Twenty-first century icons: the best hurling team from 2000-2024
Horgan, Michael Patrick Kelly, 'brick' Shefflin, Top From Walsh, Clockwise Cian Henry Lynch Eoin Left:
Strange as it may sound, this entity was easier to pick than a team of the decade. The latter equates to being obliged to assess a sprint: so many runners and inevitably a blanket finish demanding much casuistry, jesuitry, chin-stroking and hair-pulling. By contrast a quarter-century combination is, if not a marathon, then a middle-distance affair. The field is strung out long before the winning post.
Longevity and consistency were the guiding criteria. Or three other words: body of work. Brilliance for three, four, even five years was by and large insufficient. Legends become legends because they are fixed planets, not shooting stars. In an era when inter-county careers have never been shorter the stalwarts of our XV went on and on. And on.
This stricture about reliability led to one problem. As John Kiely’s Limerick have only been a thing for the past six years, how can many of their leading lights be fairly judged against the Methuselahs of Kilkenny and Tipperary? They can’t.
Hence the presence of fewer representatives in green than might have been expected. Simply put, the exercise arrives five years too early for most of them. An XV of the first third of the century, chosen in 2033, may well feature Kyle Hayes, Gearoid Hegarty and Aaron Gillane. But that is not this XV.
Success did count. It should be unremarkable, and unremarked on, that an outfit that won 11 All Irelands will secure more berths than one that won three or four. A vague and tacit quota system does play a part in these exercises.
I allowed myself one piece of self-indulgence, a selector’s prerogative. Look, it’s my party and I’ll make you cry, or stamp your foot, if I want to. But the story of hurling in the first 15 years of the century cannot be told without detailing the story of Waterford in the first 15 years of the century. All that electricity, all that heartbreak. As John Mullane, much as he thrilled us, wasn’t going to unseat Eoin Kelly, the fall-back option was some legerdemain on the half-back line to allow in one of three outstanding Deise candidates.
Feel free to level accusations of tokenism. The riposte will be that the team would look obtuse without a Suirside flavour.
As for the second and third choices, I’m all too aware I’ve missed a host of worthy contenders. Old age, alas. Fire at will, folks.
By far the hottest contest and a multiple photo finish. The passage of time has not dimmed the lustre of the goalkeeping stars of the noughties. Brendan Cummins, Damien Fitzhenry and Davy Fitz were all brilliant, Dónal Óg Cusack and James McGarry very good indeed and of late Limerick could not have had a finer last line – and first line - than Nickie Quaid, who employs a conductor’s baton rather than an ash plant. But Murphy has compiled a portfolio of saves that verge on biblical miracles and that’s good enough for us. Still, pick whoever floats your boat. There is no wrong choice here.
Brendan Cummins and Nickie Quaid jointly.
Considerably less of a lofty standard in this spot but even if there wasn’t the Bruff man would make it with a ton in hand. Blessed with all the requirements for the modern corner-back. Poise, calmness under pressure, wiriness, mobility – and, above all, brains. Not a speedster but never caught for pace, so educated was his reading of the game. And as befits the aforementioned contemporary man in the corner, could operate at midfield without a bother.
Paul Murphy, Michael Kavanagh.
Switched from the wing to facilitate the aforementioned touch of gerrymandering on the half-back line but he’ll hardly mind too much. Anyway he did acquire his last two All Ireland medals on the edge of the square. Was one of very few players Brian Cody launched into the adult arena straight out of minor, a tribute in itself. Talking of tributes, Tommy Walsh once lauded Delaney’s ability to let his marker win the sliotar and then take it off him. “I’m not good enough to do that,” he added humbly. Ice to Walsh’s fire and wielder of the subtlest of knives.
Noel Hickey, Diarmuid O’Sullivan.
Jackie Tyrrell, very much a member of the old school, came close: seven All Ireland medals in the same position and always one of the first men into the trenches waving his claymore. But the fact that Nash possesses “only” four All Irelands on the field of play cannot be used as a stick to beat the Limerick man with and in any case he represented a new flex in the sport’s tactical evolution.
Behold a converted wing-forward reinventing the game’s most unglamorous position. Come on down, the underlapping, inverted left-corner back! Mind-expanding stuff. On which point, the two most consequential hurling figures since 2000? Brian Cody and Paul Kinnerk. Only one of whom won an All Ireland with two counties.
: Jackie Tyrrell, Ollie Canning.
A hurler like none seen before or, surely, again. An All-Star on four lines of the field, an All-Star a record nine years in a row. First All-Ireland final and he scores within nine seconds. Of course he does. Could have been a bit more thoughtful with his deliveries, the 2011 renewal apart, but that was part of the charm (I’ve won my position, now the rest of you win yours!). No player rejoiced in the thrill of the battle with quite the same gusto. Pound for pound Kilkenny’s finest ever? Unquestionably the most versatile.
Tony Browne, Diarmaid Byrnes.
Our Deise representative might have been Ken McGrath for his flamboyance and adaptability. It might have been Tony Browne for being Tony Browne. But Walsh was there for 16 years, his presence at centre-forward was crucial in the second half of the 2004 Munster final and he picked up All Stars in defence, midfield and attack. Hurling needs its stylists; it also needs its selfless ball winners. Walsh was Waterford’s heartbeat and chief provider of ballast. Not so much a Brick as a monument.
Ken McGrath, Brendan Maher.
Tipperary’s hurler of the first quarter of the century. Caught the eye from the off with a powerhouse performance in the 2009 National League decider and took it from there. Possessed of one of the most familiar strokes in the game – the skied delivery left-handed off the back foot – that, one moment against Galway in 2015 excepted, was somehow impervious to enemy hooking. May have been made of indiarubber rather than flesh and blood: witness his 60 championship appearances in a row. The gable end of that pub in Thurles that serves as a kind of local Mount Rushmore really needs to find room for a mural of Maher alongside John Doyle et al.
Kyle Hayes, Seán Óg Ó hAilpín.
Between his of 2013 and his of July 21st 2024, Clare lost a number of big matches and occasionally the spectator was left to wonder if Kelly might have done more, the 2022 Munster final emphatically not included.
Yet the Ballyea man has, per Leo McGough’s stats, scored three times or more from play in 55 per cent of his championship outings: stunning going. Seánie McMahon remains the Banner’s greatest modern player. Kelly is closing in.
Will O’Donoghue, David Burke.
Landed fully formed, aged 18½, in the summer of 2009. Liam Sheedy had no doubts about his talent but would he be able to cope with the rigours of training? Ha! Most top players broaden their palette as they mature; McGrath was playing the same game 15 years ago as he is now, his armoury fully tooled from the off, every ball freighted with meaning. Seamus Kennedy has declared that “everything slows down” when McGrath is in possession: perfectly put. Like McGrath’s deliveries.
Michael Fennelly, Jerry O’Connor.
Example 101 about the heights to which intelligence, determination and clear-eyed focus can propel a player, in this instance a big teenage lump of a lad generally viewed as being an effective target man and not much more. Brian Cody’s on-field avatar from 2002 onwards. Won a lot of medals.
Gearoid Hegarty, Seamus Harnedy.
Floats like a butterfly, built like a middleweight boxer. The decision to move him from midfield to centre-forward led Limerick down a subtler, more considered path. The old “he doesn’t pass you the ball, he lends it to you” line might have been coined with Lynch in mind. It is mildly disturbing to ponder how he might have been panned as a showboater had Kiely not created a vehicle commensurate with his talents. His infuriatingly cursory hand-passing technique apart, a pleasure to behold in full flight. If Shefflin was Aragorn, Lynch was Legolas.
Lee Chin, Bonner Maher.
Unlike Noel McGrath he arrived far from fully formed. The second Ballyhale man here who got better as he went along, which says something immensely complimentary about the milieu in which they were nurtured. Some clubs are born great; Ballyhale Shamrocks, formed in 1972, achieved greatness in our lifetime but were never satisfied to dine out on it. Shefflin and Reid followed suit. Next ball, next season, next medal. The latter’s being a ciotóg afforded him a little je ne sais quoi invariably the preserve of the classiest southpaws.
Eoin Larkin, Tom Morrissey.
Not a great goalscorer but, as someone predicted in the early noughties, “the points will stack up over time”. They did and they were all the more pleasing because Kelly wasn’t a trickster and didn’t rely on speed to beat his marker. He did his stuff by standing off. Hips, wrists, internal GPS system, laser-guided accuracy, up with the white flag. Racked up an aggregate of 21-368 in his 63 championship outings, 17-118 of it from play.
: Aaron Gillane, John Mullane
The boy with all the gifts – all the gifts bar, perhaps, undistilled on-field fury. Then again, how can he be slighted for lacking the depth of supporting cast that allowed Shefflin to flourish? It’s more difficult to judge Canning dispassionately than any of the others here given that he entered the inter-county arena loaded with absurdly more pressure than any of the others here.
For years the task of trying to ensure that he was simultaneously the big wheel and also merely a cog in the wheel proved beyond Galway managers. Hurling can be grateful that Micheál Donohoe came along before the hour got too late.
Seamus Callanan, Shane O’Donnell.
On reflection our forward line could, for stylistic and balance reasons, do with a close-quarters assassin. Yet can a team ever have too many point-scoring machines? Too many players capable of planting their feet and splitting the posts without having to put the sliotar on the stick and take it into contact first? Locked in a seemingly interminable scoring arms race with Reid, Horgan beats on against the current and the clock. The sad irony that our sole Leesider wasn’t around in 2004-05 scarcely requires elaboration. But a team like this always needs a Glen Rovers man.
: Richie Hogan, Damien Hayes.