Limerick FC’s Rory Gaffney just pipped Christy Fagan, Pat Hoban and Mark O’Sullivan
As we face into the concluding round of fixtures in the 2014 SSE Airtricity Premier Division season, it’s worth reflecting upon the players who have made this one of the most memorable seasons in years.
2014 will see the league crown a seventh (Cork City) or eighth (Dundalk) champion in just ten seasons, which surely makes the Premier Division one of the most – if not the most – competitive top tiers in world football. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is ultimately down to individual interpretation, but the impressive performances in Europe of all four qualified teams shows that the quality in this league isn’t confined to the domestic scene.
Goalkeeper: Barry Murphy (Shamrock Rovers)
Shamrock Rovers fans have had little positive to shout about this season – or indeed the last two – but they maintained a superficial chance of a title bid up until the end of the second round of fixtures, and much of that was down to the outstanding form of Barry Murphy in the Hoops goal. The Rathfarnham-born stopper celebrated his 100th clean sheet for Rovers in September – a feat achieved in just 219 games, and made all the more remarkable by the fact he’s yet to win a major trophy as a player. The Hoops will do well to hang on to their talisman, especially if they once again fail to secure a European spot this season.
Right Back: Simon Madden (Shamrock Rovers)
While it would be difficult to argue that Shamrock Rovers warrant two players in the team of the year on the back of another mediocre league return, Madden’s early-season form was that of a man determined to make good on the gamble to return to his hometown club – his darting forward runs underpinned much of what was promising about the Tallaght residents’ early-season promise, and his defensive solidity rarely wavered in spite of his, at times, appearing to be the Hoops’ only genuine attacking outlet. He’s another player who may see fit to cut his losses should Rovers fail to make European football next season, and there’ll be no shortage of suitors should he choose to look elsewhere.
Centre- Half: Andy Boyle (Dundalk)
A few eyebrows were raised when interim Republic of Ireland manager Noel King called on a quartet of Dundalk players to train with the senior team ahead of fixtures with Germany and Kazakhstan at the tail end of last season – and more than most were raised in relation the previously unheralded centre-half – but the acquisition from Shelbourne has grown with the responsibility placed upon him by Kenny and emerged as one of the standout defenders in the country, so much so that he was subject to interest from Mick McCarthy’s Ipswich Town over the summer.
Centre Half: Dan Murray (Cork City)
Cork people have never needed much of an excuse to adopt a siege mentality – and John Caulfield’s side have drawn from that well considerably during a season when virtually nobody tipped them to last the distance – and few embody that more than the adopted Corkman Murray. There are few more decorated players currently active in the league than the Cambridge-born defender, who will hope to add a fourth league title to his impressive CV this week, and there are few who have been written off quite so comprehensively, only to confound his doubters once more. Shamrock Rovers’ brief spell at the pinnacle of Irish soccer coincided with Murray’s stewardship, and their decline with his return to the Leeside, and he timed his first returning league goal to perfection when his injury-time header buried Rovers’ title aspirations and gave Cork renewed belief they could once again life the Premier Division title.
Left Back: Dane Massey (Dundalk)
Dubliner Massey rounded off a remarkable few weeks for Dundalk with the Sports Writers’ Association of Ireland (SWAI) September Player of the Month award, during which he scored four goals, including a brace to help the club to their first major trophy in over a decade in the EA Sports Cup final win over Shamrock Rovers. The former Bray Wanderers man wasn’t one of the league’s more sought-after players when Stephen Kenny made him one of his first signings for the 2013 season, but he quickly established himself as a vital element of the possession-based style that has underpinned Dundalk’s successive title charges.
Centre Midfield: Richie Towell (Dundalk)
The return of Ireland internationals Keith Fahey and Stephen McPhail, to St Patrick’s Athletic and Shamrock Rovers respectively, during the close-season may have dominated the headlines, but for those in the know there was only one ball-playing midfielder in the league worth talking about, and he was in Dundalk, by way of Crumlin and Glasgow Celtic. The shining light in Stephen Kenny’s remarkable recruitment campaign ahead of his first season in charge at Dundalk, Towell spurned offers from Shamrock Rovers and St Patrick’s Athletic to join the Lilywhites, and he wasted no time in installing himself as the heartbeat of the team, determined to control the game from deep, and he added goals to his repertoire this season before effectively becoming a marked man. While he states his willingness to remain at Dundalk next season, the Dubliner is destined to play at a higher level and, if he is to achieve his potential to play international football, he will surely make the step up in the winter.
Centre Midfield: Gearóid Morrissey (Cork City)
Midfielder Morrissey returned to his hometown with little fanfare after failing to settle in at Blackburn Rovers, and has continued to fly blissfully under the radar since, happy to allow is experience Ireland international colleague Colin Healy to attract the majority of the attention and the plaudits for City’s unexpected title challenge. Understated off the pitch and similarly understated on it, Morrissey is an untypically Irish player, tidy in possession, aggressive without and equally capable to forcing the game as he is shutting it down. The parallels with Fahey – who similarly failed to settle in England before rebuilding his career in the League of Ireland – are obvious, and it would be little surprise if Morrissey followed the same path back to a major European league.
Centre Midfield: Patrick McEleney (Derry City)
12 games into the league season, it would have been hard to believe a Derry City player could legitimately be held up as one of the season’s outstanding performance, such was the chaos and upheaval caused by the doomed reign of the bumbling Roddy Collins in charge of the Candystripes. Collins’ removal and the appointment of club legend but previously undistinguished coach Peter Hutton gave a new lease of life to the club’s local talent, and nobody benefitted more than the former Ireland U19 international McEleney, who pulled the strings as Derry went from the lowest-scoring side in the league to one of the most prolific, chipping in with five goals of his own as well as a raft of assists for strikers Rory Patterson and Michael Duffy.
Right Midfield: Conan Byrne (St Patrick’s Athletic)
It’s been a strange season for the defending champions. The return of Keith Fahey to an already star-studded squad was expected to make a formality of the Saints’ title defence, but a catalogue of injuries and the departure of title-winning captain Conor Kenna to Shamrock Rovers meant the meanest defence in the division became the most porous of the title contenders. Going forward, however, the Saints never let up, and much of that is down to the goalscoring form of winger Conan Byrne – the UCD graduate bagged 16 goals during the season and created many more for striker Christy Fagan to help his side to secure European football and a shot at their first FAI Cup in over 50 years.
Left Midfield: Billy Dennehy (Cork City)
One of the many contentious victims of Trevor Croly’s winter clearout at Shamrock Rovers was Kerryman Dennehy. One of the lynchpins in Michael O’Neill’s Europa League success returned to his former club, where he linked up with his brother Darren, and he quickly rediscovered the form that made him one of the most feared attacking players in the country with 12 league goals, including penalties. It was Dennehy’s fortuitous 40-yard free kick against Bohs that finally lifted Cork to the outright leadership of the table in front of a packed Turner’s Cross last week, and the Leesiders will rely on his leadership to get them over the line in a winner-takes-all encounter at Oriel Park on Friday.
Striker: Rory Gaffney (Limerick)
The position of striker is by some measure the most difficult call to make of all positions in the team of the year, but having decided to go with only one striker (in line with the formation common to the league’s best teams) I’ve plumped for Rory Gaffney ahead of joint-leading scorers Pat Hoban and Champions League hero Christy Fagan – as well as Mark O’Sullivan, regularly unplayable in his first season in senior soccer – for the sheer weight of his overall contribution. Gaffney carried Limerick for 2/3 of the season under the dour anti-football of Stuart Taylor, and he’s exploded as a goalscorer under the benevolent guidance of Martin Russell in the past three months. Gaffney won’t be a Limerick player next season as every coach in the league will covet the most complete striker in Ireland right now.
The Second Post 