Provincial player awards: Four players, whose different clubs are involved in the AIB All-Ireland finals on March 17th, yesterday relinquished their rivalry in accepting their provincial player awards for 2003.
The presentations took place at the AIB centre in Dublin, and acted as a sneak preview to what should be two classic finals in Croke Park on St Patrick's Day.
In hurling, Antrim champions Dunloy face off against Newtownshandrum, the Cork champions, hoping to achieve the ultimate success that in recent years has narrowly eluded them. Young Dunloy forward Darren Quinn collected the Ulster award for his hand in getting them this far, and was followed by Ben O'Connor, who was handed the Munster award for doing likewise with Newtownshandrum.
The football decider is equally anticipated as it involves two teams contesting the final for the first time: Caltra of Galway, and An Ghaeltacht of Kerry. More so, it involves two clubs heavily weighed by a brotherly bond, the Meehans of Caltra, and the Ó Sés of An Ghaeltacht.
Not surprisingly, those names figured in yesterday's awards, with Michael Meehan taking the Connacht honours, and Tomás Ó Sé the Munster honours. Another Ó Sé, Marc, was also on hand, and he explained what the trip to Croke Park would mean to the Kerry club.
"Well it's a great achievement to get there," he said. "We've never been in an All-Ireland final before as a club, and you'd often dream about it, so you know it will be something special to be there in Croke Park with all the family and friends that you've played with for so long.
"And especially for a place like An Ghaeltacht. Geographically it might seem big, but there wouldn't be that many people there. Not much more than a thousand."
Ó Sé, along with his brothers Tomás, Darragh and Fergal, has been central to the progress of the club this season, but the team effort has been complete: "We'd a poor year last year, so we went out this year to win the county title again, and take it from there. When we got as far as the Munster final we still thought about going one step forward every time.
"But we really don't know much about Caltra. All we've seen so far is their games on TG4. But we know they're a very good team, very balanced. So we've it all to do."
The Ó Sé's have also been concentrating solely on the club fixture, and won't return to the county set-up until after March 17th.
"Jack O'Connor has been very fair to us, and given us all the time with the club. He's let us do our own thing and that's been a huge help. But we've had the competitive games with the county as well and that has helped."
Details have also been announced for the St Patrick's Day fixtures, with the hurling final, which will be refereed by Barry Kelly of Westmeath, under way at 2 p.m. The football final will be refereed by Michael Monaghan of Kildare and will have a 3.40 throw-in.
The finals will not be all-ticket, and cash will be accepted at the turnstiles (adults 20, students 10, under-16s free).
AIB PROVINCIAL PLAYER AWARDS 2003: Football - Connacht: Michael Meehan (Caltra); Leinster: Rory Gallagher (St Brigid's); Munster: Tomás Ó Sé (An Ghaeltacht); Ulster: Johnny McBride (The Loup). Hurling - Connacht: Ollie Canning (Portumna); Leinster: Martin Comerford (O'Loughlin Gaels); Munster: Ben O'Connor (Newtownshandrum); Ulster: Darren Quinn (Dunloy). Excellence in the area of Coaching and Games Administration: Noreen Lynch (Hurling) and Fr Oliver Hughes (Football).
