Best debut season?

[GalwayBayBoy]

Tony Kellys first full season is as good as it gets.  Player Of The Year, Young Player of the Year, All Star and All Ireland winner.

Technically not his debut season though. Played in some games in 2012.

[Brick Tamlin]

Maybe not up there with the others mentioned but Martin Clarke had a fairly decent first season with Down, helping them to within a pt of an All-Ireland title.
Not bad for a player who had been playin a foreign sport for few years right up to that senior debut.

[blanketattack]

Tony Kellys first full season is as good as it gets.  Player Of The Year, Young Player of the Year, All Star and All Ireland winner.

He played 2 full championship games in 2012 though, so that's his debut season. If it was only a few sub appearances I'd say different.

Jimmy Barry Murphy in 1973 was another great debut season.

[Feckitt]

Aaron Kernan in 2005.  In his first year he became the highest scoring defender ever in an Ulster Championship.  Was a key player in the team that won the greatest Ulster Championship that was ever won, and topped it off by giving Peter Canavan a wedgie in the middle of Croke Park!

[nrico2006]

Tony Kellys first full season is as good as it gets.  Player Of The Year, Young Player of the Year, All Star and All Ireland winner.

Technically not his debut season though. Played in some games in 2012.

As I said, 2013 was his first real season of inter county hurling as in 2012 he appeared in 2 qualifiers.   

[mouview]

Padraig Joyce? 1-3 in the AI final.
Joe Canning; first senior game v Cork in NHL semi-final in Limerick, whipped over a sideline from 60 yards, made the rest of the forwards play. Great goal in the final v Tipp. 2-12 v Cork in Thurles qualifier, played them on his own mostly that evening.

[Mourne Rover]

Martin Clarke certainly had an excellent first season in 2010, as Brick Tamlin says, but the best Down newcomer in the modern era was probably Gregory McCartan in 1994.

He played a couple of league games in the half backs that year and was then thrown in away to the All Ireland holders Derry for his championship debut at midfield against what was reckoned to be the top pairing in the country of Tohill and Magilligan.

McCartan also took on the main responsibility for free taking and had an outstanding match as Down won at Celtic Park. He kept up the same standard for the rest of the season and ended up with an All Ireland and an All Star in arguably the most demanding position of all.

He was later unlucky with injuries, and had a spell in the US, but he remained an automatic choice for Down whenever he was available over the next decade.

[Keane]

Is that he of the epic goal celebration?

[From the Bunker]

Not sure if i can mention Cillian O'Connor in this thread. He had a great first 4 seasons. One hampered by a dislocated shoulder injury. But of course he is not a marquee forward and he is not an AI medal holder so he cannot be eligible for a thread of this profile! 

[GalwayBayBoy]

Tony Kellys first full season is as good as it gets.  Player Of The Year, Young Player of the Year, All Star and All Ireland winner.

Technically not his debut season though. Played in some games in 2012.

As I said, 2013 was his first real season of inter county hurling as in 2012 he appeared in 2 qualifiers.   

I would count qualifiers as legitimate championship games. Even if he only played in 2 of them.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Padraig Joyce? 1-3 in the AI final.

Yeah 98 was PJ's debut season. Donnellan made an appearance in 97 I think.

[Mourne Rover]

Keane, Gregory McCartan's war dance was at the final whistle in Celtic Park. The celebrations after the goal were much more restrained as Down still had to hold out for ten minutes against the AI champions on their own ground.

[ONeill]

scored a crucial equalising point in the All-Ireland final that was a good bit closer to the sideline than Dooher's much acclaimed point in 2008,

Dooher's acclaimed point had nothing to do with the distance.

[blanketattack]

scored a crucial equalising point in the All-Ireland final that was a good bit closer to the sideline than Dooher's much acclaimed point in 2008,

Dooher's acclaimed point had nothing to do with the distance.

Nothing to do with it? So if it was 4 yards out it would have gotten the same acclaim?

[ONeill]

Bouncing off two tackles on the sideline on the run may have something to do with it.

Not receiving a pass and slicing it.