Second Opinion: Tipperary fans look askance at Austin Gleeson’s award

When Paul Pogba rejoined Manchester United from Juventus earlier this year, he was asked what he wanted to achieve at Old Trafford.

He replied: “I want to win the league for the first time with United . . . and the Champions League of course. And, personally, one of my dreams is to win the Ballon d’Or. That will come with time, hopefully.”

The idea that the Ballon d’Or is not a natural by-product of playing your part in your team’s success, but an ambition to be fulfilled quite apart from your team-mates, is not new.

There can be little doubt that there have been many seasons in the last 10 that Cristiano Ronaldo has prioritised that award over even team success – or rather, has looked on team success as a necessary adjunct to a victorious push to win the Ballon d'Or.

It jarred slightly when Pogba said that, but in reality, it shouldn’t have.

We’ve all heard enough people describe (with maximum cynicism) journeyman Djimi Traore as a Champions League winner to realise that there are limits to how much kudos one player can get for a team success.

Major individual awards are now similar to the jockeying for position at the top of the ‘biggest transfers of all-time’ list – it confers major status on the player.

It has hardly gotten to that stage yet in the GAA, but it was interesting to see the reaction to the wins last Friday night for Austin Gleeson and Lee Keegan as hurler and footballer of the year respectively.

Fellow players

Neither of them were All-Ireland medal winners, but both won a plurality of votes from their fellow players, benefiting perhaps from two Dublin footballers, and two Tipperary hurlers splitting their vote.

It is a source of no little relief, I’m sure, for the embattled members of the All Stars selection committee that the two decisions not in their hands were the ones causing most of the consternation in the aftermath.

The Player of the Year award is in no danger of usurping an All-Ireland in the eyes of Keegan, Gleeson, or any of their team-mates, but it is also true to say that winning a Player of the Year award in a year when you’re not from the championship-winning team means you join a pretty exclusive and high-profile club.

In the last 21 years, Bernard Brogan (in 2010), Armagh's Stephen McDonnell (2003), and Peter Canavan (1995), are the only other footballers to have overcome a defeat for their team in the latter stages of the championship to claim the award.

In hurling, Tony Browne in 1998 and Dan Shanahan in 2007 are the only two players to have done likewise.

The argument over Gleeson and Keegan brings to mind a central theme in any debate over the All Stars – the weighting given to the final stages of the championship, to the detriment of all that precedes it.

I saw Dion Fanning, of sportsjoe.ie, describe the GAA championship not as a summer-long festival of sport, but as a series of prize fights, and that sums it up quite beautifully.

You can construct a very convincing argument for players who, over the course of the entire year, have proven themselves to be the most consistent players in their position . . . but the GAA season isn’t set up that way. There are seven games to whittle down the top eight teams in the country, and that is where individual awards are won and lost.

Are Lee Keegan and Austin Gleeson currently the best footballer and hurler in the country? Quite possibly. But is that the question the players answered in the run-up to last Friday night? Not exactly.

You can make the more compelling case for Keegan without doubt. He showed himself in the All-Ireland series to be a wonderfully dogged, skilful and courageous defender, and, laid alongside the last five years of consistent excellence, he could well be the best in the business at the moment.

Motivating factor

Gleeson is the more contentious call. If you watched the under-21 championship, as well as the senior championship, and then asked people which one player they would buy for their county in a mythical transfer market, as Richie Hogan was recently, many of them would take Gleeson.

But did he, this summer, change the biggest games decisively in his county’s favour? Star that he is, I don’t think he quite meets the criteria.

Slights in a hotel ballroom or a convention centre in Dublin can often be used by teams grown fat on success to motivate themselves for the following year.

It wouldn’t surprise me, having seen the reaction of many Tipperary fans to Gleeson’s win, that this decision is mentioned next year as a major motivating factor.

As Dick Tuck, veteran US political strategist once said – "the people have spoken, the bastards". And on this week of all weeks, I think we can all sense that frustration, whether that's at the All Stars, or elsewhere.