Sunday, November 16, 2008

County Tyrone 2008 All Ireland Football Winners!

I'm a little behind in posts...but better late than never!

RTE - October 15th

Tyrone's all-conquering heroes have been rewarded for their magnificent third All-Ireland title in six years, seven of their players were named GAA Football All Stars for 2008.

The All Star winners will be presented with their awards on Friday 17 October, at the gala banquet at Dublin's City West Hotel when 2008's hurling All Stars will also be announced live RTE Two television.

In all, five counties are represented on this year's football All Stars selection, with players from beaten finalists Kerry as well as Westmeath, Leinster champions Dublin and Ulster Champions Armagh, joining the seven Tyrone stars on this year's selection.

Tyrone's haul tops that of 2007 All-Ireland champions Kerry, who had six players selected in the 2007 football All Stars team. However, there was consolation for the beaten All-Ireland finalists, with four of the Kerry team selected on this year's All Stars. Among them is Colm Cooper who picked up his fifth award, more awards than any other member of this year's All Stars.

Two other players, Tyrone's All-Ireland final man-of-the-match Sean Cavanagh and Kerry's centre half-back Tomás Ó Sé, collected their fourth awards, while Tyrone's Conor Gormley, Philip Jordan and Brian Dooher all landed their third awards.

Three players, Tomás Ó Sé, Declan O'Sullivan and Colm Cooper, all from Kerry, are the only back-to-back All Stars this year.

One more piece of business will be decided at Friday night's awards ceremony; the Player of the Year Award 2008, Sean Cavanagh, Brian Dooher and Colm Cooper are short-listed for the Vodafone sponsored award, which will also be announced live on the night.

For Cavanagh, today's All Star caps an amazing two months. The Moy clubman was also honoured Vodafone Player of the Month for both August and September and in the same period was appointed captain of the Ireland International Rules squad.

There are five new All Stars in this year's selection: Justin McMahon, Davy Harte and Enda McGinley from Tyrone, Gary Connaughton from Westmeath and Shane Ryan from Dublin.

The county breakdown is: Tyrone (7), Kerry (4), Westmeath (2), Armagh (1) and Dubllin (1).

The Vodafone GAA Football All Stars for 2008 are:

Goalkeeper:
1 Gary Connaughton (Westmeath)
Full-backs:
2 Conor Gormley (Tyrone) All Star '03, '05
3 Justin McMahon (Tyrone)
4 John Keane (Westmeath) All Star '04
Half-backs:
5 Davy Harte (Tyrone)
6 Tomás Ó Sé (Kerry) All Star '04, '05. '07
7 Philip Jordan (Tyrone) All Star '03, '05
Midfield:
8 Enda McGinley (Tyrone)
9 Shane Ryan (Dublin)
Half-forwards:
10 Brian Dooher (Tyrone) All Star '03, '05
11 Declan O'Sullivan (Kerry) All Star '07
12 Seán Cavanagh (Tyrone) All Star '03, '04, '05
Full-forwards:
13 Colm Cooper (Kerry) All Star '02, '04, '05, '07
14 Kieran Donaghy (Kerry) All Star '06
15 Ronan Clarke (Armagh) All Star '06

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