Kildare footballer Niall Kelly.
Round 1 of the 2017 Allianz Football League produced some high-scoring encounters, so it’s fitting that our three nominees for the GAA.ie Footballer of the week are all forwards.
Kildare’s Niall Kelly, Kerry’s Paul Geaney, and Louth’s Paraic Smith all proved there’s no substitute for having a clinical finisher at the sharpest point of your attack.
The voting process is simple: retweet the image of your chosen player on the GAA's official Twitter account (@officialgaa) or like their image on the GAA's official Facebook and Instagram pages. Voting will close at 1pm on Tuesday, February 7 and the winner will be announced on GAA.ie.
Footballer of the Week nominations
Niall Kelly – Kildare
This is Niall Kelly’s fifth year playing inter-county football and the former Boy Wonder is now very much the man for the Lilywhites.
He was excellent in their 10-point win over Meath at Pairc Tailteann on Sunday as he tortured the home defence with his intelligent movement and clinical finishing.
He scored 2-2 from play and was also involved in the build-up of many more of Kildare’s scores.
Man of the match Paul Geaney celebrates in Letterkenny.
Paul Geaney – Kerry
2016 All-Star Geaney seems to get better every year and the way he’s started the new season suggests that trend will continue in 2017.
He scored 2-4 in Kerry’s Division 1 victory over Donegal, 2-2 of which came from play, and absolutely ripped apart a Donegal full-back line that couldn’t cope with his ball-winning ability and clinical finishing.
His second goal was a thing of beauty as he engineered some space for himself with a couple of shimmies before calmly clipping the ball to the bottom left-hand corner with the instep of his right boot.
Paraic Smith
Paraic Smith – Louth
Smith has been around for a few years now with Louth and is playing like a man in the prime of his career.
He scored 1-4 from play for the Wee County in their impressive win over Laois on Saturday, but it was just his finishing that caught the eye.
The centre-forward was also very influential in Louth’s build-up play as his game-intelligence brought him into the right places at the right time and invariably take the right option.
Players of the Week are decided based on votes cast by followers of @officialgaa on Twitter, on the Official GAA Facebook Page and on the Official GAA Instagram page.
