Kingdom rules in Allstar nominations

TWELVE members of Kerry’s All-Ireland winning team have gained nominations for the 2004 Vodafone GAA Allstars team.

Aidan O’Mahony, Liam Hassett and John Crowley, who started the decider, along with subs Seamus Moynihan and Mike Frank Russell, are the players to miss out.

Fermanagh, the surprise package of the championship, head a list of 11 other counties, with a record seven nominees.

Provincial champions Mayo and Westmeath each have five nominees, while Ulster title-winners Armagh are limited to three representatives - one of them Steven McDonnell. Among the list of 45 players, only four other members of the 2003 Allstar team are selected - Francie Bellew, Joe Higgins, Tom Kelly and Sean Cavanagh.

Limerick have defender Conor Mullane and midfielder John Galvin nominated, Mattie Forde - Wexford’s first nominee since Leigh O’Brien in 2002 - is also included, while Padraic Joyce and Jason Sherlock are the sole representatives of Galway and Dublin respectively.

The nominations were made by a panel of national print, radio and television journalists in Dublin yesterday.

The hurling nominees will be announced tomorrow and the Allstar teams will be chosen next month, with the awards to be presented at a banquet in the Citywest Hotel on November 26.

Six of the Kerry players are first-time nominees, goalkeeper Diarmuid Murphy, defender Tom O’Sullivan and forwards Declan O’Sullivan and Eoin Brosnan among them.

Of the others, team captain Dara Ó Cinnéide was previously nominated once, in 2000, while William Kirby receives his first nomination in seven years.

Mayo’s star forward Ciaran McDonald is a first-time nominee and is one of the county’s first representatives since 1999. Ten of their players were nominated after their All-Ireland final appearances against Meath in 1996 and just six a year later, when they lost to Kerry.

Trevor Mortimer makes the list, but brother Conor misses out. Their older brother Kenneth was nominated in 1996.

Fermanagh have had only seven players nominated over the last 22 years, since Peter McGinnity gained his Allstar and was a nominee the following year. Full-back Barry Owens is the only one of the seven previously nominated and that was last year.

The county breakdown is as follows: Kerry 12, Fermanagh 7, Mayo and Westmeath 5 each; Armagh, Derry and Tyrone 3 each; Laois and Limerick 2 each; Wexford, Dublin and Galway 1 each.