Emerging GAA Stars

41

[quote=“The Puke”]Right

John Conlon (Clare) Aged 19

Smashing prospect is John. Scored three points from wing forward in the munster 21s final and got 2 against Cork. Scored 1-1 on his debut gainst Trale in the waterford crystal last week. A strong lad who is superb to filed high ball and has a good eye for a score, lacking a small bit of pace but has all the otehr attributes needed and should nail down a place in the Clare attack this year.

Gavin o Mahoney (limerick) Aged 21
Has been on the limerick panel for the past few years (think he played in the all ireland final as a blood sub?) and has the potentila to be an excellent half back and will come on leaps and bounds under Justin McCarthy, a very natural hurler but has suffered a bit with injury, he is a decent long range free taker also and was wing back on the limerick minor team that got to the all ireland in 2005

Brendan Maher (tipperary) aged 20
A smashing young hurler from Borrisaleigh, very strong and dynamic hurler who could well hold his own anywhere from number 2 to 12 on the tipp team. Chances are he will be used it the midfield or half forward line by liam sheedy, was midfileder on the 2006 all ireland minior winning team and captained the 2007 team from wing forward yet he played in the backs for thetipp 21s in the year gone by…

Haven’t time to write in depth about too many more at the minute but others to watch:
Kevin Hynes ( Galway)
Nickey O Connell (Clare)
Patrick Kelly (Clare)
Connor Cooney (Clare)
Paddy Hogan (Kilkenny)
Seamus(?) Hennessey(Tipp)
Robert O Driscoll (Cork)[/quote]

Do you really think Kelly will be the Clare keeper this year? I think if Brennan gets his confidence back that he is well good enough to be No.1

42

Sorry I am confusing him with the lad who took the frees for De La Salle when they won the harty and croke in 2007 and 2008…Was he Steven Power?

43

Couldnt tell you that to be honest. Adrian is the Ballyduff Upper keeper, impressed me a lot in last years Fitzgibbon, 2 savage saves, sub keeper on Waterford team last year I think.

44

I honestly think it is 50/50 between the two…I am a big Phillip Brennan fan but Mac doesn’t seem to rate him too highly and he did leave a couple of shockingly soft goals against cork…

45

Someone mentioned PAddy Curran, he’ll do well to come back from that knee injury. Saw him play for Kerry Juniors this year too and he looked like he’d lost a bit of his shine. BJ is the next big thing down south.

46

[quote=“myboyblue”]GAELIC FOOTBALL

Donal Kingston - Laois

[/quote]

I saw he kicked something like 1-7 for Knockbeg college last week in some leinster schools match…think it was from midfield aswell…

47

Spotted that myself, he’s not long back from a broken metatarsal he got while playing basketball, which he’s pretty tasty at too.

Not too many intercounty players playing Schools football, he’d stand out a fair bit. He’s a freakish talent.

48

It was mostly frees cumspot. Only 1 or 2 from play and the goal was a penalty. Anyway Laois always produces nice underage footballers but most don’t make the transition well to senior.

As regard young Galway players I reckon this could be the year young Michael Martin will make it on to the football team.

He has also been scouted big time by Sydney Swans. 2 scouts arrived at his doorstep not so long ago trying to get him over. Tadhy Kennelly has made a few phonecalls too but the lad isn’t budging.

49

[quote=“myboyblue”]Spotted that myself, he’s not long back from a broken metatarsal he got while playing basketball, which he’s pretty tasty at too.

Not too many intercounty players playing Schools football, he’d stand out a fair bit. He’s a freakish talent.[/quote]

Whatever happened to Donie Brennan MBB…He was playing intercounty when he was still in school and looked a class act…

50

[quote=“Gaillimharais”]It was mostly frees cumspot. Only 1 or 2 from play and the goal was a penalty. Anyway Laois always produces nice underage footballers but most don’t make the transition well to senior.
[/quote]

You sound like you’ve seen Donal play a lot?

51

Donie is playing CHF for Laois in the Byrne Cup/Shield at present. IMO he’s too small to make it, but Dempsey has huge time for him and was his manager all the way up through the development squads so knows him very well.

He tore Galway asunder one year in Salthill not long ago, made a show of the Galway backline as an 18 live on TG4.

By the way, Kingston, Brennan and Beano are all first cousins.

52

nice footballer alright but was far too small and still played like a minor when he got onto laois senior team…got fired around against dublin in a leinster final one year…think that
was the death of him…

53

This is from the Trib last Sunday. I’ll see if I can get the hurlers they talked about…

Mixed fortunes for talented young footballers

Kieran Shannon

While some of our 2010 predictions have clearly excelled in the senior ranks, injury has plagued others, preventing them from maximising their full capacity

In 2005, our Gaelic Games writers predicted the 2010 hurling and football All Stars. Ahead of another long, hard season on the field of play, we take anotehr look at how the young starlets are progressing.

You never know with minors. Take the three inside forwards we told you to watch a few years ago. Paul McComiskey, Colm O’Neill and Paddy Curran have gone on to win provincial under-21 titles, but now all three are recovering from injury. They might still all end up All Stars – or never start a senior championship game. It goes to show; projecting future stars isn’t some random, futile exercise but puts names and faces on all those burnout figures we hear about.

1 BRENDAN KEALY (Kerry)
Club Kilcummin
Age in 2010 24
A minor in 1998, Kieran Cremin has shown patience as Diarmuid Murphy’s understudy but Jack O’Connor will freshen his panel up, so Cremin will lose out, with Kealy, a star for CIT, in.

2 BRIAN O’REGAN (Cork)
Club Nemo Rangers
Age in 2010 27
Solidity personified in the Munster championship but John Miskella and Noel O’Leary’s return squeezed him out. With Nemo out of the All Ireland club series, he’ll have a few league games to cement a starting place.

3 FINIAN HANLEY (Galway)
Club Salthill
Age in 2010 26
Won an All Star nomination last year, and could well win one outright either this year or next.

4 TREVOR HOWLEY (Mayo)
Club Knockmore
Age in 2010 25
Didn’t feature in last year’s Connacht championship but came into the team for the Tyrone qualifier in which one of his runs upfield created Trevor Mortimer’s goal. May not play in the corner but should be a fixture in the side.

5 GER O’KANE (Derry)
Club Glenullin
Age in 2010 25
Another frustrating year for the 2002 minor star. He was a marginal figure during the league but he was probably Derry’s best player in the second half of their qualifier defeat to Monaghan. Currently working out to a weights programme to build up an injured shoulder.

6 MICHAEL FOLEY (Kildare)
Club Athy
Age in 2010 27
Played his part in Kildare’s resurgence in the backdoor after missing the Wicklow debacle and will be a key player in 2009, though maybe not at centre-back.

7 AARON KERNAN (Armagh)
Club Crossmaglen Rangers
Age in 2010 27
Since breaking onto the Armagh panel in 2004, Kernan has, between club, senior and under-21, won nine of the 11 provincial championship medals going.

8 BARRY JOHN WALSH (Kerry)
Club Kerin’s O’Rahilly’s
Age in 2010 20
We’d heralded his brother Tommy but since he could be on his way to Australia, Barry John looks a readymade replacement, possibly in the full-forward line.

9 JAMES LAVERY (Armagh)
Club Maghery
Age in 2010 24
A neck and shoulder injury ruled him out last year but Peter McDonnell suspects his Ulster-winning under-21 captain of two seasons ago will prove a possible partner for Paul McGrane.

10 RAYMOND MULGREW (Tyrone)
Club Cookstown
Age in 2010 24
When people listed all the big names that weren’t starting for Tyrone last year Mulgrew was hardly mentioned, though he was Tyrone’s sole All Star nomination in 2007. An exhausting Sigerson Cup campaign eroded his energy reserves, but this year he’ll be putting Tyrone before college.

11 DIARMUID CONNOLLY (Dublin)
Club St Vincent’s
Age in 2010 23
Won an All Ireland club championship and a Leinster title with the Dubs last year, but remains an infuriatingly erratic, streaky player. Maybe his clubmate Pat Gilroy will bring out a more mature side to him.

12 CIAN MACKEY (Cavan)
Club Castlerahan
Age in 2010 23
Next to Seanie Johnston, Mackey was Cavan’s best forward this year, with his work rate and creativity earning rave reviews from Joe Kernan.

13 COLM O’NEILL (Cork)
Club Ballyclough
Age in 2010 21
A leg injury destroyed his season so right now his priority is a good Sigerson campaign and another with the county under-21s. Expect him to be on the fringes of the Cork panel this coming season and a starter the next.

14 PAUL McCOMISKEY (Down)
Club Dundrum
Age in 2010 21
Was a supersub with the seniors before a back injury ruled him out of the qualifiers. Aussie rules clubs are still hovering, but if he gets fit and stays, he could be the next Benny Coulter.

15 PADDY CURRAN (Kerry)
Club Waterville
Age in 2010 22
After the 2006 All Ireland minor final Curran was hailed as another Gooch. Now they’re saying he’s another Declan Quill – brilliant finisher but not at laying it off. It’s unfair, as he won an All Ireland under-21 medal before severing his cruciate.

kshannon@tribune.ie

54

[quote=“scumpot”]nice footballer alright but was far too small and still played like a minor when he got onto laois senior team…got fired around against dublin in a leinster final one year…think that
was the death of him…[/quote]

Nah still alive, got tossed around, adn still gets tossed around, but I have a feeling we’ll see more of young Donie for a while to come yet. He never backed down in any of those games either mind you.

Have a suspicion these new rules could suit him. Time will tell, like I said, he’s starting at the moment, and Dempsey has plenty of time for him.

With regards to Kingston, he’s 6ft5 and built like a brick shithouse, he’ll have more chance than most to make it. He’s already made his Inter County debut and scored 2-6 I think in two games last year. Good freetaker from his hands off both feet.

55

Never seen him play, just pointing out that most of what he scored the last day was frees.

56

Looks like meself and Kieran have a bit in common.

57

[quote=“padjo”]Hurling
Andrew Shore
[/quote]

Paudie Kelly and Eoin Moore more so I’d say.

58

The hurlers, by Enda McEvoy

1 Adrian Power (Waterford)
Club Ballyduff Upper
Age in 2010 22
The most extraordinary game of 2008, the Fitzgibbon Cup final, required something well out of the ordinary to win it. Power provided it with two blinding saves, the first of which saw him dive full length to get the tip of his hurley – held in his right hand – to a shot going in at his left-hand upright and touch it out for a '65. Remains Clinton Hennessy’s understudy with the county. But for how much longer?

2 paul cleary (Offaly)
Club Birr
Age in 2010 24
Not quite the year it might have been for him in view of Offaly’s resurgence. Ended up suffering as a result of the county’s dearth of big forwards; Cleary was pressed into service on the '40 in the Leinster semi-final, lasted 26 minutes and lost his place thereafter. Solid at centre-back with Birr but really needs to return to defence with the county.

3 John Lee (Galway)
Club Liam Mellowes
Age in 2010 24
Thirteen months ago we were hailing him as “the undisputed success of Ger Loughnane’s first year” and “a rock on which a serious McCarthy Cup challenge can be made”. Two steps forward, three steps back. But it’s only fair to point out that a dose of glandular fever hampered him in the All Ireland qualifier against Cork. It will be very interesting to see where John McIntyre thinks he’s best placed.

4 shane o’neill (cork)
Club Bishopstown
Age in 2010 24
A season of continued progress topped off by an All Star nomination. Praised by none other than Ger Loughnane for his brilliant performance against Galway in Thurles, and if he had a trying time of it in the first half of the All Ireland semi-final, that was far more due to the quality of ball being fed into space for Aidan Fogarty from further out the field than to any failings of O’Neill.

5 kevin moran (Waterford)
Club De La Salle
Age in 2010 23
A campaign of unparalleled highs with a couple of lows thrown in for the purposes of contrast. Captained Waterford IT to Fitzgibbon Cup success and was outstanding for his club at the fag end of the year as they captured their first county title and followed up with provincial silverware, with Moran man of the match in the final against Adare. Quietly effective at left-half back for Waterford in the All Ireland semi-final and no worse than most of the others in the final.

6 samus hickey (limerick)
Club Murroe-Boher
Age in 2010 23
As with John Lee, we did contemplate dropping the 2007 Young Hurler of the Year. But similarly as with Lee, that would have been an overreaction to a situation where both were victims of their respective counties’ failures last summer rather than causes of it. Hickey is too talented not to bounce back.

7 brendan maher (Tipperary)
Club Borrisoleigh
Age in 2010 21
So versatile as to be capable of acquitting himself on every outfield line from full-back to half-forward. Straight out of minor, he performed with distinction with the under-21s and is unsurprisingly among the additions to Liam Sheehy’s panel.

8 cathal naughton (Cork)
Club Newtownshandrum
Age in 2010 23
Caused Tipperary some trouble as a floating midfielder during the first half of the Munster semi-final and caused Galway lots of trouble when taking the fight to them down the left flank during the second half of the All Ireland qualifier. The big question, of course, is whether he and Shane O’Neill will actually sample a single minute of intercounty action in 2009.

9 michael fennelly (Kilkenny)
Club Ballyhale Shamrocks
Age in 2010 25
Easy to forget in light of Derek Lyng’s storming finish to the championship that Fennelly was the man in possession of the number nine jersey at its outset. Then injuries intervened, though he did pick up a Leinster club medal in November. Has the consolation of being the new Kilkenny captain; will be attempting to become the third successive Ballyhale man to lift the McCarthy Cup.

10 noel mcgrath (Tipperary)
Club Loughmore-Castleiney
Age in 2010 20
It’s easy to shine on a winning team, which is what McGrath did in 2007 with the Tipp minors. It’s not so easy to shine on a losing team, which is what McGrath did in 2008 with the Tipp minors, accounting for 0-9 (0-4 from play) in their 3-17 to 1-14 All Ireland semi-final defeat by Kilkenny. Give it another 12 months before the senior team come knocking.

11 Samus callinan (Tipperary)
Club Drom-Inch
Age in 2010 22
In with a bullet. First caught the eye when coming on and scoring two points in the league semi-final at Nowlan Park in April. Didn’t stop improving, landing 1-3 in the Munster final, 1-2 in the All Ireland semi-final and 1-5 in the provincial under-21 decider that fractious evening in Ennis. Biggest area for improvement lies in winning his own ball at the first time of asking.

12 tj reid (Kilkenny)
Club Ballyhale Shamrocks
Age in 2010 23
Had there been an All Star for Best Sub in 2008 he’d have walked it. Also did his bit seven days after the All Ireland final, this time in rather more handy circumstances, when helping the Kilkenny under-21s complete the grand slam.

13 Richie Hogan (Kilkenny)
Club Danesfort
Age in 2010 22
Still hasn’t made the great leap forward. In his defence, is still only 20. Negligible impression when given his head against Offaly in the provincial semi-final; his manager not being the readily forgiving sort, that was the end of that for Hogan with Kilkenny in 2008. But showed exactly what he’s capable of with 2-4 from play in the All Ireland under-21 semi-final versus Galway.

14 joe canning (Galway)
Club Portumna
Age in 2010 22
What’s left to say about him after a debut season in which he lived up to every expectation and exceeded many of them? Nothing we can think of.

15 stephen doyle (Wexford)
Club Oulart the Ballagh
Age in 2010 27
Came to prominence with two cracking goals in the All Ireland quarter-final against Waterford at Semple Stadium, demonstrating both calmness – when he bided his time before shooting on each occasion – and power off his right side to complement his stronger left hand. Perhaps would be best deployed as a roving wing-forward.

emcevoy@tribune.ie

59

So you’ve never seen him play.

Glad we cleared that up then.

60

[quote=“myboyblue”]Nah still alive, got tossed around, adn still gets tossed around, but I have a feeling we’ll see more of young Donie for a while to come yet. He never backed down in any of those games either mind you.
[/quote]

totally lost the head that day…was throwing punches all over the place…think he hit casey square on the jaw off the ball…must have been casey anyway as nobody seemed to complain after…:wink: