The 2019 PwC All-Stars take place this Friday in Dublin and the biggest talking point remains whether Stephen Cluxton will finally receive a deserved Footballer of the Year prize. It's incredible that Cluxton only has 5 All-Stars to his name considering how much the Parnells netminder has transformed the position across his 19 years playing intercounty football for Dublin.
While speaking on the Balls.ie PwC All-Stars Debate Show, our panel of Johnny Doyle, Marc Ó Sé and Anthony Cunningham made a convincing case that Stephen Cluxton is the only real contender for the Footballer of the Year prize.
Doyle, who went head-to-head with Cluxton many times over the years, was especially forceful in his opinion that Cluxton deserves the top award in gaelic football this year.
"If he doesn't win footballer of the year before he retires, it will be a travesty," Doyle said.
"Maybe that's sentimental on my behalf. I would say the same looking down the roll of honour of the Footballer of the Year and not seeing Colm Cooper. To me, he's the greatest of his era. And I know Footballer of the Year should just be that window of the year. He had a phenomenal year plus everything else that went with it. He captained the five-in-a-row team. He's my Footballer of the Year."
Ó Sé agreed.
"Stephen Cluxton has standards, and we just take them as a given. His kickouts, the way they going to plan, the way he sets up the Dublin attack. The replay, there was a ball kicked out 60 yards to the Hogan Stand side to Kilkenny. These are just things that we take as normal. We used to have video sessions on Stephen Cluxton, we used to spend 20 minutes trying to crack this player. What other player could you say that of?"
"What he brought to Dublin this year was absolutely phenomenal. It's fitting in a way after winning the Five in a Row and having their captain who hasn't won Footballer of the Year to win it this year," Anthony Cunningham added.
You can watch the panel discuss the Footballer of the Year nominees around the 58 minute mark of this video, but really there's much great PwC All-Stars talk in this video and we recommend you watch the whole thing.
