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A troupe of Limerick unbelievables: the best hurling XV of the half decade

With the first half of the new decade done, Kieran Shannon puts all the pieces on the board and divines what hurling standouts are on course to make the Best XV of the 2020s.
A troupe of Limerick unbelievables: the best hurling XV of the half decade

Tony Tj Reid, Diarmaid Gillane Aaron Byrnes, From Top Shane Kelly, Left: Clockwise Gearoid   Hegarty, O'donnell,

HURLING is well acquainted with domination. When the Irish Examiner did this exercise 10 years ago, seven Kilkenny men were on the team of the half-decade, representative of the county having won three of the five All Irelands that had been on offer.

For the decade before that, the same writer had eight Cats on the best XV, one for every All Ireland final they contested in the 2010s.

But that was Kilkenny doing the dominating. Lately it has been Limerick. Right now they have 12 players on course to make the team of the 2020s. We repeat: 12. Or to put it another way, the rest of the country has just three between them. Who 10 years ago, even five, could have foreseen that county of all counties having that many All-Decade Stars?

Back when explaining why Limerick had no one on the team of the 2010s ('Cian Lynch and Aaron Gillane arrived a little too late in the decade and are not yet at the halfway stage of their respective bodies of work or near it”), the Examiner did anticipate that the next half-decade or full-decade selection would likely have “a swathe of green-shirted contenders to sift”. But not a swathe of certainties, virtual untouchables. They may no longer be the Invincibles but the same county that gave us the late John Kenny have produced another troupe of Unbelievables.

Five years from now there’s a chance that the number of Limerick players on our team of the 2020s will have reduced to single figures. But we’re also betting, and not just guessing, that more than half of that XV will be Limerick men. Even if they joined Graeme Mulcahy this morning in retirement, they’ve put together a body of work that will hardly be trumped.

1. Nickie Quaid (3 All-Stars). 

It is not unknown for a goalkeeper to make consecutive Team of the Decade selections; Stephen Cluxton was the undisputed choice in football for both the 2000s and the 2010s.

But Cluxton, for all the brilliance of a David Clarke, hadn’t a Nickie Quaid denying him All Irelands. Eoin Murphy has; over the last five years Quaid has edged their All Star battle 3-2 and the All Ireland count 4-0.

Murphy can already boast of being the Examiner’s goalkeeper of a decade. There isn’t enough between him and Quaid now to deny the Limerick man similar status.

Nearest contender: Eoin Murphy (4 All Stars, 2 this decade); Most likely long-term challenger: Eibhear Quilligan (3 All Star nominations) 

2. Seán Finn (4 All Stars, two this decade) 

Hasn’t yet got back to the levels he was at prior to his cruciate injury in early 2023, but before his personal famine of three years without an All Star he had won four on the trot. Anthony Daly has asked the question before if there’s ever been a better fullback line than Limerick’s in the Kiely era but there’s never been a question as to which member of it is tasked with taking up the opposition’s danger man. Finn.

Nearest contender: Mikey Butler (2 All Stars); Most likely long-term challenger: Adam Hogan (1 All Star) 

3. Dan Morrissey (4 All Stars, three this decade) 

Has actually won only one of his four All Stars at full back but wherever he has played across the Limerick backline Morrissey has been an example of understated excellence. Possibly Limerick’s most reliable and consistent operator.

Nearest contender: Huw Lawlor (2 All Stars); Most likely long-term challenger: Eoin Downey (1 All Star) 

4. Barry Nash (2 All Stars) 

By changing his position, he changed the position. Football has had attacking corner backs since Ryan McMenamin began bombing up the field 20 years ago. Hurling hadn’t prior to Nash being asked by Paul Kinnerk during an injury crisis in 2019 would he be interested in swapping the bench for the backs. That ingenious bit of left-field thinking has spawned further creativity that we haven’t seen before from a corner back.

Nearest contender: Ronan Maher (2 All Stars in the 2010s, 3 nominations in the 2020s); Most likely long-term challenger: Conor Prunty (1 All Star) 

5. Diarmaid Byrnes (4 All Stars) 

The best and highest scoring halfback the game has known. The only back to have played in five or more All Irelands and scored from play in all of them, while the seven frees he nailed in the 2023 decider is the most any back has scored from deadballs in a final as well. Strong in the air, powerful breaking the tackle, it’s not like the rest of his game is slack either. From his gait to his game, he’s John Gardiner 2.0.

Nearest contender: David McInerney (2 All Stars, 2 further 2020s nominations); Most likely long-term challenger: Calum Lyons (3 All-Star nominations) 

6. Declan Hannon (3 All Stars, two this decade) 

With a dressing room full of leaders, John Kiely would have had cause to rotate the captaincy to keep things fresh; even Ger Loughnane presided over Anthony Daly handing over the armband to Brian Lohan. But Kiely hasn’t. Hannon has remained the Limerick leader of leaders, a pillar of sense, common and positional. Ultimately it’s all about raising silverware and no man in hurling history has done so more often than Hannon.

Nearest contender: John Conlon (2 All Stars, 2 further 2020s nominations); Most likely long-term challenger: Rob Downey (1 All Star) 

7. Kyle Hayes (5 All Stars) 

When Cork set about having to beat Limerick for a second time in two months, they calculated that the half-back line that had ate Clare in the Munster final could itself be devoured – so long as the ball was kept away from Hayes. That was a hammer they couldn’t hammer. Say what you want about him off the field, on it Hayes has been imperious: there hasn’t been a year this decade where he hasn’t walked away without an All Star.

Nearest contender: Paddy Deegan (3 All Star nominations); Most likely long-term challenger: Ciarán Joyce (3 All Star nominations) 

8. Tony Kelly (5 All Stars, four this decade)

Hey, somebody had to disrupt this all-green party, and it’s fitting as to who that is. No team has provided greater resistence to Limerick’s rule than Clare, being to hurling this decade what Mayo were to football in the last one, only thankfully they’ve managed to land an All Ireland to show for it. And the face of Clare, along with his manager, is Kelly.

For a while some were saying he couldn’t deliver in Croke Park only for him to deliver the finest goal and most memorable second half (and extra time) All Ireland final display you’ll likely see. Just about made the team of the last decade. Even if were to never puck another ball he’ll walk onto the team of this one’s.

Nearest contender: Jamie Barron (3 All Stars, one this decade) Most likely long-term challenger: Adrian Mullen (1 All Star) 

9. Darragh O’Donovan (2 All Stars) 

O’Donovan or O’Donoghue – that was the question and only question really when it came to selecting this XV. Every other pick was a no-brainer; this one was a head-wrecker. Both marry aggression with intelligence, but O’Donovan shades it for his exceptional distribution of the ball.

Nearest contender: Will O’Donoghue (2 All Stars); Most likely long-term challenger: Darragh Fitzgibbon (2 All Stars, 1 this decade) 

10. Gearóid Hegarty (4 All-Stars) 

In the first three All Ireland finals of this decade he put up tallies of 0-7, 2-2 and 1-5. We might have had that before from someone on the frees. Not from anyone all from play. And that’s without mention of how many games in Munster he’s swung, like Limerick’s two wins over Clare just this past season. Robocop – nay the Terminator – with a hurley.

Nearest contender: David Fitzgerald (2 All Stars); Most likely long-term challenger: Cathal O’Neill (1 All Star nomination) 

11. Cian Lynch (3 All Stars, two this decade) 

Lynch the Lynchpin; Cian the Catalyst and Conjuror. In the 21st century there have been only two multiple winners of the Hurler of the Year award, each a ginger genius: one from Ballyhale, the other from Patrickswell. For as much as he personifies how intricate Limerick’s style of play is – all those short (stick, hand, sometimes thrown) passes – his playful disposition and capacity to freelance is a reminder of how at heart it remains just a game. The ball and stick to him are playthings, Croke Park and Thurles, playgrounds.

Nearest contender: Lee Chin (2019 All Star, 3 2020s nominations); Most likely long-term challenger: Shane Barrett (1 All Star) 

12. Tom Morrissey (3 All Stars) 

Like the brother at the other end of the field, a model of understated consistency, routinely throwing the ball over his shoulder and over the bar and quietly racking up All Ireland after All Ireland, Munster after Munster, All Star after All Star.

Nearest contender: Seamus Harnedy (3 All Stars, one this decade); Most likely long-term challenger: Shane O’Brien 

13. Aaron Gillane (4 All Stars, three this decade) 

For all the big names and great players on this Limerick team, there isn’t a question about who is their primary go-to man: for all their tactical sophistication much of their game-plan is simply get it into Gillane. Even against Cork this year when they were shipping water, their aim for Aaron strategy nearly bailed them out. Has turned and won more games than any player this decade.

Nearest contender: Eoin Cody (1 All Star, 2 further nominations); Most likely long-term challenger: Brian Hayes (1 nomination) 

14. Shane O’Donnell (3 All Stars) 

To think Clare – indeed the sport – nearly lost him due to the trauma of concussion. To think he has only played just 35 minutes of league hurling over the last three years and still ended each year as an undisputed All Star. To think of how much better he is than the hat-trick boy-wonder of 2013 or the fulcrum of the Clare attack he had already become by 2020. O’Donnell over the last three championship has mastered his game, finding the optimum blend of being an outlet, provider and scorer, a balance he – and Clare – struggled to find earlier in his career.

The other two non-Limerick men on this XV are so exceptional they’re now just by their initials: TK and TJ. SOD belongs in such elevated company.

Nearest contender: Seamus Flanagan (1 All Star); Most likely long-term challenger: Alan Connolly.

15. TJ Reid (7 All Stars, three this decade) 

Continues to make up for any underachieving years early in his career (if you could call winning All Irelands every September as underachieving) through his remarkable longevity and talent. Kilkenny may no longer quite be Kilkenny but TJ remains a totem of what they have done, what they can still do and who they can still beat.

Factor in that he is also the most decorated club player of the decade (and has won more club All Irelands – six – than anyone in history), he, like Tony Kelly, is remarkably on course to make his second Team of the Decade selection.

Nearest contender: Peter Casey (1 All Star); Most likely long-term contender: Mark Rogers (2024 All Star, 2023 YPOTY).

TEAM OF THE 2010s (In brackets who it was at midway point): Eoin Murphy (Brendan Cummins); Paul Murphy (Paul Murphy), Daithí Burke (JJ Delaney), Noel Connors (Jackie Tyrrell); Brendan Maher (Brendan Bugler), Michael Walsh (Michael Walsh), Pádraic Maher (Pádraic Maher); Michael Fennelly (Michael Fennelly), Tony Kelly (Richie Hogan); Noel McGrath (Joe Canning), Joe Canning (Patrick Maher), TJ Reid (Henry Shefflin); Richie Hogan (Noel McGrath), Seamus Callanan (Richie Hogan), Patrick Horgan (Patrick Horgan).

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