Gaelic footballers and hurlers lives continue as normal after Opel GAA GPA All-Stars awards - PHOTOS

PHOTOS - Opel GAA GPA All-Stars awards 2011 slideshow

 

If ever one needed proof why Ireland’s top Gaelic footballers and hurlers could never be considered a pampered elite, then last weekend provided it.

Less than 24 hours after being feted at the inaugural Opel GAA GPA All-Stars awards in Dublin’s impressive new Convention Centre last Friday, most of the county players honoured were back in championship action with their clubs.

Many more of the remaining footballers whose club commitments had ended for the season hopped on a dawn flight out of Dublin heading for Australia where they will represent Ireland in the forthcoming International Rules Series.

Several of Dublin’s football nominees present at the ceremony were playing in the county quarter-finals on Saturday while Kilkenny’s All-Ireland hurling heroes lined up against each other the following day in apocalyptic weather conditions in Nowlan Park.

Bernard Brogan, whose brother Alan emulated Bernard’s 2010 achievement by being named the 2011 footballer of the year, helped steer his club, St Oliver Plunkett’s, into the Dublin senior football semi-finals.

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PHOTOS - Opel GAA GPA All-Stars awards 2011 slideshow

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Despite a long season of total commitment to his county’s cause Henry Shefflin, who picked up a record 10^th All-Star on Friday, rescued his club Ballyhale Shamrocks with pointed free four minutes into injury time in a dramatic Kilkenny hurling final.

Almost single-handedly, in driving wind and rain, Shefflin battled to keep his club’s hopes alive while his county team-mate Eoin Larkin was doing likewise for their opponents James Stephens.

This gripping Kilkenny decider summed up the dual role played by county players whose loyalty to the local cause is undiminished by county glory.

Shefflin might have been centre stage at the GAA GPA All-Stars banquet but the bright lights were a million miles away on Sunday when he fearlessly battled to the line in Nowlan Park earning Shamrocks a deserved replay. On a shocking day, Shefflin was unflinching.

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Nster.com