PFAI Nominations

The 2013 PFAI Awards were handed on last weekend and St Patrick’s Athletic midfielder Killian Brennan won the Players’ Player of the Year award.  It was his first win, coming from his second nomination. He was previously nominated in 2008 with Bohemians.

Since 2000/01, only 13 players have been nominated more than once for the PFAI POTY.  They are

Multiple PFAI POTY Nominations since 2000/01
4	Glen Crowe	Bohemians
4	Kevin Hunt	Bohemians
4	Jason Byrne	Shelbourne 3, Bohemians 1
4	Owen Heary	Shelbourne 3, Bohemians 1
3	Brian Shelley	Drogheda 1, Bohemians 2
3	Joe Gamble	Cork City
3	Mark Quigley	St Pats, Dundalk, Sligo Rovers
2	Brian Murphy	Bohemians
2	George O’Callaghan	Cork City
2	Gary Twigg	Shamrock Rovers
2	Tony Grant	Shamrock Rovers
2	Keith Fahey	St Patrick’s Athletic
2	Killian Brennan	Bohemians,St Patrick’s Athletic

Of those 13,  8 have won the award on at least one occasion (Crowe, Byrne, Heary, Shelley, Quigley, Twigg, Fahey, Brennan).

There have been 80 nominations in that time period spread around 14 different clubs

Noms	Club	Players	Individuals
18	Bohemians	G Crowe 4, K Hunt 4,  B Murphy 2, B Shelley 2, Bobby Ryan, Colin Hawkins, Gary Deegan, J Byrne, K Brennan, O Heary	10
10	Shelbourne	O Heary 3, J Byrne 3, Jamie Harris, Joseph Ndo, Ollie Cahill, Stuart Byrne
9	St Patrick’s Athletic	K Fahey 2, Paul Osam, Liam Kelly, M Quigley, Daryl Kavanagh, Sean O’Connor, Killian Brennan, Greg Bolger	8
8	Derry City	Ciaran Martyn, Damien Kelly, Gary Beckett, Liam Coyle, Eamon Zayed, Mark Farren, Peter Hutton, Stuart Greacen	8
7	Cork City	J Gamble 3, G O’Callaghan 2, Kevin Doyle, John O’Flynn	4
7	Shamrock Rovers	G Twigg 2, T Grant 2, Alan Mannus, Pat Sullivan, Ronan Finn	5
6	Sligo Rovers	Raf Cretaro, Richie Ryan, Podge Amond, Eoin Doyle, M Quigley, Jason McGuinness
4	Drogheda United	Fabio O’Brien, Brian Shelley, Jason Gavin, Shane Robinson	4
4	Dundalk	Chris Turner, M Quigley, Pat Hoban, Richie Towell	4
2	Longford Town	Alan Kirby, Dave Mooney	2
2	UCD	Barry Ryan, Tony McDonnell	2
1	Bray Wanderers	Colm Tresson	1
1	Dublin City	Gary O’Neill	1
1	Sporting Fingal	Shaun Williams	1

Some of those nominated were also nominated before the 2000/01 season (eg Paul Osam who won the award in 1998/99) but records of nominations are hard to come by. If you have them for all years, please get in contact. (I have asked the PFAI but didn’t receive a reply).

5 of the nominees were also nominated for Young POTY in the same year as their senior nomination;

• 2008 Mark Quigley (lost both awards)
• 2009 Gary Deegan (lost both awards)
• 2010 Shaun Williams (won YPOTY)
• 2012 Richie Towell (won YPOTY), Pat Hoban (lost both awards)

Of the 80 nominations, Barry Ryan’s in 2002/03 is the oldest for an active player. He is one of only 3 goalkeepers nominated for the award in the time frame.

Position	Nominations	Players
Defender	17	12
Forward	32	21
Goalkeeper	4	3
Midfield	27	20

No player (in the time frame) has been nominated for POTY while in the First Division. 3 of the nominees had though, been previously nominated for the First Division POTY award (Stuart Byrne in 99/00, Alan Kirby in 00/01 and Ronan Finn in 2009 – Finn was the only winner).

Up until 2012, there were 6 nominees and there have been 4 nominees in the past 2 years. There has been at least one club with multiple nominations in each season (usually from the league winners). The most nominations was 4 for Bohemians in 2008. Unfortunately for them they lost out to 1 of the 2 nominees from St Patrick’s Athletic (Keith Fahey). This season again saw only 2 clubs represented, and again the winner was from St Pats.

Season	Clubs	Champs
2000/01	5	2
2001/02	5	1
2002/03	4	3
2003	4	1
2004	4	3
2005	4	2
2006	4	2
2007	5	2
2008	2	4
2009	4	3
2010	4	2
2011	4	1
2012	3	2
2013	2	2

As above, if you can help add depth to this article by adding info for previous season, do get in touch!  You can check out some more League of Ireland award trivia here.