Clare senior football captain Gary Brennan has been included in the list of 45 players from which the 2016 GAA- GPA football All Star team will be chosen.
Brennan is nominated for one of the two midfield positions along with Brian Fenton (Dublin), Peter Acheson (Tipperary), Matthew Donnelly (Tyrone), Paul Conroy (Galway) and Colm Cavanagh (Tyrone).
Brennan is rewarded for his prominent role in the Banner’s march to the All-Ireland quarter finals and their Division 3 national league title win. He is Clare’s first footballer to be nominated for an All-Star since 1997 when defender Frankie Griffin and forward Martin Daly were nominated.
Clare only football All-Star is Corofin’s Seamus Clancy. He won his award in 1992 following some stellar defensive performances in Clare’s Munster senior championship winning season.
All-Ireland finalists Dublin and Mayo have received 11 nominations each, Tyrone have six, Tipperary have five, Kerry and Galway have four each and Donegal have three nominations.
The nominees for the Player of the Year have also been decided with Mayo’s Lee Keegan joining Dublin’s Brian Fenton and Ciarán Kilkenny on the three-man list of nominees.
Young Player of the Year will be decided between Mayo’s Diarmuid O’Connor and Tipperary’s Josh Keane and Jimmy Feehan.
The awards will be presented at a special banquet in Dublin’s Convention Centre on Friday, November 4.
Seamus Hayes
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.