RUNNERS-UP CORK LEAD the way in the Lidl Division 1 Team of the 2021 Ladies National Football Leagues, with champions Dublin next in line.
Mick Bohan’s Sky Blues won their second-ever top-flight league title after a five-point decider win in Croke Park, though they finish with one less player on the Team of the League selection, as chosen by the Ladies Gaelic Football Association’s All-Star committee.
Six Cork players are recognised along with five Dubs and four from semi-finalists Donegal.
In total, there are five survivors from the last selection in 2019: Cork trio Shauna Kelly, Melissa Duggan and Orla Finn make the cut once again, along with Dublin defender Martha Byrne and Donegal forward Karen Guthrie.
Teenage sensation Erika O’Shea, May’s PwC-GPA Women’s Player of the Month Ciara O’Sullivan and Kinsale rising star Sadhbh O’Leary are the other Rebels who earn spots this time, while Byrne is joined by Dublin team-mates Abby Shiels, Olwen Carey, Jennifer Dunne and Hannah Tyrrell.
18-year-old Shiels was rock solid in the Sky Blues goal in the absence of Ciara Trant, Carey made a typically stunning return to inter-county football after a year out, Dunne picked up where she left off last season and continued her rich vein of form, while Tyrrell showed that Irish rugby’s loss is Dublin football’s gain with a spectacular 3-29 across five comeback games.
Along with Guthrie, Donegal are represented by full-back Evelyn McGinley, midfielder Katy Heron and free-scoring Geraldine McLaughlin at corner forward in the 2021 selection.
In Division 2, champions Meath dominate the selection with eight players included, while it’s four for finalists Kerry, two for Monaghan and one for Cavan.
Goalkeeper Monica McGuirk, Emma Troy (Division 2 Final Player of the Match), Aoibhín Cleary, Máire O’Shaughnessy, Vikki Wall, Niamh O’Sullivan, Stacey Grimes and Emma Duggan are the Royals agknowledged, with Aislinn Desmond, Cáit Lynch, Niamh Carmody and Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh in there from the Kingdom.
Long-serving Monaghan duo Aoife McAnespie and Ellen McCarron, and cross-border Breffni counterpart Sinéad Greene make up the team.
Division 3 champions Laois have seven players in that selection while runners-up Kildare see six included and Sligo and Wicklow have one a-piece.
And eight players from winners Louth make the Division 4 cut, along with four from finalists Leitrim, two from Offaly and one from Limerick.
Division 1 Lidl Team of the 2021 Ladies National Football League
1. Abby Shiels – Dublin
2. Shauna Kelly – Cork, 3. Evelyn McGinley – Donegal, 4. Martha Byrne – Dublin
5. Erika O’Shea – Cork, 6. Olwen Carey – Dublin, 7. Melissa Duggan – Cork
8. Katy Herron – Donegal, 9. Jennifer Dunne – Dublin
10. Hannah Tyrrell – Dublin, 11. Ciara O’Sullivan – Cork, 12. Orla Finn – Cork
13. Sadhbh O’Leary – Cork, 14. Karen Guthrie – Donegal, 15. Geraldine McLaughlin – Donegal
