Castlebar Mitchels' Danielle Caldwell wins second All-Star award

DANIELLE Caldwell has been named on the TG4 Ladies Football All-Star team for the second year in a row.

The Castlebar Mitchels defender received her award at a ceremony at the annual LGFA TG4 All-Star awards banquet, in the Bonnington Dublin Hotel, where she was the only Mayo woman to receive such an honour.

Caldwell put in several eye-catching displays this season as the Mayo ladies won their first Connacht title since 2017 and reached their third All-Ireland semi-final in a row.

Clodagh McManamon, Ciara Needham, Kathryn Sullivan and Sinéad Cafferky, were the other Mayo players to be nominated on the night.

Speaking to The Mayo News, former Mayo manager Michael Moyles said he was not surprised to see the 26-year-old win her second All-Star.

Moyles cited her Connacht final and All-Ireland semi-final displays against Galway and Kerry as two of her best performances of the 2023 season.

“Even when things were going against us, I look back on that Kerry game in the All-Ireland semi-final, it was Dani that took the fight along with a few of her teammates, to Kerry. She always drove forward and she was a line-breaker for us,” said Moyles.

“I just think she’s fearless. The way the modern game is now you are nearly given more leeway to carry the ball in attack from a central position in the backline than you are as a wing-forward,” he added.

“A wing-forward, you have to come back and around and be more defensive. Where Dani is coming from deep, coming off shoulders, breaking game lines, and she’s fearless when it comes to tackling or going into tackles, she doesn’t hold back.”

Dublin scooped the highest number of All-Stars with eight, followed by All-Ireland finalists Kerry with five, while the other two awards went to Caldwell and Cork forward Ciara O’Sullivan.