Dunshaughlin and Ratoath dominate Team of the Year selections
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RIGHT: Dunshaughlin’s Ruairi Kinsella was honoured to receive the Colum Cromwell Trophy following his man-of-the-match display in the Meath SFC final. Photo: Gerry Shanahan-www.cyberimages.net Gerry ShanahanImage 2 of 2
Gavin McGowan won the Harry Connor Trophy as man-of-the-match for Ratoath after the SHC final. Gerry ShanahanTeams of the Year, All-star awards, player of the match accolades are all totally subjective and in the greater scheme of things individual recognition is not the desired reward from team sport.
However, there's always something special about picking up the player-of-the-match award, especially after a final, or being recognised on a Team of the Year.
In Meath GAA the Colum Cromwell Trophy and Harry Connor Trophy are much coveted by the winners of the man-of-the-match from the senior football and senior hurling finals respectively.
To a lesser extent some players take great pride in their own personal performances and are honoured that their hard work and endeavour is recognised by a place on the team-of-the-week.
So to that regard we want to recognise the outstanding contributions of just 30 players who made huge contributions to their teams throughout the football and hurling championships 2024.
Of course the list could have ran to hundreds of different players, but such is the nature of an All-star team or a Meath Chronicle Team of the Year, only 15 players can be selected on each.
The criteria was very simple for myself, Jimmy Geoghegan and Tom Gannon when it came to picking our chosen ones - the players had to have performed consistently well over the course of the entire championship and we have to have seen them play on a number of occasions.
While very welcome and often appreciated, the opinions of others did not come into the reckoning and we must stand by our calls - great minds think alike, or fools seldom differ!
We're not sure congratulations is the right word for those selected on our Team of the Year, because there is no physical reward - you are unlikely to get any change when you walk into your local, order a beverage and declare you were on the Meath Chronicle Team of the Year!
However, it is our way of acknowledging the outstanding contributions of the 15 players on both our football and hurling selections.
We could easily have picked three or four totally different and equally deserving Teams of the Year - but below are our selections and we're sticking with them.
So here we go, here's our Football Team of the Year
And here's our Hurling Team of the Year