MORE RECOGNITION FOR ARMAGH GREATS
Richard Bullick
Crossmaglen legend Lauren McConville has made the national All Stars shortlist for the fifth consecutive season while the incomparable Caroline O’Hanlon of Carrickcruppen has received the 13th nomination of her exceptional career.
All Ireland champions Dublin unsurprisingly lead the way with a dozen nominations while there are 10 representatives from losing finalists Meath on the shortlist of 45 which features players from a total of 10 counties.
Although injury-ravaged Armagh didn’t make the last eight for the first time since 2016, last season’s All Star McConville maintained her high standards throughout, including being named Player of the Match for the Ulster final.
That Ulster showpiece win against Donegal in a packed Clones as part of a double-header with the men’s final was the highlight of a frustrating season for Armagh, who relinquished their National League crown with a heavy defeat to Kerry in Croke Park.
New joint managers Joe Feeney and Darnell Parkinson had begun their reign with five consecutive victories, including away wins over reigning All Ireland champions Kerry and Dublin, who would end the season by lifting the sport’s top prize.
But they lost their last two regular league games, admittedly dead rubbers, and suffered that heavy NFL final defeat at headquarters before being crowned provincial champions for the fifth time in six seasons this decade.
Armagh came within a couple of minutes of an away win against their former manager Shane McCormack’s Meath in their first All Ireland group game but leaving Navan with a share of the spoils still kept the Orchard outfit’s face in their own hands.
Victory over Kildare in the Athletic Grounds would have been enough for Armagh to top their group and land a home quarter-final against outsiders Tipperary, but a narrow defeat by the Lilywhites condemned the Ulster champions to a first-ever relegation play-off.
Captain McConville and evergreen veteran O’Hanlon really led by example as Armagh secured their top tier status at the first attempt with a reasonably straightforward win over another of their former manager James Daly’s Donegal in Stewartstown.
Both have now made the All Stars shortlist as the only Orchard representatives, in understandable contrast to the record eight nominees last season when Armagh won their first National League title, retained the provincial crown and reached the All Ireland semis.
In addition to first-time recipients McConville, fellow stalwart Aoife McCoy of Dromintee and Ballyhegan’s Grace Ferguson, goalkeeper Anna Carr, Orchard captain Clodagh McCambridge, Cait Towe, O’Hanlon and Blaithin Mackin were also nominated back then.
Getting two nominees this time round is reasonable representation considering the Orchard campaign ended very early, though Harps livewire Emily Druse must also have been in the frame for a nomination after a series of impressive performances in the orange jersey.
Druse is one of seven Armagh players to have made the Ulster All Stars shortlist along with Carr, Towe, Clann Eireann captain Niamh Henderson, Armagh’s 2024 Player of the Year Roisin Mulligan, the Orchard’s top-scorer this season Niamh Reel and Maeve Ferguson.
However, the 2024 Ulster Ladies Footballer of the Year McConville was an astonishing omission from that provincial list given her consistent excellence and Player of the Match award win in the provincial final and O’Hanlon didn’t make it either.
After being shortlisted the past four years as a half back, McConville is shortlisted at half forward this season in which she and the equally adaptable Druse alternated between the two lines, while O’Hanlon has been nominated in her traditional midfield department.
It is now more than a decade since O’Hanlon’s most recent All Star conferral, to go with the 2014 All Ireland Player of the Year award, but being shortlisted yet again is a nice footnote to the now 41-year-old’s record-extending 24th consecutive season of inter-county football.
Although they lost their All Ireland crown, National League champions Kerry have received seven nominations, with three players from Waterford, Cork matching the Orchard contingent of two and Kildare, Mayo and Tipperary each having single representatives.
Nine of last season’s All Star recipients have made the shortlist this time, including Armagh’s McConville, while former All Ireland Player of the Year Vikki Wall and her sister Sarah Wall are among the 10 Royals nominated ahead of the Dublin banquet on November 15.
2025 TG4 All Star (nominees): GOALKEEPERS: Robyn Murray (Meath), Abby Shiels (Dublin), Mary Ellen Bolger (Kerry); FULL BACK: Jess Tobin (Dublin), Eilís Lynch (Kerry), Áine Sheridan (Meath), Mary Kate Lynch (Meath), Leah Caffrey (Dublin), Laoise Lenehan (Kildare), Melissa Duggan (Cork), Kate Geraghty (Galway), Niamh Donlon (Dublin); HALF BACK: Aoibhín Cleary (Meath), Sinéad Goldrick (Dublin), Aishling O’Connell (Kerry), Martha Byrne (Dublin), Nicola Ward (Galway), Sarah Wall (Meath), Hannah Noone (Galway), Niamh Crowley (Dublin), Aoife Dillane (Kerry); MIDFIELD: Emma Murray (Waterford), Louise Ward (Galway), Éilish O’Dowd (Dublin), Anna Galvin (Kerry), Caroline O’Hanlon (Armagh), Marion Farrelly (Meath); HALF FORWARD: Lauren McConville (Armagh), Sinéad Walsh (Mayo), Aishling Moloney (Tipperary), Carla Rowe (Dublin), Niamh Gallogly (Meath), Olivia Divilly (Galway), Ciara Smyth (Meath), Ailbhe Davoren (Galway), Bríd McMaugh (Waterford); FULL FORWARD: Emma Duggan (Meath), Hannah Tyrrell (Dublin), Katie Quirke (Cork), Síofra O’Shea (Kerry), Vikki Wall (Meath), Niamh Hetherton (Dublin), Kate Sullivan (Dublin), Danielle O’Leary (Kerry), Lauren McGregor (Waterford).
