Another Wednesday evening and we come to it again when we name the We Are Dublin GAA, Dublin Player Of The Weekend.
As always for our new followers who don’t know what this is, it’s an award we give to the player, who we believe was the standout Dublin player from the previous weekends intercounty action.
And what a weekend Dublin supporters were treated to with not one but two All Ireland SFC semi-finals that were filled with drama, intensity, passion, skill, big hits, and sublime scores.
On Saturday the Dublin senior ladies footballers got the weekends action underway with a pulsating clash against Mayo in the TG4 All Ireland SFC semi-final played in Breffni Park in Cavan.
It was a rip-roaring contest that was a brilliant advertisement for the game of ladies football, the drama and excitement lasting all the way to the last kick of the game that gave Dublin a one point victory and a place in the All Ireland Final.
Then on Sunday it was the Dublin senior men’s footballers turn as they took one Kerry in their All Ireland semi-final and fans were treated to a game for the ages.
Dublin led early on, but Kerry hit a purple patch just before the half-time break and led by five. Dublin put in a storming second half which had the whole stadium on the edge of their seats as two of the heavyweights went toe to toe and two injury time points sealed the victory for the Dubs and an All Ireland Final meeting with Mayo.
There were so many top class performances from both games, too many to mention here and although this is normally an individual award, it would be totally unfair to just pick one winner from what were two of the best semi-finals you will see in a long time.
So this week we will have two winners, one from each game. And they are Sinead Aherne and Dean Rock.
Sinead was just magnificent in Saturday’s win against Mayo on Saturday she was involved in everything the girls in blue did well on Saturday plundered two excellent goals in the first half to give Dublin a well deserved lead at the break. But the free she won and scored from an acute angle out on the left to win the game was a thing of beauty and showed an unwavering steely nerve.
How Dean wasn’t even among the three nominees for the Sunday Game man of the match award was a mystery. Dean put in a shift and a half in Sky Blue on Sunday. He was deadly accurate from dead balls and clipped over a couple of fine points from play and finished with a personal tally of 0-12. But it was Dean’s work rate that was really impressive as he hunted down Kerry players throughout the game forcing turnovers and miss placed passes by those in green and gold.
So congratulations to SINEAD AHERNE and DEAN ROCK both very deserving winners of this weeks We Are Dublin GAA, Dublin Player Of The Weekend Award.