Cora Staunton

Only six Mayo nominees for Ladies All-Star awards

FOLLOWING a record-breaking season of ladies Gaelic football championship action, the 45 nominees for the 2017 TG4 All-Star team have been revealed. . .and it's not great news for Mayo.

Senior All-Ireland champions Dublin lead the way with 12 nominations, followed by Cork, who Mayo defeated in the All-Ireland semi-final, with nine.

Mayo, despite getting to the All-Ireland final have just six players nominated. This seems grossly unfair and one can only describe it as a joke.

Last Sunday week the attendance at the All-Ireland final was over 46,000. This surpassed the previous by well over 10,000.

There is little doubt that Mayo been in the final was mainly responsible for this. It seems those who picked the 45 nominees for this yeas All-Star awards really don't care about Mayo and what it has done to promote to ladies Gaelic football.

How can they nominate nine Cork players and Mayo six after Mayo knocked them out of the championship. Something is wrong some where and the ladies GAA authorities need to look at this.

Among the Mayo six nominations is Cora Staunton who could earn a record-equalling 11th All-Star award with Carnacon star shortlisted for the full-forward position.

The other Mayo players nominated are: Sarah Tierney at full-back, Martha Carter at corner-back, Fiona McHale and Aileen Gilroy at midfield, and Sarah Rowe at corner-forward.

The county by county breakdown of nominations are: 12 Dublin, 9 Cork, 6 Mayo, 5 Donegal, 3 Kerry, 2 Waterford and Armagh, and one each for Cavan, Galway, Monaghan, Sligo, Tipperary, Tyrone.