Kerry dominate Sunday Game Team of the Year but All- Star selection could differ

The All-Ireland champions had eight players on The Sunday Game Team of the Year with one player each from Armagh and Tyrone also making the cut

The Sunday Game Team of the Year, selected last night, is dominated by Kerry players with eight getting the nod and David Clifford named Player of the Year.

Only one player who didn’t make the All-Ireland semi-finals gets the nod, with Armagh’s Oisin Conaty – a current All Star – that man.

Five counties are represented in the side – Kerry, Donegal, Tyrone, Meath and Armagh.

This is not the All Star team, which will be selected later in the year, and over the past two years has included two players who didn’t even make the All-Ireland quarter-finals – Roscommon’s Enda Smyth (2023) and Tyrone’s Niall Morgan (2024).

That looks less likely to happen this year given the empathic nature of Kerry’s 39th All-Ireland triumph, hammering Armagh, Tyrone and Donegal in their final three games.

They were clearly the best team in the country by a mile.

It’s just a matter of how much weight the All Star selectors put on the star quality of the Clifford brothers in particular, and whether it carried Kerry more so than the efforts of various team members, as it is an individual awards scheme.

The Kerry shoe-ins are David Clifford, Joe O’Connor, Gavin White and Paudie Clifford, who were all selected on the Sunday Game Team of the Year.

The other Kerry men were goalie Shane Ryan, defenders Jason Foley and Brian O Beaghlaoich and Sean O’Shea.

Ryan looks a good bet and certainly one of Foley and O Beaglaoich, but the other one and O’Shea won’t be nailed on when it comes to final deliberations.

Kerry can expect six All Stars at least and up to eight with the Sunday Game Team of the Year and the All Stars tending to differ in at least a couple of positions.

The Sunday Game team features four Donegal men – man marker Brendan McCole, midfielder Michael Langan and inside forward duo Conor O’Donnell and Michael Murphy.

It’s difficult to see any of that quartet losing out, although the likes of Finbarr Roarty and Ciaran Moore, who had disappointing finals, will push hard to join them in the team.

Shane O’Donnell was one of Donegal’s better performers in the final, particularly the second half, and could also push hard for an attacking slot. He may well be best positioned of the other Donegal players to slip into the side after a stellar season.

The Sunday Game panellists recognised Meath’s big campaign with full back Sean Rafferty making the team, while the final place went to Tyrone’s Kieran McGeary, meaning the All-Ireland semi-finalists got one spot apiece.

Meath’s Matthew Costello was on course for the team and an All Star up until the semi-final, but Donegal blotted him out, while it was the same for Jordan Morris, who had an outside shot going into that one.

Tyrone’s next best player was probably Michael McKernan, but injury ruined the end of his summer.

Among the other players who could push hard when it comes to the All Star team that didn’t make the cut on the Sunday Game versions are Armagh’s Jarlath Og Burns, Galway’s John Maher, Derry’s Conor Glass and Monaghan’s Rory Beggan, who all had huge years.

Mirror Sport picked a Team of the Year after the All-Ireland quarter-finals – before the three biggest games of the year – and it had only one Kerry player, although Gavin White and Joe O’Connor were both very close.

At that stage Paudie Clifford and Sean O’Shea had both missed games through injury.

The team was: Rory Beggan, Finbarr Roarty, Sean Rafferty, Brendan McCole, Ciaran Caulfield, Kieran McGeary, Jarlath Og Burns, John Maher, Conor Glass, Shane O’Donnell, Matthew Costello, Oisin Conaty, David Clifford, Michael Murphy, Ryan Burns.

But with Kerry top drawer in their three biggest games of the year they dominate the Sunday Game Team of the Year and will do the same in the All Stars.

SUNDAY GAME TEAM OF THE YEAR: Shane Ryan (Kerry), Brendan McCole (Donegal), Jason Foley (Kerry), Sean Rafferty (Meath), Brian O Beaglaoich (Kerry), Gavin White (Kerry), Kieran McGeary (Tyrone), Joe O’Connor (Kerry), Michael Langan (Donegal), Sean O’Shea (Kerry), Paudie Clifford (Kerry), Oisin Conaty (Armagh), David Clifford (Kerry), Michael Murphy (Donegal), Conor O’Donnell (Donegal).