AIB GAA Club Players Awards 2018 - Hurling Team of the Year

18 Apr 2018
Posted in: Limerick GAA , Dublin GAA , Galway GAA , Derry GAA and Club
The first ever AIB GAA Club Players’ awards come after a long season of chasing #TheToughest title of all.
There were stars in every team but we’ve narrowed it down to the 15 who made it count most often on the big days.
All-Ireland champions Cuala became only the fifth hurling club to
ever retain the title, following in the footsteps of Sarsfields
(1992-94), Athenry (1999-2001), Birr (2001-2003) and Portumna
(2007-2009) and have been rewarded with six gongs.
Given their breathtaking contribution to a championship that was
decided by such narrow margins after such an epic two-game final,
Munster champions Piarsaigh also have six players included and there
is one apiece for Ballygunner, Slaughtneil and Liam Mellows.
Name: 1. Sean Brennan
County: Dublin
Club: Cuala
Main Position:
Goalkeeper
Player's standout moment of club
championship: Strong under the high ball and possessed of a
particularly long strike, Brennan can hit puck-outs huge distances
which is a vital weapon in Cuala's armoury. His accuracy also means
he's a great man to get the ball to a moving teammate. Cuala may have
cruised through Leinster at times but whenever danger lurked, like a
36th minute penalty to Kilcormac Killoughey in the
provincial final, he stretched brilliantly to divert Ciaran Slevin's
strike out for a 65.
Name: 2. Mike Casey
County: Limerick
Club: Na Piarsaigh
Main
Position: Fullback
Player's standout moment of club
championship: Na Piarsaigh's Casey is the most effective type of
full-back, a quiet general who was always there to clear their defence
whenever their goalmouth was crowded but his man-marking job to keep
Con O'Callaghan scoreless in the drawn All-Ireland final also showed
the huge range of his talents. Losing him to injury soon after
half-time in the replayed All-Ireland was a massive blow. It seemed no
coincidence that, within 10 minutes, the Munster champions had
conceded two goals.
Name: 3. Cian O'Callaghan
County: Dublin
Club: Cuala
Main Position:
Full-back
Player's standout moment of club championship:
He may not grab the headlines as spectacularly as his younger brother
Con but Cian O'Callaghan is all that you want in a full-back; always
totally unflabbable when covering in front of goal and rarely making
an error under pressure. Faced with the might of Na Piarsaigh's
forwards he played a key man-marking role at times in the All-Ireland
finals when the Limerick men rotated their powerful attack, especially
helping to hold Kevin Downes to just 0-2 in the replay.
Name: 4. Alan Dempsey
County: Limerick
Club: Na Piarsaigh
Main
Position: Wing half-back
Player's standout moment of club
championship: A throw-back to old school wing-backs who haunt
their man with tight marking, Dempsey is also capable of particularly
well-placed clearances. He showed his versatility also on several big
occasions, not least by playing a sweeper role in the All-Ireland
replay and one moment in the drawn final, when he flicked the ball
over Colum Sheanon's and collected and cleared it showed the huge
variety of his skills.
Name: 5. Cathal King
County: Limerick
Club: Na Piarsaigh
Main
Position: Centre-back
Player's standout moment of club
championship: Captain by name and captain by nature, King's
powerful presence at the pivot of Na Piarsaigh's defence was key to
their brilliant run and his exceptional speed means he always seems to
be ahead of his man. He was one of their key players when Ballygunner
pushed Na Piarsaigh so hard in the Munster final but it was in the
All-Ireland semi-final, when they trailed Loughiel at half-time and
then lost two men, including one of their corner-backs, that his
speedy ability to cover and clear with the minimum fuss really stood
out.
Name: 6. Sean Moran
County: Dublin
Club: Cuala
Main Position:
Centre-back
Total scored in provincial and All-Ireland series:
1-0 (penalty)
Player's standout moment of club
championship: Moran will always be remember as the centre-back who
goaled that 20m free in the 64th minute of the drawn
All-Ireland final to complete Cuala's four-point injury-time comeback
but his powerful centre-back role throughout the campaign was
brilliant. It culminated with Man of the Match in the All-Ireland
final replay but who could forget that magnificent hook on David Breen
when he was bearing down on goal in the drawn final.
Name: 7. Philip Mahony
County: Waterford
Club: Ballygunner
Main
Position: Left half-back
Player's standout moment of club
championship: In some ways that Munster final scoreline of 3-15 to
2-10 flattered Na Piarsaigh as Ballygunner pushed them relentlessly,
only letting them get away in the final 10 minutes. Throughout the
Waterford side's tough campaign of eight games in eight weeks county
star Philip Mahony was an absolute rock in their half-back line and
particularly in their thrilling Munster quarter-final extra-time
defeat of Thurles when he was selected as Man of the Match.

Name: 8. Darragh O'Connell
County: Kerry
Club: Cuala
Main Position:
Midfield
Total scored in provincial and All-Ireland series: 0-6
(1f)
Player's standout moment of club championship: The
versatile Kerryman usually lines out in midfield yet still chipped in
with scores in five of Cuala's six games and proved himself
particularly versatile in this campaign, often at wing-back. In the
replayed All-Ireland final, when Adrian Breen was running riot on
Cuala's defence, he shifted back to help do a vital marking job at
corner-back but not before he got one of his trademark points in the
first half; a sensational catch inside his own half followed by a mazy
run down the left wing and finished with a beautiful angled point
straight off the bas.
Name: 9. Ronan Lynch
County: Limerick
Club: Na Piarsaigh
Main
Position: Midfield
Total scored in provincial and All-Ireland
series: 0-32 (20f, 3 '65s, 3 S/lines).
Player's standout
moment of club championship: While Na Piarsaigh were without
regular freetaker Shane Dowling for most of the campaign they had an
ample replacement in young Ronan Lynch, the big man with the delicate
touch and the competition's second highest scorer whose bag of tricks
includes a prodigious ability to score sideline balls. He slotteded
one of those, two 65s and nine frees in his whopping 0-15 tally
against Blackrock in their Munster semi-final, the highest individual
score of this year's competition, and almost matched that in the
All-Ireland semi-final against Slaughtneil when he bagged 0-14
(11frees).
Name: 10. David Treacy
County: Dublin
Club: Cuala
Main Position: Right
half-forward
Total scored in provincial and All-Ireland series:
0-53 (44f, 4 65s)
Player's standout moment of club
championship: The championship's topscorer has long been regarded
as 'Mr Dependable' for Cuala and Dublin, especially with placed balls
and was particularly invaluable and metronomic this season. Six points
was actually his lowest score in Cuala's run to All-Ireland glory. His
'12 from 12' frees in baltic, windy conditions in the drawn
All-Ireland final caught the spotlight yet it was his combative
leadership, layoffs and assists that day to help the Dubliners
repeatedly fight back from deficits that day was even more impressive
than his masterclass in free-taking.
Name: 11. Brendan Rogers
County: Derry
Club: Slaughtneil
Main Position:
Centre-forward
Total scored in provincial and All-Ireland
series: 1-5.
Player's standout moment of club
championship: Brendan is not the only dual player in a Slaughtneil
team loaded with them but what makes him unique is that he plays
full-back for their footballers and full-forward for their hurlers. He
scored 0-7 (6fs) when Slaughtneil beat Banagher to win their fifth
Derry title in-a-row and another 1-2 in the Ulster semi-final. He move
out to the centre-forward line as well as his brace of points was
crucial to helping Loughiel retain their Ulster title against
Balygalget and in the All-Ireland semi-final he proved a real thorn in
Na Piarsaigh's side, setting up goals for others and unlucky not to
get one himself.
Name: 12. Adrian Morrissey
County: Galway
Club: Liam Mellows
Main Position:
Full or corner-forward
Total scored in provincial and
All-Ireland series: 0-7 (7f)
Player's standout moment of
club championship: Liam Mellows were undoubtedly the story of
the Galway championship in 2017. Despite not having a single player on
Galway's All-Ireland winning senior panel, they won their
quarter-final in a replay, pipped Cappataggle by a point in the semis
and then shocked Gort to win their first county SHC title in 47 years.
Adrian Morrissey's metronomic free-taking (0-8fs) was vital in the
county final but, though he scored one point less in the
All-semi-final against Cuala, that was arguably even better as he
scored five of Mellow's six first-half scores to keep them within two
points of the reigning champions at the break and still in
contention.

Name: 13.Adrian Breen
County: Limerick
Club: Na Piarsaigh
Main
Position: Right corner-forward
Total scored in provincial and
All-Ireland series: 1-17
Player's standout moment of club
championship: The younger of the rangey Breen brothers scored 1-17
in the provincial and All-Ireland series - all from play. No matter
how tightly he is marked and with apparently extra 'hang-time', he has
a marvellous ability to win his own aerial ball and, once he lands,
seamlessly accelerate out of the turn, with an ability to score off
either side. Breen proved a real handful for Cuala in both All-Ireland
finals, scoring 0-4 and 0-5 in them respectively, yet it was his
performance in the Munster final, when he scored 1-5 from play to
break Ballygunner's spirit, that was arguably his most outstanding
performance.
Name: 14. Kevin Downes
County: Limerick
Club: Na Piarsaigh
Main
Position: Full-Forward
Total scored in provincial and
All-Ireland series: 1-9
Player's standout moment of club
championship: An imposing figure with skills to match, Downes is
one of those players who can magic up a score with several men hanging
off him. When Na Piarsaigh had leaked two goals and badly needed a
life-line in the All-Ireland replay Downes made a magnificent catch
and shot a bullet off the run from 20 metres out. Only the cross-bar
foiled his effort but it was the spark that ignited their comeback.
Another moment of individual brilliance was his great surging run in
the Munster final, when Na Piarsaigh trailed Ballygunner by four.
Having carved open the defence he laid off the ball for David Breen to
goal and suddenly Na Piarsaigh were right in the game.
Name: 15. Con O'Callaghan
County: Dublin
Club: Cuala
Main Position: Left
corner-forward
Total scored in provincial and All-Ireland
series: 3-15
Player's standout moment of club championship: The second of the O'Callaghan brothers to be included had a phenomenal 12 months that included winning two club All-Irelands with Cuala as well as a senior football All-Ireland, Allstar and Young Player of the Year with Dublin. His 3-15 in the provincial and club series with Cuala all came from play and his scoring rate only abated in the All-Ireland finals when Na Piarsaigh double and triple-teamed him. In the dying minutes of the replayed final, with the game still in the melting pot, O'Callaghan showed his class by bagging one vital point and winning a free as they inched clear. His other highlights this season came against St Martins – three points in 90 seconds before setting up a Colm Cronin and then his own beautifully bounced goal - and that tour de force against Liam Mellows when he scored three points with his first four touches and won a free with his fifth.