Keane named on Best of Best team

WESTMEATH’S John Keane has been named in a list of great Gaelic football players in the Irish Independent PwC Challenge to choose the best football team since 1970 with the restriction of having just one player per county.

The Rosemount native won two All-Star awards in a glittering career that also saw the respected defender play a crucial role in Westmeath’s only ever Leinster SFC success.

The selections were chosen by a three-man selection committee made up of former All-Ireland-winning managers Peter McGrath and John O’Mahony, and Irish Independent GAA editor Martin Breheny.

The challenge to members of the public was to pick as close to the team selected by the three-man committee. Monaghan’s Martin Mullen managed to pick 14 of the 15 football players chosen to scoop the first prize of €2,500 in cash plus overnight accommodation (including breakfast) for two people at a city centre hotel courtesy of the O’Callaghan Hotel Group, plus two premium tickets to the All-Ireland Football final, including attendance at the PwC pre-match reception in Croke Park.

‘Irish Independent’ PwC team

John O’Leary (Dublin), Harry Keegan (Roscommon), Tony Scullion (Derry), John Keane (Westmeath); Karl Lacey (Donegal), Kieran McGeeney (Armagh), Martin O’Connell (Meath); Jack O’Shea (Kerry), Willie Joe Padden (Mayo); Matt Connor (Offaly), Larry Tompkins (Cork), Mickey Kearins (Sligo); Padraic Joyce (Galway), Sean O’Neill (Down), Peter Canavan (Tyrone). Subs: Fergal Byron (Laois), Eugene ‘Nudie’ Hughes (Monaghan), Glen Ryan (Kildare), Mickey Quinn (Leitrim), Peter McGinnity (Fermanagh), Declan Browne (Tipperary).