Wexford's hurler receive 14 All Star nominations

A BUSY GAA weekend, including a full programme in the Church & General National Football League and tomorrow night's draw for next year's hurling and football championships, began yesterday with the announcement of the nominations for the 1996 Players' All Stars, sponsored by Powerscreen.

All Ireland finalists in both hurling and football dominate the lists with hurling champions Wexford doing best with 14 nominations. They are followed by defeated football finalists Mayo, surprisingly outpolling their conquerors Meath, with 10.

Meath and defeated hurling finalists Limerick receive nine each.

The votes were cast by players who had competed in this year's senior championships. Turn out was good with 74.9 per cent voting for the hurling team and 73.2 for the football. The awards will he announced at the end of next month, together with the Players Footballer and Hurler of the Year winners.

Neither list of nominations throws up much in the way of surprises. Thirteen counties are represented in the football and 10 in the hurling. Three counties Down, Galway and Derry receive nominations in both codes and Derry hurler Oliver Collins earns the distinction of receiving a nomination without having hurled himself in the senior championship.

There will, however, be few quibbles with the choice as Collins has had a big reputation in recent times and substantiated it last year with a Man of the Match performance in the Railway Cup final for Ulster.

Some of the midfield nominations are surprising. Michael Cleary had a forgettable year and played his best hurling in the forwards. George O'Connor's only full match in the middle was the All Ireland final.

The football list is more debatable. Kerry's poor representation will disappoint the county and both Seamus Moynihan and Billy O'Shea can feel aggrieved Moynihan because he had a fine year at both midfield and when required at centre back and O'Shea because he is being disproportionately punished for a poor day in the All Ireland semi final after a year in which he played well for both club All Ireland champions Laune Rangers and county.

His clubmate Mike Hassett can count himself lucky after a championship in which he was frequently played out of his best position - although his club performances at wing back were excellent. Club performances are specifically mentioned as a term of reference but yet no acknowledgement was made in the hurling nominations of Sixmilebridge's sparkling displays in both the All Ireland semi final and final.

Whereas players were asked to take sportsmanship into account when voting the bar on players who had been sent off during the year receiving nominations was scrapped last year with the old All Stars scheme.