Club Down salutes finest in county

Club Down salutes finest in county

9 December 2015

CLUB Down held its second annual O’Reilly Transport Ireland Football All Stars awards in the Canal Court Hotel, Newry, on Saturday night.

The aim of the awards is to honour club players from the Down leagues and championships of 2015 and has created great interest throughout the county.

Twenty-six players were originally nominated for the awards and this was whittled down on the night to 15 with the following players gaining recognition: 

Goalkeeper — Stephen Kane (Kilcoo); defenders — Aaron Branagan  (Kilcoo), Gerard  McGovern (Burren), Daryl Branagan (Kilcoo), Conor Doyle (An Riocht), Robbie White (Ballyholland), Daniel Morgan (Castlewellan): midfielders — Dan Gordon (Loughinisland), Paul Greenan (Kilcoo); forwards — Shay Millar (Glenn), Aidan Burns (Castlewellan), Ryan Johnston (Kilcoo), Rory Mason (Loughinisland), Connaire Harrison (Glasdrumman).

County chairman Sean Rooney congratulated all the winners and nominees and also thanked Eugene O’Reilly, from O’Reilly Transport, for his invaluable sponsorship of the event.

Ballygalget’s Danny Toner was named hurler of the year with Portaferry’s Darragh Mallon picking up the intermediate award and Ballela’s Johnny McCusker the junior award.

The Division 1 footballer of the year award went to Ballyholland’s Robbie White .

Loughinisland captain Dan Gordon winning the Division 2 award and Glasdrumman’s Connaire Harrison the Division 3 award. Clonduff’s Darren O’Hagan was presented with the coveted Spirit of Breen Morgan Award.

The special guests on the night were Dublin great Brian Mullins, former Armagh manager Joe Kernan and ex-Down managers Peter McGrath and James McCartan, who took part in a riveting question-and-answer session after the presentations were over.