A straight white male? Sure they’re all bastards
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Limerick GAA is very lucky that the RTE SPOTY isn’t picked by a public vote . The vote would be very evenly split between the women . Cian Lynch would probably win by near default and we would be branded a right wing misogynistic entity forever
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I’d imagine they will win team of the year. The two rowing teams, Limerick, Tyrone, Meath ladies, Shamrock Rovers etc. will be the likes nominated
It’s still not really the point.
It’s not hard to see what happened here. The solution would have been to expand the list of nominees - not to take some of the other well deserved names off.
Would you have nominated the two rowing lads separately?
Paul O’Donovan was nominated in 2016. Seems very strange that an Olympic silver medal is enough to merit inclusion on the shortlist but not an Olympic gold medal.
I’d have thought that O’Donovan should be one of three main candidates to win the thing but sure what would I know.
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I think I’d have nominated Paul O’Donovan for sportsperson and then the pair of them as a team but it’s arguable both should have been nominated - we really don’t win gold at olympics very often.
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I think if you nominate one, you nominate both. Everything they won, they won as a pair this year AFAIK.
I’d say they’ve it set up for Kellie to win individual and the two lads to win team.
a ladies GGA player is nominated but an Olympic medal winner isnt.
the standard/athleticism required to be champion at ladies GGA vs the Olympics isnt comparable
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Sure nominate the whole Limerick team then. And the whole Meath women’s Gaelic football team.
Or none.
I’m not saying O’Donovan shouldn’t have been nominated by the way, but I would have thought if he got a nomination, then McCarthy should get one too.
It’s a pair, not 15 players and a whiteboard.
It’s all a bit odd
In 2020 6 people were nominated
In 2019 10 people were nominated
In 2018 13 people were nominated
This year the shortlist is only 8. So they clearly had a lot of flexibility in the numbers they could put forward.
Considering the criteria (https://www.rte.ie/sport/other-sport/2021/1210/1265964-criteria-for-rte-sportsperson-of-the-year-nominees/) as well it seems like an even more grievous omission and combined with the social media blitz about the number of women nominees almost diminishes the award.
That’s not to say the female sportsters are undeserving of nomination - each and every one is - but weirdly it almost seems like tokenism rather than pure equality the way RTE have handled it.
Yeah - I’d be ok with that and as per my other post they def had the flexibility to do it. I do agree with you that a pair is quite a bit different to a large team sport.
Rachel Blackmore will walk it
I’m not saying McCarthy shouldn’t have been nominated.
Paul O’Donovan has won an Olympic gold, Olympic silver, and four World Championship golds.
Two of those World Championship golds were individual single sculls.
He is a phenomenon.
O’Donovan, Harrington, Blackmore are the three standout candidates and they’re very hard to separate. You could make strong arguments for all three. Nobody else comes remotely close.
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I’d agree with that. O’Donovan’s record on a world stage speaks for itself. Blackmore has been a breakthrough sportsperson - smashing the ceiling and Harringtons gold is a supreme achievement.
amateur domestic sports and sports that are cruel to animals should be excluded
Harrington surely, Blackmore is overrated to a laughable extent, armchair rides on doped horses ffs.
He’s probably the best in the world but all his achievements this year were as a pair. Those individual titles were in previous years.