Magnificent seven for Dublin as All-Star team announced

All-Ireland senior champions Dublin have been honoured with seven representatives on the 2018 TG4 All-Star team. Dublin’s haul is an all-time best on an All-Star team selection – as the 2010 and 2016 selections each contained six Sky Blues.

The selection was revealed Saturday night at the annual TG4 All-Star awards banquet, in association with Lidl, at the Citywest Hotel.

Captain Sinéad Aherne received a seventh All-Star award, and her third in a row, and there was a sixth in seven years for right-half-back Sinéad Goldrick, who will line out for Foxrock-Cabinteely in next Saturday’s All-Ireland Senior Club final against Mourneabbey.

The Cork club have the O’Sullivan sisters – county captain Ciara and Doireann – included on the 2018 TG4 All-Star selection.

It’s the second year in a row that a set of sisters was named on the All-Star selection, as the Hegartys from Donegal, Ciara and Niamh, were listed on the 2017 team.

Aherne and Goldrick are joined on the 2018 list by Dublin teammates Ciara Trant, Siobhán McGrath, Lauren Magee, Noelle Healy and Lyndsey Davey.

Trant wins an All-Star for a second successive year, while McGrath picks up her first gong since 2010.

Midfielder Magee is one of five first-time recipients, 2017 Senior Players’ Player of the Year Healy wins her fourth All Star award, and a third in a row, while Davey is also honoured for the fourth time.

Trant, Healy, Aherne and Cork’s Emma Spillane are the only survivors from the 2017 selection, as TG4 All-Ireland finalists Cork picked up four awards in total.

Ciara, now a four-time winner, and Doireann O’Sullivan, who collected her first, are joined on the team by Spillane and another first-time recipient, Róisín Phelan, who’s named at full-back.

Spillane received an award at right corner back in 2017 but this time she earns the left-half-back slot.

The remainder of the team is made up of players from Donegal, Galway, Kerry and Tyrone.