttering Kerry team.

Kerry were outsiders for that match, but Cooper's spectacular early goal changed the face of Kerry football for 2009.

We then move on to the All-Ireland final against Cork, bearing in mind that Cooper had been wiped out by Anthony Lynch twice in the Munster championship. Cooper did not score from play, but converted six vital frees, of which three were won by himself. Eventually, Lynch was taken off in the second half.

The mere presence of Colm Cooper in an All-Ireland final is one of Kerry's greatest weapons. He had very strong claims for being the most valuable member of the Kerry team as regards collecting the Sam Maguire Cup because, without him, 'The Canister' would not now be touring the Kingdom. And by the way, Cooper also ended up as the leading scorer in the 2009 championship.

Of course, the vast majority of counties are not concerned with who the most valuable player on the champions' team is. Instead, we have that ghastly statistic that only three All Stars come from a group of 29 Irish counties.

Surely Kerry and Cork are not as dominant as these figures indicate? Of course they are not, but public opinion, as reflected in media coverage, tends to totally dominate the closing stages of the All-Ireland championship and that constantly over-emphasises the value of a handful of teams.

The best example this year is Wicklow, who played six championship games for the first time in their history and won four.

A sympathy vote is never justification for awarding an All Star, but Leighton Glynn's performances in 2009 did not require a sympathy vote.

The old excuse over the years for great players from weak counties not getting an All Star was that they got very little exposure because the team only got a couple of games each summer. Well, this Wicklowman got plenty of exposure, and his selection as an All Star would have been very acceptable to the wider GAA public.

Cork and Kerry could easily have lost an All Star based on comparisons with several other counties, but that is not the way the system works -- unfortunately for the Leighton Glynns of this world.

As a Dublin player, Bernard Brogan is never short of exposure, but he certainly deserved a place in the forward line produced by the All Stars selectors. However, euphoria rather than logic took over, in the case of Daniel Goulding in particular.

The fall-off in the number of counties represented on All Star football teams in recent years is a further sign of the decline in significance of the provincial championships. It is obvious some leading counties have no great interest in being provincial champions and some actually prefer not to win their province. It will be interesting to observe how committed Dublin will be to winning yet another Leinster championship next summer, bearing in mind that for five years in a row Leinster success has not brought a place in the All-Ireland final. They might now prefer the scenic route, which has produced the last two All-Ireland winners.

Another player who was outstanding in 2009 was Trevor Mortimer of Mayo, who guided his county with outstanding intelligence and leadership qualities to the All-Ireland quarter-final stage.

Sadly, players like Mortimer hardly ever get the recognition they deserve in the All Star context, but the awarding of 12 players from Cork and Kerry this year is not a true reflection of the overall quality of football in the country as a whole.

As a long-time All Star selector in the past, I have no easy answer to this imbalance, but possibly some form of points system awarded to players after each championship game might lay the foundation for a more equitable system.

- Eugene McGee

Irish Independent

Frogdog

dhorgan3 wrote: »

It was a question...not a statement

Well the answer is no, I'm not anti-North. To even raise the question because I disagreed with the inclusion of one player from a county which happened to be in Northern Ireland is ridiculous.

dhorgan3

Frogdog wrote: »

Well the answer is no, I'm not anti-North. To even raise the question because I disagreed with the inclusion of one player from a county which happened to be in Northern Ireland is ridiculous.

apologies

Frogdog

dhorgan3 wrote: »

apologies

No bother. Fair play for apologising.