Hurling GPA team of the yearKilkenny hurling manager Brian Cody has lambasted the Gaelic Players Association selection committee for snubbing so many of the All-Ireland champions in their team of the year. Eyebrows cannot but be raised by the selection of just four Kilkenny players, especially considering the team they beat in last month's final, Cork, received six selections.
The 45-man nominations list released earlier this month is what really sparked the controversy as 13 Cork players to only nine from Kilkenny were named.
One notable contrast from the rival All Star awards is that the judges - chairman Donal O'Grady (Cork), Dominic McKinley (Antrim), Cyril Farrell (Galway) and Michael Duignan (Offaly) - categorised the nominations rigidly, whereby GPA members could only choose between three players in each position.
When contacted yesterday Cody was angry, not with the GPA itself but rather the judges who ensured only a maximum of eight Kilkenny players could make the team and just one defender, Tommy Walsh.
"No, it simply doesn't make sense. I'm not going to start cracking up here but only one Kilkenny back from a possible 18 backs nominated? I don't think I have to comment on the stupidity of that.
"It is the selectors, not the GPA or Dessie Farrell, who made this decision so I have no problem with them or the team that was selected as the players can only vote on the nominations they received. But to have the option of only one Kilkenny defender is crazy."
The All Star awards are selected by a committee of journalists who regularly pick a player who is deserving of recognition out of position. The GPA send out ballots to their members with no scope for discussion or common sense to prevail in the final selection.
O'Grady defended the nominations but admitted he may have selected a different team. He put the selection of a solitary Kilkenny defender on the initial list down to Cody's constant positional juggling throughout the season. "If you look back over the league and championship, very few of them played regularly in any specific position maybe with the exception of John Tennyson (who did not receive a nomination). Some of them were moved around. They may have suffered a little bit by that.
"There is no question they have some of the top defenders in the country . . . but what we did was look at players in their positions from the start of the year through. In fact, we held a meeting after the provincial championships were over. We nominated three people there. And then we looked at it again after the All-Ireland final so we weren't just depending on memory as you do sometimes by looking at just the semi-finals and finals."
But are these not the games that really matter? "In the main I think we got it right and it was up to the players to pick who they felt deserved selection," continued the former Cork manager. "That was the criterion we set down for ourselves from the beginning. We would pick players only in positions they had played. We didn't compare ourselves to any other awards schemes. A player would be selected in a position he had played and played somewhat regularly."
Two Kilkenny players, Martin Comerford and Eoin Larkin, along with Westmeath forward Andrew Mitchell, were nominated for the left-wing forward slot. Comerford was voted into the team. No other county team-mates were in direct competition for the €2,500 prize- money awarded to each player on the team.
The Kilkenny players are Walsh, James Fitzpatrick, Henry Shefflin and Comerford. Cork's sextet comprises Donal Óg Cusack, Brian Murphy, Ronan Curran, Jerry O'Connor, Ben O'Connor and Joe Deane.
A disappointing aspect from a GPA perspective is that only four counties - Cork, Kilkenny, Waterford (three) and Tipperary (two) - will be represented at the awards ceremony on November 10th.
When asked whether a player from any other county was deserving of honours, O'Grady replied: "Damien Reale from Limerick was named at right corner back and would have been on many people's teams. If I sat down to pick this team myself, I may have come up with a different 15. Damien Reale was in the running. He wasn't picked by the players. As I said, it was our brief to make sure the best three players got into the positions. All these selection committees are subjective."
GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell stated over 500, from approximately 800 hurling members, responded to the voting process.
The player of the year will be announced on the night of the awards with the winner receiving an Opel car valued at €25,000. The five candidates are Henry Shefflin, Tommy Walsh, and James Fitzpatrick from Kilkenny and Cork's Donal Óg Cusack and Ronan Curran.
