ALL-IRELAND CHAMPIONS Kilkenny dominate the 2015 GAA/GPA Allstar hurling team with seven winners.
Leading the way is Cats corner-back Paul Murphy who is selected for the fourth time in five seasons.
The Danesfort man is joined by Joey Holden in the full-back line as well as team-mates Cillian Buckley, Michael Fennelly, Richie Hogan, TJ Reid and Ger Aylward.
Beaten finalists Galway take four places on the team while there are three Allstars this year from Waterford and one from Tipperary.
Galway keeper Colm Callanan is selected following a stellar championship between the sticks. Daithi Burke is selected at right half-back while David Burke is chosen in midfield and 21-year-old Cathal Mannion is named in the half-forward line.
Waterford are represented by Noel Connors, Tadhg de Burca and Maurice Shanahan while Seamus Callanan, who famously scored 3-9 in Tipp’s semi-final defeat to Galway, is the sole Premier representative.
Seven of the players selected this year are first-time Allstars — Colm Callanan, Holden, Daithi Burke, de Burca, Mannion, Aylward and Shanahan — while Connors, Buckley, David Burke and Seamus Callanan all collect their second honours.
Fennelly, the All-Ireland final man of the match, and Hogan and Reid complete a hat-trick of awards while Murphy picks up an impressive fourth.
Hogan, Reid and Tipp’s Callanan have to wait until Friday evening to see who will be crowned GAA/GPA Hurler of the Year at the official awards ceremony in the Convention Centre Dublin.
Mannion, de Búrca and Galway’s Jason Flynn — who was unlucky to miss out on an individual award — have been shortlisted for Young Hurler of the Year.
The Allstar football team, as well as Footballer and Young Footballer of the Year, will also be announced on Friday night. The ceremony will be broadcast live on RTÉ One with coverage beginning at 7pm.
GAA/GPA Allstar Hurling Team 2015
1. Colm Callanan (Galway)
2. Paul Murphy (Kilkenny)
3. Joey Holden (Kilkenny)
4. Noel Connors (Waterford)
5. Daithi Burke (Galway)
6. Tadhg de Burca (Waterford)
7. Cillian Buckley (Kilkenny)
8. Michael Fennelly (Kilkenny)
9. David Burke (Galway)
10. Cathal Mannion (Galway)
11. Richie Hogan (Kilkenny)
12. TJ Reid (Kilkenny)
13. Ger Aylward (Kilkenny)
14. Seamus Callanan (Tipperary)
15. Maurice Shanahan (Waterford)
Great move for Arnold who’ll be coming out of his 3 year contract with Brive at only 28.
Hopefully he can build up an impressive reputation and shine for a wayward Brive side similarly to Farrell in Grenoble.
The first of many players across the four provinces who will be making this call in the coming months. With the fewer games in the URC and none in international windows game time has got more and more precious. Connacht are well served at centre with Aki, Daly, Farrell, Robb, and Bolton remaining. Other Irish players I could see similarly on their way to pastures new include Gallagher, any one or two of Healy, Crowley, and Flannery and Loughman at Munster and Ed Byrne, Josh Murphy, Penny, and the two O’Brien’s at Leinster.
@David Finn: i wouldnt include Robb here…hes never fit to play. I cant see Connacht holding on to him to be honest
@David Finn: ….you may not have all the names exactly right but your point is well made. Revive the 5th Province Meath, base it in Navan and develope the facilities to match in what is already a very progressive and ambitious club with a proven track record of growing the game to cater for diversity and an impressive record of progress on the field.
@Michael Murray: There is no need for another province what we need in Ireland is a draft system from schools rugby so players go where they are needed most. No use in IRFU shelling out money to keep 8 top class Irish back rows at leinster and then other provinces having to shell out big money for NIQ back rows makes no sense at all. Worst performing province gets first pick of the talent pool each year. We should also move the provincial schools tournament to a national level.
@Punts & Race Discussion: this is an interesting idea, but Leinster can only signup x amount of players each year to academy contracts.
There are still dozens of players who leave school in Leinster who aren’t signed by Leinster but aren’t picked up by other provinces at this early stage.
Also because of the amount of positions, it would take years before a drafts benefits would kick in.
And Leinster only add 4 or 5 players into the academy each year. So that’s 1 round of picks between the 4 provinces. Either way it still means theres talent coming out of schools in Leinster that provinces are ignoring currently.
@Billy Keenan: Leinster sign them to the sub academy so they stay and play their club rugby in Leinster rather than chance a trip to another province
@john joe brady: yeah that’s a good point and there was an article in the indo a few years ago saying something like 20 players were involved in sub academy.
But surely you’d have to say that an Academy contract would outweigh a sub academy one ?
Think Connachts of Illo from the U20s would be an interesting case study. ATightehad (not a position of typical leinster depth with salanoa, angier bent and McGrath leaving recently) who played underage rugby with Leinster. Could be good to dive deeper into what went on there and how he was brought west, a great talent.
@Billy Keenan: and Leinster took on 7 into the academy this year, which in fairness is much more than the 4 I said they did earlier ^^
@Punts & Race Discussion: absolutely no sense in changing Schools comp to national level. For a start you could have Bandon Grammar/PBC/CBC Cork/Newtown Grammar playing up the top of the country. The local rivalries are what drives the Schools Cups, and kids spending hours sitting on coaches to and from games against Schools they have no inbuilt rivalry with will detract from their enjoyment..
Also Connacht, (Garbally apart) doesn’t have schools where Rugby is the main (or only) Sport with male enrollments big enough to compete with other provinces. There are barely a handful of Boys only schools left in the province and fewer against with enrollments near 500 or more…
Anyway the underage Interpro’s pretty do the job pretty well anyway….
@Punts & Race Discussion: so basically force kids to play for teams even if they have no interest in playing for them? Move to a provience where thsy have no connections?
So say a lad from west cork was picked by ulster and said no i dont want to go there do se ban him from playing for his local club?