KILLINAN END - All Star selection is an evolving process

Half a century after the first set of awards the 2021 hurling All-Stars brought the award scheme the full distance to what might be considered its inevitable ultimate destination. Limerick’s huge haul surely reflects their dominance and margins of victory. Indeed, as has been suggested by one or two commentators, there was a case to be made for the entire Limerick fifteen to be selected. The downside is that this would make the awards tedious, uninteresting, and uncompetitive. One of the problems of this argument is that there is no objective sense of what is a reasonable reward for a dominant team or indeed if an individual award such as an All-Star should be influenced at all by such considerations.

There is fair evidence that the mindset has changed over the years one way or another. Consider Limerick’s margins of victory as a measure of how the All-Star 15 might be expected to emerge and look at similar teams in the past. The most recent comparison is Kilkenny in 2008, a team which too swept all before it, and ended with nine All-Star awards. A brilliant team, an extraordinary year, and a mighty haul. It was likely generally considered that in a competition which featured any other teams at all, this was the ceiling of the number of awards accruing to the champions.

Going back a long time to a similarly dominant team – Tipperary in 1964 which won each championship game by double scores or more – the All-Star awards of the time awarded the team eight places. These ‘Cú Chulainn’ awards ran from 1963-67 inclusive and we must assume they were chosen with at least the same care and attention as their post-1971 counterparts. If eight places were considered reasonable for the champions then, and nine for a Kilkenny team in 2008 which not only won that year’s All-Ireland as convincingly as possible but won three-in-a-row, you would wonder if Limerick could possibly land the full 15 yet. Certainly, there appears to have been a change in approach down the years which taken to its logical conclusion leads to that way of thinking.

There had been a tendency over the past decade to at all costs reward the All-Ireland semi-finalists for their achievement in getting to that stage. It has been rare that a player outside these most conspicuous of teams to be considered as the All-Star awards system has matured. This you would imagine is the product of the new style championship where, ironically, more good hurling than ever has been played in the provinces. But by the time Croke Park looms amnesia has set in.

Time was when someone who hurled like Jason Forde did in the League and in Munster this year would be in the running for an All-Star award. Notwithstanding his nomination nobody would have expected one this year. What few would have expected was the absolute marginalisation of Cork in the final countdown. In 2008 Waterford, despite their travails in the final itself and a run to the final which included a nine-point loss to Clare, were deemed worthy of one award. Even that was seen as the least they were due having played in the final. You sense that had Cork lost this year’s semi-final and avoided bumping into the Incredible Hulk in the final they might have fared better. Likewise, Eoin Murphy’s award might not have escaped the rigorous examination of the final.

The All-Stars’ history has always thrown up quare ones. Tipperary winning seven as against Kilkenny’s six in 2014, when the latter had won the All-Ireland, was a talking point at the time. Less a talking point but odd looking back, was the decision to award Galway five All-Stars in 1989 essentially for winning the League.

Poring over the old teams there is a palpable theme of picking the ‘best’ team in Ireland as distinct from necessarily the best or most high-profile hurlers of a particular season. It would be hard to see Pat Hartigan winning five consecutive All-Stars at full-back (1971-75) in the modern era. In those days he played in four League finals, three Munster Finals and two All-Ireland finals. In the context of that era Pat was in the goldfish bowl at all times. The League final was of real significance since the championship was outright knockout. These days the League final would get no traction in such considerations.

In 1971 – half a century ago – Tipp’s exciting and demanding championship win garnered just four All-Stars. All four, Tadhg O’Connor, Francis Loughnane, Mick Roche, and Babs, were generational talents. No sense of any one-hit wonders. If Tipp won an All-Ireland like that, these days they could expect a minimum of six and possibly seven. Cork, in 1971, did not reach the League final or win a championship game, yet got two All-Stars as did Limerick who won the League final before the agony in Killarney. Cork would hardly be let watch the All-Stars these days with that record. You could say that the All-Stars reflect the changing nature of the sport and how it is watched. Abba were onto something when they said, “the winner takes it all”.

This column will return with the hurling in the early spring. In the meantime, could we wish a Happy Christmas and New Year to all those who kindly take the time to read this and put heed in its outpourings. Go n-éirí go geal libh uilig san athbhliain atá romhainn.