RTE Sports person of the year - King Henry Shefflin

[kilkennycat2004]

He played his part in the league, All Ireland c'ship, KK county c'ship & Leinster club c'ship successes with huge performances in each case.  Won the  two player of the year awards, the Texaco award & now the main sports one.
Also fantastic to see a hurler get this honour.
Well done to King Henry.

[Timothy Leary]

Great to see a gah man win it, twas some craic last night, with Spillane told to stop acting "jack the lad" by Tom McGurk, and being called a lick arse by Ted Walsh.  Gerry Kiernan said that the only barometer to judge an athlete, was how they performed on the international stage, therefore discounting any gah man. Only two people from the ten nominations were votrd for, with Dunphy, Ted Walsh, Cyril and George Hooke voting for Shefflin, and the lick arse and Gerry Kiernan voting for Dervla O'Rourke.

Shefflin was genuinely taken by complete surprise, given the other nominees.

All rise to the king.

[magickingdom]

theres a thread on this in the non gaa section as well. delighted to see him win it although derval or p harrington would have also been deserving winners in my book. gerry kiernans comment that only achievements from abroad count for him was off the wall. henry is a class act.....

[Josey Whales]

Well done to him - but Derval O rourke should have won it in my view- she is a world champion and we don't produce many of those. I know some of the die-hards here won't like me saying it but the reality is to be  a world champion in this country with our Goverment's disgraceful attitude towards our elite athletes who are supposed to compete on a world stage with third world support- supercedes anything anyone did on a Gaa pitch in my opinion.

[Bord na Mona man]

gerry kiernans comment that only achievements from abroad count for him was off the wall.

He was nothing but a cross country slogger anyway!

[laoislad]

Have made my points about this on the non gaaa section
He is a class act and congrats to him but i don't think he should have got it he didn't win all he did on his own whereas someone like O'Rourke or Harrington did

[Bord na Mona man]

Well done to him - but Derval O rourke should have won it in my view- she is a world champion and we don't produce many of those. I know some of the die-hards here won't like me saying it but the reality is to be  a world champion in this country with our Goverment's disgraceful attitude towards our elite athletes who are supposed to compete on a world stage with third world support- supercedes anything anyone did on a Gaa pitch in my opinion.

Maybe I'm on my own here, but i don't put that much value on indoor world championships.
We've had lots of good indoor runners who were nowhere to be seen once they took to the major outdoor championships.
Frank O'Mara and Marcus O'Sullivan are examples of this. They won plenty of world and European indoor titles but barely registered at Olympics or Outdoor World championships.
O'Sullivan only ever got to one Olympic final out of the 4 Olympics he took part in.
O'Mara's best outdoor showing is 8th in a European final.
I'd rather have an athlete who could bring home one Olympic medal of any colour, rather than someone who hoovers up a stack of indoor medals.

If O'Rourke wins a medal at a major Outdoor event, then she would be a worthy winner of the sportstar of the year award.

[Josey Whales]

I think that is quite frankly one of the stupidest comments i've ever read on this board. You shouldn't rely on your own ignorance. She did win a silver at the European outdoors this year.
The reality is that most of the Olmpic athletes are juiced up to such levels it make sit impossible for our athletes to compete with them. You don't have to know much about athletics to realise how badly anabolic steroids are abused at World and Olmpic levels. She probably beat athletes at the Europeans and the World INdoors this year who regularly take steroids. It's an individual sport- riddled with drugs where our athletes are treated like shite by the Government and only for the likes of Niall Moyna- our athletes would be in the gutter. I'd prefer to see our athlletes doing what they are doing at least they are clean when it comes to drugs.
Ithink to any rational person out there -what she did supercedes anything any Gaa player did this year. All that happenned this year was Kilkenny won the hurling all-ireland and Kerry won the football- hardly a ground breaking achievement in the annals of the Gaa. I've great respect for Shefflin probably the best hurler I've ver seen- but I think the likes f Dunphy and Co ought to be ashamed of themselves.

[Bord na Mona man]

I think that is quite frankly one of the stupidest comments i've ever read on this board. You shouldn't rely on your own ignorance. She did win a silver at the European outdoors this year.
The reality is that most of the Olmpic athletes are juiced up to such levels it make sit impossible for our athletes to compete with them. You don't have to know much about athletics to realise how badly anabolic steroids are abused at World and Olmpic levels. She probably beat athletes at the Europeans and the World INdoors this year who regularly take steroids. It's an individual sport- riddled with drugs where our athletes are treated like shite by the Government and only for the likes of Niall Moyna- our athletes would be in the gutter. I'd prefer to see our athlletes doing what they are doing at least they are clean when it comes to drugs.
Ithink to any rational person out there -what she did supercedes anything any Gaa player did this year. All that happenned this year was Kilkenny won the hurling all-ireland and Kerry won the football- hardly a ground breaking achievement in the annals of the Gaa. I've great respect for Shefflin probably the best hurler I've ver seen- but I think the likes f Dunphy and Co ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Spare the hysterics for someone who might give a hoot.
Fair play to her for winning a European silver, but she was only taking on subset of the best athletes out there. She stands a bit ahead of lots of other Irish athletes mentioned in terms of doing something of note outdoors, but again as someone else stated elsewhere, would she be good enough to even make an Olympic final?
How noteworthy is it being in the top ten in the world in one discipline, out of the dozens of track and field events that there are?
Padraig Harrington is one of the world's top 10 golfers (and best European). The no.1 person at that sport is Tiger Woods who could be mentioned as one of the greatest sports competitors ever.
The no. 1 in the world at women's hurdling is who exactly? We're not comparing like with like, are we?

[Josey Whales]

Apologies for being a little bit more open minded than the rest of you. BUt I think if you walk thestreets of Ireland and did a poll- you'll find most people will agree with me because i haven't found many people yet who disagree. I just think the attitude that prevails on this board is very much like the attitude of not opening Croke Park- heaven forbid anyone from any other sporting code should achieve anything - "down with that sort of thing".
That's not to say a gaaplayer can't win it but in my view if someone wins something on an International stage which is a very rare thing in this country it deserves to be recognised. I think a lot of you haven't  a notion what it's like to be a professional athlete in this country with its Neolitic attitude towards preparation. That's my opinion - if you don't like it -fine.

[laoislad]

Im also in the josey and take your points corner too many of ye are biased and narrow minded, The award was for the best Irish Sportsperson of the year, Really think it's unfair a Team member could get it and even if a member of a team was gonna get it why not one of the munster lads?? Surly winning a european cup is better than winning a trophy were only 8 or 9 countites actually have a decent chance of winning?

[Josey Whales]

Of course a Gaa player can win it- but i think if you write down on a piece of paper the various medals and trophies handed out for this year only- i think it was an average year for the Gaa. I think maybe Stephen O Neill or Brian Mc Guigan would have had stronger claims last year. By playing key roles in a 10 match run to All-Ireland glory. But that's the problem in its itself -how do you award a person playing team sports ahead of someone  who is an individual. Because let's face it- it's  ahell fo alot harder to do something on your own then as one of 15. I know a lot of people on this site don't agree with me and that's fine - but i htought for once and this is as a Gaa fan- that the judges got it wrong. That isn't taking anything away from Henry who is the best player i've seen- but how do you quantify the roles his team members play in his genius . It could be 10 years before someone wins a world title again- but to listen to one of the comments above in particular it's obvious some of the best athletes we've never had are on this website.

[tayto]

Im also in the josey and take your points corner too many of ye are biased and narrow minded, The award was for the best Irish Sportsperson of the year, Really think it's unfair a Team member could get it and even if a member of a team was gonna get it why not one of the munster lads?? Surly winning a european cup is better than winning a trophy were only 8 or 9 countites actually have a decent chance of winning?

How many clubs realistically have a chance of winning the european cup?
Shefflin has been one of the most consistantly lethal hurlers of the last 5 years, one of the best most effective forwards i've ever seen play the game. Kilkeny went unbeaten all year and shefflin won leinster with his club, scoring heavily for both club and county. What more can a huler do exactly?!?!?!
Deval has done brilliantly as well but i'm sure the best is yet to come from her over the next five years. i dont see why some people are getting so bitchy about it, it all boils down to opinion, i'd have gone for the roscommon minor footballers as team of the year.

[lynchbhoy]

brilliant  - Henry has had an OUTSTANDING season and was unstoppable for club and county


fair play to him.

I wouldnt have agreed with some of those nominations

[The Bottom Brick]

Paul Brady is the world's numner one handballer (THIS IS A GAA SPORT REMEMBER).

He won the World Open singles for the second time this year, beating players from Ireland, US, Canada, Mexico, the Basque country
and Australia.

This man is the Roger Federer of handball. He doesn't work, he devotes himself to this GAA sport. In the last 12 months, he has won the All Ireland senior singles, All Ireland senior doubles, US Nationals singles and doubles (8K prizemoney), World Open singles, inaugural US Handball Open (20K prizemoney), won a county football championship with his club and played Gaelic football for Ulster in the Railaway Cup.

Well done to that girl from Cork who came second though...

Debate over.