Catriona Casey and Charly Shanks claim top awards at Handball All-Stars

All-Ireland senior champions Charly Shanks (Armagh) and Catriona Casey (Cork) collected the respective Player of the Year awards at the GAA Handball All-Stars in Croke Park.

Clann Eireann, Lurgan clubman Shanks produced undoubtedly the most remarkable storyline of the handball year in 2017 when, at the sixth time of asking, he was eventually crowned All-Ireland 40x20 Senior Singles champion with an emphatic final win against defending champ Robbie McCarthy of Westmeath.

Having lost three finals to Paul Brady of Cavan and two to McCarthy — one of which after he agonisingly blew a 20-13 third game lead — many felt that Shanks’s chance of landing the biggest prize in Irish 40x20 handball had all but disappeared.