Cassidy set for All Stars McGuinness reunion

Kevin Cassidy will, after all, share a flight with Jim McGuinness and several of his former Donegal team-mates when this and last year’s football GAA-GPA Opel All Stars fly out to New York next month.

The Gweedore man had been told he was not welcome to join the team holiday to Florida at the end of last year after being axed from the panel for comments he made in contributing to a book, This Is Our Year.

However, Cassidy is fully intent on taking up part of his reward for being selected as left wing-back among the honoured team in last year’s Championship and joining the All Stars trip.

McGuinness, as had been expected as this year’s All-Ireland winning boss, has accepted the invite to manage this year’s All Stars in the exhibition game in Gaelic Park on November 17.

According to the Donegal GAA New York Facebook page, McGuinness will take charge of 2012 team against the ’11 winners managed by Pat Gilroy who led Dublin to the Sam Maguire Cup last year.

It’s possible Cassidy will be the only Donegal man on the 2011 side as his old colleagues Neil McGee and Karl Lacey, the other two players from the county who won All Stars last year, also claimed awards last week.

While he still enjoys strong friendships with Gweedore team-mates Neil and Eamon McGee, Cassidy has admitted he has not spoken to a number of the players since the controversy. And although Cassidy and McGuinness appeared to patch things up in a clear-the-air meeting last Easter, the manager’s insistence on the book’s author Declan Bogue being removed from the post All-Ireland final press conference suggests tensions remain.

The All Stars game will be preceded by a game between the New York Police Department and the Fire Department New York.

The GPA will use the trip to boost fundraising with the hosting of the inaugural Ireland-US Gaelic Heritage awards in New York on November 15. The first recipient will be Donald Keough, chairman of the board of Allen and Company Inc and former president of Coca-Cola.