Champions Mayo claim six All Star football awards

Mayo take top spot at the 2026 GAA/GPA Football All Stars, with six players adding an award to the All-Ireland medal they won in July. Beaten finalists Kerry take three statues, with six other counties sharing the remainder between them on one each.

In fact, this year’s selection very nearly equalled a record. With eight counties represented in the XV, it has one of the all-time widest spread of contributing teams. Beaten only by the 1971 selection, which had nine different counties represented, it means 2026 sits alongside 2010, 1983 and 1972 as the only years there have been eight counties honoured.

Was there a ninth county in the mix? Probably not, in reality. Diarmuid Murtagh was presumably in the running for a spot in the forwards and would have been a credible Roscommon representative in a year when they beat both Mayo and Galway to win the Connacht title. But with Ryan O’Donoghue already squeezed out into the half-forward line, it would have been hard to justify a fifth inside forward among the attacking six.

As it is, that half-forward line still provides one of the major talking points of the whole selection. Outstanding and all as Stephen O’Hanlon’s displays were for Monaghan through the season, Paudie Clifford must count himself unlucky not to be picking up his fifth All Star.

When so many of his Kerry team-mates shrank from the scene in the second half of the All-Ireland final, the elder Clifford kept the defending champions breathing, alongside his younger brother. O’Hanlon had a brilliant year, adding man-marking to his scintillating attacking threat. But good enough to beat both Paudie Clifford and Jordan Flynn to an All Star? A big call.

The other one for the high-stool comes in the half-back line, where Ronan Wallace picks up Westmeath’s first All Star since 2008. His team-mate Matthew Whittaker is probably the defender most unlucky not to see his name on the list, with Jarly Óg Burns of Armagh slipping in ahead of him. Jack Coyne and David McBrien are bound to have been in the mix, but Whittaker couldn’t really have done much more.

He did it all the way to the end of Westmeath’s journey too. While Burns and Whitaker were both exceptional on the road to provincial glory, the Armagh wing-back was taken off in the 47th minute of their defeat to Kerry in Killarney. The following day, Whittaker plundered 1-2 against Monaghan in Clones, rounding off a championship in which he scored 2-11 from play.

Maybe the selectors felt they couldn’t pick two Westmeath wing-backs. Or maybe they chose to honour Armagh’s first Ulster title since 2008 by picking Burns who did, after all, score 0-15 across the championship. All in all, a defensible selection – but it must have been a very tight one.

Elsewhere, history was made from the off, with Shane Murphy taking over the goalie jersey from his Kerry team-mate Shane Ryan. Never before has the All-Star goalkeeper spot stayed within county bounds but changed to a different player. At 33, Murphy is Kerry’s oldest first-time All Star since Mick O’Connell in 1972.

At the other end of the scale, Kobe McDonald becomes just the third 18-year-old in history to win a football All Star, after Dermot McNicholl of Derry in 1984 and Kerry’s Maurice Fitzgerald in 1988. McDonald, who doesn’t turn 19 until the start of December, is also in the mix for the Young Football of the Year award on Friday night, alongside fellow All Star winners Darragh Beirne of Mayo and Louth’s Dara McDonnell.

The award ceremony takes place on Friday night at the RDS, where the 2026 Hurling All Stars will also be revealed.

All Star Football Awards 2026

1. Shane Murphy (Kerry)

Club: Dr Crokes

All Star: 1st

Spent so long as Shane Ryan’s understudy but took his chance early in the year and never gave up the jersey. Conceded just one goal in Kerry’s last five games.

2. Sam Callinan (Mayo)

Club: Ballina Stephenites

All Star: 1st

Played every minute of Mayo’s season bar the last six minutes of the All-Ireland final. Came into his own as a man-marker and pushed on to grab a point in the final too.

3. Jason Foley (Kerry)

Club: Ballydonoghue

All Star: 3rd (2022, 2025)

In the history of Kerry backs, only John O’Keeffe and Tomás Ó Sé have more All Stars than Foley now. Their fastest defender, the man they send on the opposition danger man.

4. Enda Hession (Mayo)

Club: Garrymore

All Star: 1st

Turned Mayo’s season around by taking the fight to Meath when everyone else looked out of ideas. Huge leader, tigerish tackler, unlucky not to be in the shake-up for Footballer of the Year.

5. Ronan Wallace (Westmeath)

Club: Multyfarnham

All Star: 1st

Exceptional in Westmeath’s run to the Leinster title, particularly in the final against Dublin. Unplayable against Cavan and Galway in the All-Ireland series too.

6. Dara McDonnell (Louth)

Club: Naomh Mairtin

All Star: 1st

Incredible impact for a young kid anchoring the Louth defence. Good all year but gave a display for the ages against Monaghan in the quarter-final when Louth were a man down.

7. Jarly Óg Burns (Armagh)

Club: Silverbridge

All Star: 1st

Rampant from wing-back as Armagh ended their Ulster famine. Contributed 0-15 from play, including two-pointers at crucial times against Monaghan and Louth.

8. Conn Kilpatrick (Tyrone)

Club: Edendork

All Star: 1st

Kept Tyrone humming around the middle third, especially against Mayo in Omagh and against Roscommon at the Hyde. Shone in defeat against Kerry as well.

9. Jack Carney (Mayo)

Club: Kilmeena

All Star: 1st

One of the easier choices in the XV. Massive leadership in the middle third, garlanded by his two-point shooting. Scored 0-18 across the season, including eight two-pointers.

10. Niall Scully (Dublin)

Club: Templeogue Synge Street

All Star: 2nd (2020)

His first All-Star since 2020, when there was no ceremony. Carried Dublin through the early part of the season and was brilliant against Galway in the quarter-final.

11. Ryan O’Donoghue (Mayo)

Club: Belmullet

All Star: 2nd (2021)

Led Mayo from the front with his hustling, probing, never-a-backward-step approach. Shone in the All-Ireland series, especially in the final, when he laid the ghosts of 2021 to rest.

12. Stephen O’Hanlon (Monaghan)

Club: Carrickmacross Emmets

All Star: 1st

All-action, dynamic on the ball and, in a new departure, starred as a man-marker against Westmeath and Louth. Scored a goal and set up another in the quarter-final.

13. Darragh Beirne (Mayo)

Club: Claremorris

All Star: 1st

Didn’t play in the Connacht championship but stormed into the All-Ireland series and exploded in Croke Park. A goalscorer and a left-footed freetaker. Exactly what Mayo needed, in other words.

14. David Clifford (Kerry)

Club: Fossa

All Star: 7th (2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025)

Moved to a different level, if that was even possible. Scored a goal in seven of Kerry’s eight matches, including all five of their knock-out games. The player of our generation.

15. Kobe McDonald (Mayo)

Club: Crossmolina Deel Rovers

All Star: 1st

Turned out to be everything everyone said he’d be. A scoring threat, a provider, a fulfiller of hype. Excellent against Monaghan, Louth and Kerry. Will there ever be a better one-and-done?