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Brian Fenton and Gearoid Hegarty win Footballer and Hurler of the year

Dublin's Brian Fenton and Limerick's Gearoid Hegarty have been named the Footballer and Hurler of...



Brian Fenton and Gearoid Hegar...
Hurling

Brian Fenton and Gearoid Hegarty win Footballer and Hurler of the year

Dublin's Brian Fenton and Limerick's Gearoid Hegarty have been named the Footballer and Hurler of the Year respectively at the 2020 PwC GPA All-Star Awards. 

The Young Player of the Year awards went to Kilkenny's Eoin Cody and Mayo's Oisin Mullin respectively.

Hegarty also picked up his first All-Star award on the night and the recognition tops off an extraordinary year for him.

He was named man of the match in Limerick's All-Ireland final win over Waterford after he scored seven points from play.

Speaking at the virtual award ceremony on Saturday evening, Hegarty said he was "hugely privileged and pleased" to win such a "prestigious award".

"I was actually looking at a list of previous winners the other day and to say it's an illustrious list would be to put it lightly.

"So it's a huge honour to have my name associated with all of those other names.

"I understand that there's also a huge element of luck involved and you need a lot of things to go your way. When I was looking at the list of players who've won it before I noticed how many phenomenal hurlers haven't won it.

"So it's a huge privilege, and it's also something that I would have always aspired to winning. My attitude is that somebody has to win it every year, so why not go for it?

"It has been a really cool journey towards winning this award, but, I suppose, I'm not 27 until August so I'm still hugely determined to get a lot more out of myself in the next couple of years. You don't have too long at the top so when you're playing inter-county hurling you have to achieve as much as you can because it's only a short period of time that you're there.

"As I said, it's a really, really nice personal award, but, at the end of the day, it's the All-Ireland medals that are the ones that really count and they're what we'll be focused on again this year coming."

Meanwhile, Brian Fenton got the nod for Footballer of the Year for the second time after also winning the award back in 2018.

The Raheny clubman won his sixth All-Ireland medal in a row in December of last year and maintains his record of never losing a championship game.

The 27-year-old was humble when reacting to the news that he had been chosen for the award by his fellow inter-county players.

"Yeah, I'm delighted, but you do feel like a bit of a fraud as well, to be honest with you, with winning a second Player of the Year award, you feel a bit undeserving. But I'm just very proud, thrilled, and honoured. It's incredible.

"You think of All-Stars and Player of the Year awards, and my 2018 Player of the Year Award still hasn't really sunk in because I'm still playing and keen and ambitious.

"You think of GAA legends like the Ó Sés, Gooch, or past winners of the Player of the Year like the Brogans.

"Just the list of names that's there. It's such an honour to even win it once and then to end up winning a second one and you're compared to Trevor Giles then.

"To think of myself in that space, I genuinely feel undeserving."

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2020 PWC GPA All-Star Awards Brian Fenton Dublin GAA Gearoid Hegarty Limerick GAA