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RARELY HAS an All Star hurling selection been so utterly dominated by the one team, but then rarely has one team been as dominant as Kilkenny were in the championship of 2008. Nine Kilkenny players, including for the eighth time the indefatigable Henry Shefflin, were last night rewarded for their masterly season which saw them win the county's first three-in-a-row All-Ireland in 95 years in the most convincing fashion possible.

Unlike the football selection there could be little or no arguing this time, and it would have been no great surprise had Kilkenny picked up a couple of more. In the end, just four other counties got a look in, with Tipperary claiming three awards, and Cork, Galway and Waterford each claiming one.