1) EOIN MURPHY (KILKENNY)
Club: Glenmore
Age: 26
First Allstar
RECENT Kilkenny goalkeepers haven’t fared very well at the Allstars, with PJ Ryan’s win in the 2009 the first for a Cats ’keeper since Michael Walsh in 1993. Ryan picked up that award in large part due to a phenomenal All-Ireland final display against Tipperary, and Murphy’s performance on the first Sunday of September also went a long way to securing his honour. While the Glenmore man kept the most clean sheets of any Liam MacCarthy Cup goalkeeper – three – throughout the season and rose memorably above his crossbar to deny Waterford in the semi-final replay, it was his display in defeat against Tipp, when he prevented a comprehensive defeat turning into an unthinkable hammering that earns him his spot.
2) CATHAL BARRETT (TIPPERARY)
Club: Holycross-Ballycahill
Age: 23
First Allstar
TIPP’s devastating second half display in the All-Ireland final, when they rattled off 2-15 to bury Kilkenny, produced plenty of stand-out moments of blue and gold brilliance, and the 2014 Young Hurler of the Year provided one of them from corner-back. With his side leading by a point, Barrett, after breaking down a Kilkenny puck-out just outside his own ‘D’, trucked through Conor Fogarty before delivering long and accurately to John O’Dwyer, whose goal moved Tipp into a lead the Cats couldn’t get near for the rest of the match. Barrett will be tucked into the corner of the Tipp defence for years to come.
3) JAMES BARRY (TIPPERARY)
Club: Upperchurch-Drombane
Age: 26
First Allstar
SINCE being pressed into service on the edge of the defensive square in a Qualifier against Galway in 2014 – one in which they had already conceded four goals – Barry has been a steadying influence in front of Darren Gleeson and a big reason Tipp have become one of the hardest top-level teams to score goals against in the Championship over the past two seasons. A late developer from the 2010 All-Ireland U21-winning team that also included Patrick, Brendan and Padraic Maher and Noel McGrath among others, Barry has established himself as a destructive, combative presence where Tipp needed it most.
4) DAITHI BURKE (GALWAY)
Club: Turloughmore
Age: 23
Second Allstar
FACED with marking jobs against two of the game’s best forwards – TJ Reid and Seamus Callanan – Burke can be thoroughly satisfied he did as much as he could for the Tribe in Galway’s two Championship defeats in 2016. Against Kilkenny in the Leinster final, he kept tabs on Reid well for most of the match, much longer than the team as a whole was able to stay with the Cats. The only time Seamus Callanan was held scoreless in five Championship games was when he had Burke following him in the All-Ireland semi-final. Burke also threw in a man-of-the-match display in the All-Ireland quarter-final win over Clare for good measure.
5) PADRAIG WALSH (KILKENNY)
Club: Tullaroan
Age: 24
First Allstar
IT says something for Tipp’s dominance in the All-Ireland final that only three Kilkenny players raised more than a single white flag from play. Two of those were forwards, but the fact one of them was Walsh says something for the display the Tullaroan man put in while most of his teammates were finding to difficult to cope. He kept the shackles on Noel McGrath as well and his final display followed similarly impressive outings against Waterford – he scored 0-2 in the replay – and the Leinster final, when after a couple of early wides he didn’t waste a ball. Deservedly off the Allstars mark and now just the eight behind brother Tommy.
6) RONAN MAHER (TIPPERARY)
Club: Thurles Sarsfield’s
Age: 20
First Allstar
NOT 21 until next week, Maher has established himself next to his brother Padraic in the Tipp half-back line and is already one of the game’s best centre-backs. Since stepping into the number six jersey against Waterford in the League, Maher has anchored the Premier county’s defence superbly, but he saved his best performance so far in senior colours for the biggest stage. In the All-Ireland final against Kilkenny he hoovered up everything that came his way, turning ball after ball back onto the Kilkenny defence as Tipp put the collective foot down.
7) PADRAIC MAHER (TIPPERARY)
Club: Thurles Sarsfield’s
Age: 27
Fourth Allstar
HE won his first Allstar at full-back – in his debut senior season in 2009 – and his most recent one at centre-back in 2015, but the emergence of his brother Ronan as a regular number six means the Thurles man has been able to settle back into his most comfortable shirt – number seven – where he was picked as an Allstar in 2011. As the old head in the half-back line with his brother and new boy Seamus Kennedy, Maher was a man-of-the-match contender in almost every Tipp Championship game. He also scored in all of them.
8) JAMIE BARRON (WATERFORD)
Club: Fourmilewater
Age: 23
First Allstar
HE’LL be haunted by the loss of possession that became the goal that rescued Kilkenny in the drawn All-Ireland semi-final, but it was a rare mistake in a season when Barron delivered time and again in the Decies’ congested midfield. Gets on a huge amount of ball – and usually has marking duties which mean those aren’t simply ‘free-man’ possessions. Can also take a score, as he showed in the All-Ireland semi-final replay against Kilkenny when he chipped in with a couple of points at Semple Stadium.
9) DAVID BURKE (GALWAY)
Club: St Thomas’s
Age: 26
Third Allstar
THE Galway captain has been the Tribe’s best player for the past two seasons – and the most consistent midfielder in the country for good measure. Wherever he has operated around the middle third, the St Thomas’s man has impressed, and was man-of-the-match at regular intervals through the year, including in a losing effort against Tipperary in the All-Ireland semi-final. He displayed his attacking instincts – he picked up his first Allstar in the forwards in 2012 – with two points against Clare in the All-Ireland quarter-final.
10) WALTER WALSH (KILKENNY)
Club: Tullogher-Rosbercon
Age: 25
First Allstar
A SENIOR county career couldn’t have begun with a bang any bigger than Walsh’s, whose man-of-the-match display after being made a surprise starter in the 2012 All-Ireland SHC final replay went down as another chapter in the Brian Cody legend. He picked up two more Celtic Crosses in 2014 and 2015, but it was this year, which finished in disappointment, when Walsh really stepped up his performances to become one of Cody’s key men. His late goal against Waterford in the drawn All-Ireland semi-final rescued Kilkenny in a game they should have lost.
11) AUSTIN GLEESON (WATERFORD) - HURLER OF THE YEAR
Club: Mount Sion
Age: 21
First Allstar
IF he ever gets his shooting sorted out, everyone should probably just pack up and head home. That’s maybe a little harsh on the Mount Sion man, who often found himself in possession and bereft of options as Waterford pulled bodies back, but it’s a mark of his all-around spectacular contributions – especially in the air – that he can be forgiven some iffy decision making. He shone brightest in the epic, two-part All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny, with five points from play in the drawn game and 1-2 in the replay. Also powered the Decies to a hugely impressive All-Ireland U21 title in which they won their four games by an average margin of more than 18 points.
12) PATRICK MAHER (TIPPERARY)
Club: Lorrha-Dorrha
Age: 27
Second Allstar
HARDLY bothered the umpires throughout the Championship, only scoring in two matches and managing more than a point once – though that was in the All-Ireland final. But Maher’s importance to Tipp this year was in doing the grunt work and no-one in blue and gold got on as much ball – or made life as big a nightmare for opposing half-back lines – as the Lorrha-Dorrha man.
13) RICHIE HOGAN (KILKENNY)
Club: Danesfort
Age: 28
Fourth Allstar
ARGUABLY did more than any player to drag Kilkenny to the All-Ireland final. The Cats didn’t need him in their comfortable Leinster semi-final win over Dublin, which was just as well as Hogan was missing with a broken hand. That was supposed to keep him out for 10 weeks, but Hogan made a quicker than expected return at half-time in the Leinster final – when Kilkenny really needed him. Galway led by three at the break but Hogan scored with his first involvement and added four more from play as Kilkenny pulled away. Scored 0-4 both days against Waterford and 1-1 in the All-Ireland final, and was Kilkenny best forward on every occasion.
14) SEAMUS CALLANAN (TIPPERARY)
Club: Drom & Inch
?Age: 28
Third Allstar
HE was Tipperary’s only Allstar last season, when he picked up his second award in succession. While those two individually decorated seasons saw Callanan score more in the Championship (9-50 in 2014 and 5-10 last year), than this year’s tally of 2-47, what all three years have in common in Callanan’s brilliance in Tipp’s biggest match of the year. After 2-5 in the 2014 final replay loss to Kilkenny and 3-9 in the 2015 semi-final defeat to Galway, Callanan hit 0-13 to help beat the Cats in this year’s decider. 0-9 of that total came from play in a dazzling, man-ofthe-match display.
15) JOHN McGRATH (TIPPERARY)
Club: Loughmore-Castleiney
Age: 22
First Allstar
MADE his Championship debut in the Munster opener against Cork, and managed just a point, but did enough to retain the faith of manager Michael Ryan for the semi-final against Limerick, when he again only managed to raise one white flag. Having spent a frustrating season on the Championship bench in 2015 he needed something to kick-start his Tipp senior career and he found it with a hat-trick in the Munster final demolition of Waterford. He followed that with a goal in the semi-final win over Galway and 1-3 in the final victory against Kilkenny.
