Speak Out

The online public vote for the 2010 Cadbury Hero of the Future Award has now closed. The public vote will now be taken into consideration by the Judges for their final decision and the 2010 Cadbury Hero of the Future will be announced next week. Stay tuned for details.

Huge thanks to all those who voted for their Hero

Who will be the 2010 Cadbury Hero of the Future?

The ‘Cadbury Hero of the Future’ award is part of Cadbury’s continued sponsorship of the under 21 football championship, highlighting the achievements of individuals for outstanding teamwork, passion and performance on the field. Former winners include Keith Higgins - Mayo (2006), Fintan Goold - Cork (2007) Killian Young - Kerry (2008), and Colm O’Neill - Cork (2009). Who will it be this year?

A ‘Hero of the Match’ Award is presented to 15 players, selected based on their performance, from the provincial semi-finals stage through to the All-Ireland final. The winners of the ‘Cadbury Hero of the Match’ awarded during the Championship are shortlisted for the overall ‘Hero of the Future’ award. Due to Donegal ace Michael Murphy receiving two awards, there are 14 players on the shortlist this year.

Kildare senior footballer, Dermot Earley, TG4’s Michael O Domhnaill and former Dublin Manager Paul Caffery adjudicate the competition and determine who the overall winner will be, taking the public vote into consideration, so click on the link below and have your say today!

http://www.cadburygaau21.com/vote/

This year’s list of nominees is made of players from nine different counties with All-Ireland champions Dublin having the highest number of nominees (Dean Rock, Rory O’Carroll & Nicky Devereux)

Donegal and Dublin battled it out in front of nearly 8,500 people in the Cadbury U21 All-Ireland Final on Saturday evening. In an exciting and enthralling encounter, it went down to the last kick of the game before it was decided. With Donegal trailing by two points and with two minutes remaining, Michael Murphy came out the field and caught the kick out brilliantly. He was fouled and took the free kick quickly into Cillian Morrison who was also fouled to give Donegal a penalty, a minute into injury time. Up stepped Donegal’s Senior Star, Michael Murphy who sent the keeper the wrong way with a powerful strike, only to see it rebound off the crossbar and with the ball landing back in play ‘Cadbury Hero of the Match’ winner Rory O’Carroll then fisted it to safety.

It was a close game throughout with both teams dominating at different times, Donegal got off to the better start racing into a two point lead but then the Dubs came roaring back and scored five points in a row to leave the score at 6 points to 2 with Dean Rock showing great accuracy up front and Nicky Devereux impressing from wing back. Donegal then got back on top, with Dermot Molloy getting a lovely score from a free. Murphy and O’Carroll were having a great dual and the full back was doing a very good job in keeping Murphy quiet but the Donegal star got the better of O’Carroll just before the break but ended up shooting just wide. However directly from the next kick out Donegal did get a goal. Murphy pulled out to the wing and with lots of space for McLoone to come through the middle, he played a deft one two with Morrison and buried the ball in the back of the net. Donegal then went in leading by a point at half time.

Within a minute of the restart, Dublin had levelled the scores through Mark Coughlan, but scores from Murphy and Morrison edged Donegal back in front. With 15 minutes remaining, Gary Sweeney made the most of a mistake in the Donegal defense to score a good goal to give Dublin the lead. This was the first goal Donegal had conceded in the Championship and would prove to be the decisive score of the second half. Dermot Molloy brought the scores level at 1-07 a piece with 10 minutes to play. Dublin began to get on top and only some wayward shooting kept Donegal in the game, but they did manage to go two points ahead entering injury time. Donegal had the chance to win it in the closing moments but Dublin held out to claim their first U21 All-Ireland since 2003.

Dublin 1-10 Donegal 1-08