Trying to pick a GAA team of the week is a truly thankless task during the height of the League. We don't have the benefit of a GAA red button, and it's impossible to see every game during a frenetic weekend.
Someone's always going to miss out. Take this week's Team of the Week from the GAA. 14 counties are represented, as are counties from each of the four divisions. You could fill two fifteens and someone would still feel wronged.
That said, a lot of people were rightly disappointed to see Clare's David Tubridy left out of this week's Team of the Week, and it seems indicative of a bigger problem that the Clare footballers face.
Think ye spelled David Tubridy wrong there lads.
— Brendan Bugler (@brendanbugler) May 31, 2021
Ah here wtf are ye at...no @davidtubs 1-8 🤷♂️🤷♂️💛💙 https://t.co/ih20Jhm4pu
— James Brody (@jamesbrody78) May 31, 2021
A casual 1-8 from @davidtubs just ignored there?!!
H/t @A_McGann_ for spotting it! #Madness https://t.co/6DizrrHfCD— Ben Sweeney (@BenSweeneyF1) May 31, 2021
READ HERE: Wexford Camogie Legend Loving Underdogs Journey
Again, it was a very tough week to single out six outstanding performances from forwards. Cormac Costello and Paddy McBrearty are in scintillating form. It's great to see Louth's Sam Mulroy win a place in the team. Clare lost to Cork on Sunday, which surely counted against Tubridy.
But on the week Tubridy became the leading scorer in the history of the league, surely he - and his Clare teammates who are a victory away from Division 1 - deserve more plaudits.
Clare football has been on the march since Colm Collins took over the job eight years ago. They'll have a promotion semifinal against Mayo on Sunday week. Win that, and they'll be in Division 1. It really is the greatest Gaelic football story of the last decade. At a time of growing elitism in the sport, Clare, a county with little football pedigree and a single provincial title to its name, is muscling its way into the game's top-tier.
In the context for Gaelic football in the 21st century, there's really no template for what Collins has done with Clare. A good manager will put shape on a struggling Division 4 team, get them promoted and make them a cagey Division 3 team. Collins went a step beyond and lead Clare to promotion to Division 2 in 2016. Since then they have been a mainstay in Gaelic football's second tier. Now they could be poised to join the big boys.
Tubridy's 1-8 at the weekend deserved more fanfare because it made him the all-time leading scorer in the history of the League. It's a pity the GAA doesn't put more stock in the value of stats, because what the Doonbeg forward has accomplished since making his senior debut in 2007 really is astounding. He's scored 22-412 in the league across a career that's spanned three different decades.
Tubridy is the last of a dying breed. The demands of modern intercounty football have proved too consuming for lads over 30, trying to juggle career and family with a sport.
That he is as committed as ever to the saffron and blue at age 34 says everything about the culture that Colm Collins has built with Clare.
For what it's worth, there is a lot of coverage of the Clare footballers in the media today so perhaps the tide is turning. Clare have a tricky match against Mayo for Division 1 promotion next week. As Tubridy reminded the Examiner today, Clare were in the same position last year and they lost to Armagh. A win over Mayo might be the big scalp Clare needs to cement their credibility.
SEE ALSO: Clare GAA Treasurer Apologises For 'Hurtful' Comments
