Durcan still deserves All-Star selection

The sight of Paul Durcan making a beeline for the dressing rooms after Sunday’s game was an incredibly sad one for a goalkeeper so integral to Donegal’s success this year. The consoling words from his Four Masters club-mate Karl Lacey were redundant. In Durcan’s eyes, he had cost his county an All-Ireland title.

Of course, he didn’t. As Cork goalkeeper Ken O’Halloran tweeted on Sunday evening, but for him they wouldn’t have been in the final in the first place. That context is essential but it won’t stop some short-sighted people from pointing the finger of blame directly at him.

It’s with no sense of sympathy that we retain him in our All-Star team for this year: