Four Galway players named on 2019 TG4 Ladies Football All Star team

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Four Galway players named on 2019 TG4 Ladies Football All Star team

The Ward twins, Louise and Nicola, Tracey Leonard and Sinead Burke was named last night as the four Galway representatives on the 2019 TG4 Ladies Football All-Star team.

Nicola and Louise are the first set of twin sisters named in an All-Star team since Waterford’s O’Ryan twins, Martina and Geraldine, back in 1992.

Sinead Burke received her second award while for
Tracey Leonard, it was her first award.

Galway’s haul of four All-Stars is second behind Dublin on the 2019 selection, while two players from Cork and one each from Meath and Mayo complete the line-up.

The 2019 team was revealed on Saturday night at the annual TG4 All-Star awards banquet, in association with Lidl, at the Citywest Hotel.

Coilin Duffy was there and he spoke to the four Galway representatives starting with the Ward sisters.

Coilin then spoke to Sinead Burke

Tracey Leonard was then next to speak to Coilin

Nicola and Louise Ward will now turn their attentions to next weekend’s All-Ireland Senior Club Championship Final when Kilkerrin-Clonberne will pit their wits against holders Mourneabbey from Cork.

Dublin’s haul matches their all-time best of seven
players on the annual selection, which was also achieved last year.

Dublin’s Sinéad Goldrick wins a seventh All-Star
award in eight years, and there’s a fifth award for team-mate Lyndsey Davey,
who was Player of the Match against Galway in the 2019 TG4 All-Ireland Senior
Championship Final, which was played out in front of a record 56,114
attendance.

Another Dublin star, Siobhán McGrath, is honoured
for a fourth time, while there’s a third award for team-mate Carla Rowe.

Galway defender Sinéad Burke and Cork forward Orla
Finn, who was joint top scorer in the 2019 Senior Championship, both collect
their second awards.

It’s also the third successive year that sisters are named on an All-Star selection as the Hegartys from Donegal, Ciara and Niamh, were listed on the 2017 team, while the O’Sullivans from Cork, Ciara and Doireann, were honoured in 2018.

There are nine first-time winners on the 2019 TG4
All Star team, including Dublin’s Niamh Collins, Olwen Carey and Niamh McEvoy.

Monica McGuirk earns the goalkeeping spot for her
exploits with Meath, who contested the TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate Final, and
it’s also a first All Star for the Royal County since 2011, when another
goalkeeper, Irene Munnelly, was honoured.

The other first-time All-Star recipients are Melissa Duggan (Cork) and Mayo’s Rachel Kearns.

In total, there are four survivors from the 2018 All-Star team – Dublin trio Goldrick, McGrath and Davey, and Galway’s Burke.

It was also confirmed on the night that the 2020 TG4 All-Star Tour will visit Austin, Texas, in the United States, with the tour scheduled for March 31-April 8.

TG4 and the LGFA have also confirmed that Ladies
Football will feature in next year’s reality TV show ‘The Underdogs’, the
television series which is broadcast on TG4 each Autumn.

Ladies Football featured on the Underdogs TV Series on three occasions in the past – in 2006 against Cork in Páirc Uí Rinn, in 2007 against the New York All-Stars in Gaelic Park, Bronx, and against the London Ladies team in 2008 under lights at Sunbury, the home of London Irish.

More details on the 2020 Underdogs TV Series will be
announced in the coming months.

Also on the night, Mayo star Niamh Kelly won the TG4
‘Score of the Season’ award for her stunning goal against Galway in the 2019
TG4 All-Ireland Senior Championship semi-final at Croke Park.

Kelly’s mother, Breda, accepted the award on her
behalf, and it was presented by LGFA President Marie Hickey during a ‘Red
Carpet Live’ Facebook event on the Spórt TG4 page.

2019 TG4 Ladies Football All-Star team