Special day for stars of the 80s

For many of the players honoured in Croke Park yesterday as ‘Stars of the 80s,’ an All-Ireland senior football medal simply eluded them, while for a few of them it was never more than a dream.

All but two of them were All Stars (with Monaghan great Nudie Hughes sharing the distinction of being honoured in defence and attack) and seven represented Ireland in the International series against Australia.

Other honours garnered included Railway Cup medals, a few All-Ireland medals at underage and in the case of two out of four who contested finals, All-Ireland club medals. Colm Browne was one of them, with Portlaoise in 1983 and the other was Wicklow star Kevin O’Brien, with Baltinglass in 1990.