Cork's Murphy chosen by peers

GAA Players' Football team of the yearAll-Ireland football champions Kerry have gained seven representatives on the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) Opel Team of the Year for 2007 - one more than achieved on the GAA's All Stars announced earlier this month.

Given the chairman of the GPA selection committee is former Kerry manager Jack O'Connor - and that beaten All-Ireland finalists Cork gain just one representative - this could be interpreted as some sort of bias, except that the final selection was decided by the votes of all GPA members.

There are also seven counties represented - one more than the All Stars: Kerry, Dublin, Cork, Meath, Tyrone, Derry and Monaghan.

These include Kerry's Marc Ó Sé, Tomás Ó Sé, Darragh Ó Sé, Declan O'Sullivan, Paul Galvin, Aidan O'Mahony and Colm Cooper; the three Dublin players Stephen Cluxton, Barry Cahill and Alan Brogan; Nicholas Murphy as the sole player from beaten All-Ireland finalists Cork; with the remaining places filled by Tyrone's Conor Gormley, Meath's Darren Fay and Monaghan's Thomas Freeman.

Comparisons with the All Stars, while never intended, are inevitable. There are four differences, two of them in the full-back line, where Fay is named at full back ahead of All Star Kevin McCloy of Derry, while Gormley gets the left-corner berth, where Graham Canty from Cork got the All Star.

The third difference is at midfield where Murphy is paired with Darragh Ó Sé, in preference to Ciarán Whelan of Dublin. Finally, All Star Stephen Bray of Meath doesn't make the GPA forward line, but Galvin does.

"Gaelic football is a team game, but these awards recognise the outstanding contribution of some very skilful individuals during the course of the year," explained O'Connor - who then further mused upon some of the reasons behind the team's nominations and selections.

"It's possible that players who may have been hard done by in previous years are perhaps looked upon more favourably the following year. Paddy Bradley was hard done by maybe on other years. Obviously every team in the country would like to have Kieran Donaghy in their side but Paddy Bradley is a very talented footballer as well.

"I've seen him at close hand. He is a great footballer. He kicked some fine points from play against Dublin in the championship at Croke Park in the All-Ireland quarter-final.

"So you can make a valid argument for his inclusion in the team and Donaghy remains very special, but the players have made their choice and they went for Bradley. But our system stands up to scrutiny and is a very good and fair way of picking a team of the year because you are selecting players where they have played for most of the year, if not all, and proved they can do a very good job in those positions.

"Consequently I feel it's a very balanced team because of that. Gormley was switched on to Stephen Bray in the championship and he marked him out of the game. So I think Gormley deserves to be in there without a doubt. I'm not one for playing a full back in the corner (as the All Star selectors did in the case of Canty) and so I feel it's a more valued award in a way."

O'Connor also admitted there was some intense competition for places, and defended the choice of Murphy over Whelan at midfield: "Like the left corner forward you had Thomas Freeman, Donncha O'Connor and Stephen Bray. Any one of those three would have been good choices and so the fact that you come out on top against the other two specialists in that position makes it very treasured.

"I suppose up to the All-Ireland final Murphy was in the running for the player of the year and played some magnificent games for Cork."

Finally, O'Connor reckoned Kerry can maintain their winning streak at least as far as a third successive All-Ireland next year: "If their attitude can be maintained I can see Kerry being very much the team to beat in 2008, with every chance of retaining their title again. There is a lot of talent in the county and winning gives a team that extra bit of confidence."

The GPA will present both their hurling and football selections, and announce their players of the year, at Friday's annual awards banquet at Dublin's Citywest hotel.