Chance for readers to assemble your greatest Galway camogie All-Stars team

IN their respective eras, they were the best of the best Galway produced. They were All-Stars. Now, the Connacht and City Tribunes are inviting readers to pick their ‘Greatest XV’ of Galway All-Star winners in their respective codes.

We begin with camogie, which of the four codes – Gaelic football, hurling and ladies football included – is the shortest running of the All-Star awards schemes. The camogie All-Stars began, unofficially, in 2003 before being absorbed by the Camogie Association as its big awards night the following year.

Unfortunately, with the awards not in existence for Galway’s historic All-Ireland winning team of 1996, many of the great players of that era lost out, most notably recent Galway Sports Stars Hall of Fame winner, Sharon Glynn.

That said, Galway have done well out of the awards over the years. Killimor’s Anne Marie Hayes was the county’s first All-Star in 2004, taking the accolade at right corner forward. Hayes would win two more – in 2009 and 2011 – but, on those occasions, she was named in the half-back line.

In both of Galway’s most recent All-Ireland senior winning years of 2013 and 2019, they have also taken a considerable haul, claiming seven awards in each of those years.

Among those feted in 2019 were Sarah Dervan and Niamh Kilkenny, both of whom, impressively, collected their sixth All-Star awards.

Two other Galway players who have featured prominently in All-Stars selections are the great Therese Maher and deadly sharpshooter Ailish O’Reilly. Both have won four.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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