By Shaun Casey

ARMAGH’S All-Ireland winning captain Aidan Forker has backed his teammate Oisin Conaty to win Young Footballer of the Year following his displays in the orange and white shirt this season.

Both Forker and Conaty have been nominated for All-Stars, along with nine other players from Kieran McGeeney’s squad, while Conaty will face opposition from Ciarán Moore (Donegal) and Johnny McGrath (Galway) for the Young Footballer of the Year gong.

Conaty started every single league and championship game during Armagh’s historic journey and starred in the All-Ireland final, kicking 0-3 from play and earning the Man of the Match award.

“Of course we’re biased but he burst onto the scene and there weren’t too many could handle him this year,” said the experienced Forker. “He’s got so much more to improve and more to give and he’d be the first man to tell you that.

“While the other boys are quality players, I think given the level of opposition we came up against, that his levels and consistency of performance, his fitness levels, his strength, it’s incredible.

“Even if you think back to his first score in the All-Ireland final, it just epitomises Oisin to be honest.

“No one will argue that Oisin isn’t a deserving winner and hopefully that comes to fruition on the night.”

Conaty made his championship debut against Down in last season’s Ulster Championship semi-final and made four appearances from the bench as the Orchard reached the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

The Portadown youngster broke into the team this year and held his position in the forward line. The addition of fresh legs in the mould of Conaty and youngster Peter McGrane were hugely important for Armagh.

Like Conaty, McGrane started in every single game right up to the All-Ireland final when his position was taken by Connaire Mackin, a tactical decision that robbed the Ballyhegan man of an All-Ireland final appearance.

On the emergence of the young talent that drove Armagh on this season, Forker added:

“They were massive. That’s what the players and Kieran were really trying to drive in the group, that competitiveness and depth and we had that in abundance this year for sure.

“Oisin and Peter just epitomise hard work. In pre-season, they were the first people there and their level of work and intensity and what they brought was fantastic. Hopefully they learned a lot from the older boys and their level of training as there were some dark days in pre-season!

“But we got our rewards and Oisin got his rewards. He has worked very hard on himself physically, he was told he needed to develop a wee bit more physically because we knew he had the pace.

“It was tough, but he has so much more physically to improve on which is scary.

“He got his rewards and hopefully there’s more to come.”