Mayo have every right to shoot for the stars

A month and more has passed since the great and the mighty of the GAA world mingled and supped at the annual All Star awards. I have to confess that my interest in them has diluted year on year.

To me – and feel free to disagree – they tend to form shape around All-Ireland semi-final time with the few doubtful spots thrown out under the nostalgia card. Despite the plethora of extra matches, it still boils down to the latter stage of the championship and All-Ireland final performances.

Over here in Meath, the joy was extraordinary as Sean Rafferty nailed down the left corner-back spot. (Do positions actually matter anymore?). But, what caught my eye was the fact that Meath’s last All Star had been gained by Stephen Bray back in 2007, eighteen years ago.

Louth’s Sam Mulroy earned the 2025 spot at corner-forward, bringing the county’s total to two since Paddy Keenan’s 2010 All Star. So what does that tell us about Meath and Louth football? Nothing. Apart from the fact that the 2010 Leinster final was Louth’s except that poor decisions on the official front robbed them. The All Stars might have been a way of reflecting that? Who knows. Anyway, the eighteen year Meath gap set me thinking about ourselves – and we come out of it well.

Winning our first All Star in the inaugural year of 1971 with the right corner-back spot going to Johnny Carey, the eight years until 1979 when Joe McGrath became Mayo’s second All Star remains our longest gap. McGrath was selected at left corner-forward and once unplugged, we became participants in the All Star awards on a regular basis. We tend to glut for a while and then gap.

First of all, we have won 54 All Stars since the start. Kerry have 159 and Dublin 146. Those numbers would be expected. Cork are an anomaly in football with a healthy 64 despite living in Kerry’s shadow. Tyrone have 58 while Meath and Galway are tied on 48 apiece. Armagh have 30, Derry 33, Donegal 36, Monaghan a credible 14 and Kildare 15. I’ll come back to Kildare later. Roscommon hold their own with 16.

All Stars are awarded around oasis time in some counties whilst others stay in the desert. Hence the green, green grass of Dublin and Kerry. Good runs, semi-finals and final wins ensure the desert is well watered. Some counties, like Derry, get rewarded for good league runs, others, us, don’t. We have had to rely on the granite of the championship to break earth. Some counties seem to get them easier than others in certain years. Some counties having a high profile manager helps getting their men selected. (Disclaimer! That statement is based entirely on my prejudice without a shred of evidence).

Looking at 1997 for example, and yes I know Mayo blew hot and cold that year but in mitigation were missing Cahill, Brady and O’Neill to serious injuries plus nursing at least three starters carrying strains. However, they retained their Connacht title, blew new kids on the block Offaly out of water and reached their second successive All-Ireland final. For that endeavour they received two All Stars. On the other hand, Kildare received three. Their season? They beat Laois by four points in their first Leinster championship match. They then next drew twice with a depleted Meath outfit before exiting to them in the second replay. It doesn’t get better. Meath ran out of players and Offaly beat them in the Leinster final.

So was proximity to the world of GAA media centralised in Dublin but close to Mick O’Dwyer’s Kildare having an influence on the selection? Peter Burke, Noel Connelly, David Heaney and Ciaran McDonald had as much claim to an All Star as the chosen triplet from Kildare that year on every front. Enough bitching, though I might revisit a few sores.

Like I said, Johnny Carey from Bangor Erris started the trend, next up was Joe McGrath from Kilmaine and then a gap until the breakout year under Liam O’Neill in 1985. We garnered three All Stars that year, Ballina’s Kevin McStay, Belmullet’s Willie Joe Padden and Dermot Flanagan, his club at the time of which I’m uncertain – Ballaghaderreen, Civil Service or Clontarf? A worthy winner though, a professional.

Out first All-Ireland final appearance since 1951 made us all giddy. What seemed like yesterday to me, 1989, now takes on the mist of 1951, nearly lost in time. Anyways, we picked up five All Stars, Gabriel Irwin, a gutsy keeper from Cill Chomáin though listed as Glenamoy on the day, captain Jimmy Brown from Ballina who had a dream final, Dermot Flanagan picking up a second award, WJP a second too with the mercurial Noel Durkin getting the merited star also. How we could do with a direct running forward like Durkin today. Micheál Collins from Lacken should have been in the frame that year too.

We drifted into the high plains after that. TJ Kilgallon from Balla picked up an unexpected All Star in 1992 with a young Kevin O’Neill earning one a year later, thus joining his father Liam (for Galway) on the All Star podium.

Swashbuckling 

After a few ill at ease seasons, all boats were raised in 1996 as playing swashbuckling football, Mayo came within a bounce of a ball of Sam. Suitably rewarded in the stellar department, that gnawing pain for those who played, who were there on those two thunderous days, is forever etched on the soul. All Stars for Ken Mortimer of Shrule, Pat Holmes (was it Castlebar?), Crossmolina’s blue blood James Nallen, Liam McHale of Ballina and Ballintubber’s James Horan, who literally shot the lights out in those two matches.

A year later, as discussed earlier, we picked up a miserly two. I’ve mentioned those who should feel hard done by, but Ken added a second and Pat Fallon a deserved award too. The next was picked up James Horan in 1999. That was a funny season. We knocked out Connacht and All-Ireland champions Galway in a classic and reverted into meek Mayo for the semi-final against a tepid Cork. Yes, We deserved what we got that year, one. For James it was his second.

A wider gap until 2004 and that lamentable final when we picked up another pair, with the Crossmolina duo of Nallen and McDonald the recipients. It reflected the damp squib of a final we contributed to. Awful.

Rinse and repeat two seasons later. Same team, same opponents, worse battering. Awful. How could that happen? Answers on a post card addressed to Man In White Beard, Red Suit, North Pole. Oh I forgot, Alan Dillon and Conor Mortimer were deemed worthy of the Stars. Mort joined the brother, Dillon became the second Ballintubber player to All Star, and I’d say that O’Neill and McDonald must have wondered why not them. And if they were giving out sympathy ones that year, well David Brady was in the frame.

And that was it for five seasons. Then Andy Moran had a stormer in the 2011 semi-final and won a deserved All Star. We would go from 2011 to 2021 sweeping up All Stars bar 2018. What a run. Ger Cafferkey continued the Ballina full-back line trend, Keith Higgins, explosive pace picked up his first at number 4, a young snapper called Lee Keegan from Westport planted his flag on our consciousness and Alan Dillon picked up gong number two. I felt for Kevin McLoughlin from Knockmore. How he was overlooked still surprises me but Mayo had a swagger now.

The Dublin rivalry picked up in 2013. Higgins added number two, it could have been an All-Ireland had we left him at 11, ah but… Keegan barnstormed to his second too. A guy called Colm Boyle re-emerged on the scene. A walk on part around 2009, this time round Boyle was concrete and steel. What a player. Aidan O’Shea won his first All Star at midfield. The following year, 2014, saw us plainly robbed in Limerick by Kerry (truth be told, we also contributed a tad ourselves), however, Higgins picked up All Star three, Boyle two, and Cillian O’Connor joined Dillon and Horan as Ballintubber’s sharpshooters.

We deserved more in 2015, a lot more, but Keegan added his third and O’Shea his second. A season later, 2016, so close but the cigar failed to light. David Clarke, a kid when we won the league title back in 2001 and finally getting a clear run from his injuries, got a deserved award. Brendan Harrison had one of them dream seasons, just like Jimmy Brown in 1989, when everything he did smacked of class. Keegan, inevitably picked up number four with Boyle, who else, at his side. The following year, yes, Mayo v Dublin once more, saw Andy Moran get POTY, Clarke win All Star number two and Chris Barrett a deserved first, while Higgins claimed his fourth, Aidan his third and Andy a second. If we ever come that close again in a final, we will surely win it. It was that tight.

Last hurrah

The following season was a blank, our first in a long time, and Paddy Durcan from Castlebar picked up a single in our National League winning year. That awful year of Covid 2020 saw the arrival of Oisín Mullin and an All Star corner-back performance, Cillian picked up his second. Cavan got three All Stars, we deserved more, but that’s the way folks. Chris Barrett merited a mention as did Keegan and Kevin McLoughlin, whose last chance went. He deserved more.

The following season was our last hurrah. Having slain the Dublin ghost, we were lured into Tyrone and skinned. Keegan picked up his fifth, Mattie Ruane his first, while Belmullet had its third winner in Ryan O’Donoghue. And that folks is where we are parked at the moment.

What I like about our All Stars is that the little clubs and isolated areas contributed so much. Erris with six awards, four to Belmullet and one each to Bangor and Glenamoy. Balla with its two midfielders, Davitts with Boyle’s four, a player we could easily have lost. Kilmaine with two, Shrule and the Mortimers, Higgins dragging Ballyhaunis into the sun, Ballintubber and its marksmen. I’m surprised Knockmore has only O’Neill, as I am with Castlebar’s numbers. Two is it, Durcan and Pat Holmes who started life with Moygownagh.

We sit well on the All Stars list. For a county without an All-Ireland since 1951 we rank fifth in the overall pantheon of winners. So does Lee Keegan, he ranks number five in the individual winners list. Pat Spillane tops that with nine.

Keegan sits beside Brian Fenton, John Egan, John O Keeffe, Páidí and Tomás Ó Sé, John O’Leary and Sean Kavanagh. What a stat. What a record. Only a Celtic Cross trumps that. So featuring in the All Star list matters. With numbers as high as ours, it shows us as contenders. Let’s aim for the stars once more.