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Mike Frank still making the headlines!!

posted 13 Jun 2012, 09:05 by Laune Rangers

taken from:

One of the most common phrases you'll hear when the careers of top GAA players are being discussed is "he's won every honour in the game."

It's almost universally untrue. While there are plenty of players who have won almost everything worth winning in their careers, there are very, very few who have landed every significant crown they have competed for.

The generally accepted gold standard in any GAA competition is an All-Ireland title, and winning an All-Ireland title means you have risen to the top of the band in which you compete. For players at the top level, All-Irelands are fought for at county senior, U21 and minor level, as well as at colleges level, third level, and club level.

Has anyone ever won All-Ireland titles at all these levels? is not sure if anyone can quite match the astonishing achievements of Kerry's Mike Frank Russell in this regard.

It all started for Russell in 1994 when he was part of the Kerry team that won the All-Ireland Minor Football Championship, the last team from the county to do so. Two years later he was a major star on the Killorglin team that won the Hogan Cup, the All-Ireland Senior Colleges' Football Championship.

He won an All-Ireland U-21 Football Championship medal the same year, with a second following in 1998. Around the same time, he won a Sigerson Cup medal with I.T Tralee, the highest honour in third level football. His club Laune Rangers won the All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship in 1996, and the following year Mike Frank burst onto the scene for the Kerry seniors, coming off the bench to score a goal in their All-Ireland semi-final win over Cavan.

He won the first of five All-Ireland senior medals the following month, meaning he had basically won every major All-Ireland and provincial honour by the age of 21.

We aren't sure if his medal haul is unique, and are aware of a few players who come very close. The only medal missing from Henry Shefflin's collection is an All-Ireland minor medal, while a Sigerson medal was all that his manager Brian Cody missed out on. 

If you know of someone other than Russell who has won the same list of honours, let us know at the Official GAA Facebook page or @officialgaa on Twitter.