After an occasionally enthralling Championship, we’ve gone for two Dubs, two Kerrymen and a Donegal man in our top five footballers of the year. But who claimed the number one spot?
5. Stephen Cluxton
Cluxton will, of course, go down as probably the only goalkeeper to grab the winning score in an All-Ireland Final, but that was merely the icing on the cake for a man who has been the best goalkeeper in the land for many a year.
Numerous teammates have said since that they had absolutely no doubt in his ability to pop over what was an extremely difficult winning kick under the circumstances, just as they had no doubt that he was likely to find them every single time with one of his laser-like kickouts.
Add into the mix that he’s a pretty good shot-stopper and very comfortable under the high ball and it’s hard to pick out any flaws in the game. Now if only he’d speak up a bit more…
4. Karl Lacey
There have been more than enough column inches devoted to how inhibited Donegal were under Jim McGuinness’ ultra-defensive strategy, but on the flip side, Lacey, previously their man marker in chief, was liberated and able to show what he can do further up the field.
One of their primary ball-carriers out of defence, Lacey’s additional bulk also ensured that no opposition man went through the middle unchecked. Heroic against Kildare in the epic All-Ireland quarter-final, his enforced removal against Dublin was probably the single biggest factor in determining the result in the last four.
3. Colm Cooper
My colleague Sean Nolan put forward some pretty convincing reasons why Gooch might have been given the top award, but we’re giving him the bronze medal because there were others who were a tad more consistent throughout the season. What the Gooch did show us, however, was that at his peak, he’s untouchable.
On his day, the Gooch is without peer in today’s game
When he managed to escape the shackles of the Dubs defence in the final, he showed flashes of brilliance, including his expertly taken goal, but his crowning glory was an absolutely masterful display against Mayo in the All-Ireland semi-final when he practically beat the Westerners on his own with a magnificent 1-7.
The current generation should consider themselves privileged to have witnessed Cooper in the flesh because this guy is going to go down as one of the all-time greats.
2. Alan Brogan
He has long since surrendered the title of main man in the Dublin attack to his younger sibling, but Bernard’s threat in the full forward line has eased the pressure on Alan, who thrived in the playmaking role throughout 2011.
While he regularly posted three-point tallies in the Championship, it was as a provider that he was most effective and a new found maturity means he is less likely to try shots from impossible angles than he was in the past, a trait that Bernard has yet to fully adopt.
A worthy winner of the Footballer of the Year award, he was a whisker away from landing the top gong here.
1. Darran O’Sullivan
Although Alan Brogan’s Footballer of the Year award was well merited, had Kerry come out on top, it would have went to O’Sullivan and considering there was only a point between the teams in the end, it must have been a damn close run affair for the individual honours.
We have gone for O’Sullivan because he was responsible for two of the outstanding individual moments of the season in his goals against Cork and Limerick, one of which is probably the single most outrageous and tremendous piece of skill ever seen on a Gaelic Football field.
Aside from that, he was excellent and if Gooch is the best forward in the country and Bernard Brogan the most dangerous, O’Sullivan is the most elusive. Having struggled to establish himself in the Kerry XV for a few years, he’s now in the top bracket of forwards in the country and frighteningly for the rest, his best may be yet to come.
