Tony Considine's hurling All-Stars: Why TJ Reid misses out in my best 15 this season

NOW that it is all done and dusted, inter-county hurling over for the year, a lot of ifs, buts and maybes...

All counties analysing themselves on their year, some with hard luck stories, blame usually being put on management teams, what they should have done and what they shouldn’t have done.

Why didn’t they do this or that, and of course officials of games getting blame as well, some justified and some not.

Does anything change? Isn’t that what happens every year?

That is the beauty of the game of hurling. Everyone with an opinion, and rightly so.

I have been asked by the Sports Editor to pick my team of the year.

Here it is.

I thought long and hard about this, and as I have seen a lot of the games this year, the team I am going to pick is, in my opinion, the 15 best hurlers who took the field this year.

Starting with goalkeepers, it came down to two, Nickie Quaid and Eoin Murphy - both brilliant goalkeepers, but Murphy is the best I have ever seen, so he gets that position.

My full-back line is going to be, Dan Morrissey, who had a brilliant year for Limerick, the outstanding Hue Lawlor, and the equally outstanding Barry Nash, Mikey Butler of Kilkenny just losing out here, there is no shame in that.

The half-back line was trickier, but there were two certainties, Diarmuid Byrnes and the brilliant Kyle Hayes, a real Rolls Royce of a hurler and, in my opinion, Limerick's most important player. 

The other man is Clare’s best defender David McInerney who had an outstanding year, getting on the scoreboard as well.

Midfield is the Limerick duo William O’Donoghue, the enforcer, and the outstanding Darragh O’Donovan.

Half-forward line, Tom Morrissey, who played a crucial role for Limerick at vital times, Tony Kelly had one bad game in the All-Ireland semi-final, but still good enough I think, and the man who had an outstanding year for Clare, Shane O’Donnell, and well deserving of an All-Star.

The inside line I have picked is lethal, Aaron Gillane, Conor Whelan and Eoin Cody.

I believe these are the 15 best hurlers in Ireland this year. I would love to see the defenders taking on the attack in this team, it would be some contest.

A couple of players may be unlucky. As I have already mentioned, Butler, Richie Reid. Eibhear Quilligan had a good year as well. TJ Reid mostly scored from frees, an outstanding free-taker, but there are a lot of them now, like Jason Forde and Patrick Horgan. I think you have to be able to do more than that to get on my All-Star team.

My shortlist for the Hurler of the Year are three Limerick players, namely, Aaron Gillane, Barry Nash and the man I pick the brilliant Kyle Hayes.

He has everything you need in a hurler. He would be fairly valuable in a transfer market, if there was one for hurling.

My Young Hurler of the Year is Mark Rodgers of Clare. A guy with a great future, and hopefully he will keep going the right way.

You can argue with that team and pick holes in it if you like, but you must agree it is an outstanding team.

TONY CONSIDINE'S ALL-STARS:

 Eoin Murphy; 

Dan Morrissey, Hue Lawlor, Barry Nash; 

Diarmaid Byrnes, Kyle Hayes, David McInerney; 

Darragh O'Donovan, Will O'Donoghue; 

Tom Morrissey, Tony Kelly, Shane O'Donnell; 

Aaron Gillane, Conor Whelan, Eoin Coday.