Seán Moran
Hurler of the year: Shane O’Donnell (Clare). He went into the final like one of these Tour de France riders who only need to stay upright on the bike to keep the yellow jersey. It’s hard to think of a hurler who has been so consistently dominant – even predecessor Aaron Gillane started last year slowly. Hurler of the Month in two of the three months to date, April and June, O’Donnell has been central to Clare’s All-Ireland winning run, again at the weekend, hauling them back from the precipice of early disaster and as Nicky English said, “he then passed the baton to Tony Kelly to take it home”.
Even in his ‘down month’ of May, his performance against Waterford drew the following commendation from English: “Shane O’Donnell again was phenomenal. He’s running the show for Clare. Intelligence, pace and reading the game are his big assets but his finishing has also gone up a level. He’s a national treasure.”
Game of the year: The All-Ireland final – Clare 3-29 Cork 1-34 (AET). Clare have a habit of turning the All-Ireland final into an epic: the matches against Cork in 2013 and the 1997 decider against Tipperary – since when, Sunday was only the third one-point margin in an All-Ireland. A finely poised match, spiced with some controversy, and four amazing goals, it showcased Tony Kelly’s conjuror’s strike, part of 1-4, the highest-class scoring portfolio ever seen on the big day.
Moment of the year: Cork’s Shane Kingston earned the penalty, bravely awarded by Seán Stack in the fourth minute of injury-time and Patrick Horgan slammed it home to defeat champions Limerick in a heaving Páirc Uí Chaoimh before 41,670. Without that, Cork’s race was run. Instead, the county’s re-energising and their exposure of Limerick’s fault-lines became governing narratives of the summer.
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Biggest disappointment: The scheduling controversies that bedevilled the championship and at one stage nearly triggered civil war between football and hurling counties.
Biggest surprise: Because it played out on the same day as the fireworks in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Carlow’s sensational draw with Kilkenny – of all counties – got little attention but it struck a blow for the respect of those teams, whose pitiless lot is constant battle against bigger battalions.
Denis Walsh
Hurler of the year: Shane O’Donnell (Clare). The leading contender going into the All-Ireland final, O’Donnell’s credentials were franked in a storming second quarter, dragging Clare back into the game after they had fallen seven points behind. His work in the build-up to Aidan McCarthy’s goal was the essence of his intelligence, his abrasiveness, his selflessness and his guiding reflex to drill for goals. Clare were harmed in the Munster final when the service to him dried up and they were too slow to bring him out. Apart from that, everyone of Clare’s opponents suffered at his hands. His priceless capacity to win possession under all kinds of duress and increase its value with his next play elevates him as a ball-winner, playmaker, finisher and fire starter. Irrepressible.
Game of the year: Cork v Limerick, Munster championship. These things are subjective, naturally. The Cork-Limerick All-Ireland semi-final had fiercer tackling than the game in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, and 19 more shots at the target. The All-Ireland final was epic and dramatic and full of mistakes too – which is the unquoted ingredient in great spectacles. But the sheer pace, energy, atmosphere and electricity of the Cork-Limerick game in May sets it apart. The game started in a way that nobody could have predicted, with Cork going straight for Limerick’s throat, and it finished with an unforeseeable twist. Everything about it was thrilling.
Moment of the year: Tony Kelly’s All-Ireland final goal. In crude scoreboard terms, Cork wiped out the impact of Tony Kelly’s goal in about five minutes; in every other sense it will live forever. These are only words, all of which are useless: balance, poise, calmness, coldness, touch. You need to see it. It will take your eye out.
Biggest disappointment: All-Ireland hurling quarter-finals. This has become a problem for the GAA. Having a Saturday lunchtime throw-in, for the second time in three years, is a scheduling abomination for knock-out games involving four of the last six teams in the championship. For RTE’s contractual obligations to other sports to impact on these fixtures, and for the GAA to accept that state of affairs, is scandalous. The GAA also needs to consider splitting the games and playing them at smaller venues.
Biggest surprise: Galway. It was always going to be a pivotal year for Henry Shefflin but the manner in which their season imploded was devastating. For a team with perennial aspirations to win the All-Ireland, finishing fourth in Leinster would have been beyond their wildest fears. They were incoherent and rudderless. The next managerial appointment is critical but from here it will be a long, slow recovery.
Malachy Clerkin
Hurler of the year: Shane O’Donnell. Serial Man of the Match winner throughout the season, there were times when he was completely unplayable for the opposition. Had a huge influence on the final as well, hauling Clare back into it after Cork’s fast start. A pleasure to watch.
Game of the year: Cork v Limerick, Munster championship. The final was brilliant and the semi-final between these two even better. But for sheer drama, for the sense of a historic event happening in real time, for the sum total of everything sport can offer, Cork’s 3-28 to 3-26 win over Limerick takes the cake.
Moment of the year: Tony Kelly’s last point in the final. Recency bias? Probably. But think about it – Clare’s best player had gone a whole season without ever being able to impose himself on a game yet here he was, deep into extra-time with players dropping like flies around him and out of nowhere, he intercepts, flicks a ball over Luke Meade and sends Clare to Nirvana. Stunning.
Biggest disappointment: Leinster hurling. Seven All-Irelands in a row for Munster counties. Three games in the 2024 championship between Munster and Leinster teams, three defeats for Leinster teams. A miserable 9,261 crowd at Galway v Kilkenny, the putative glamour tie of the Leinster Championship. Where is the buzz?
Biggest surprise: Cork. Surprise might be pushing it because everyone knew their potential. But it’s easy to forget that they lost their first two games in Munster and needed a draw between Tipperary and Waterford to stay alive. Nobody was predicting a Cork v Clare All-Ireland final on April 28th when the home side lost in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Gordon Manning
Hurler of the year: Shane O’Donnell. This was his best season yet in a Clare jersey, so that’s an indication of how good he was for the Banner. For a while there, it appeared he was picking up Hurler of the Month every four weeks, as if it was an automatic selection. When Clare needed a leader in the first half on Sunday during that period of Cork dominance, O’Donnell was the man who shouldered the burden and dragged the Banner back from the brink.
Game of the year: The All-Ireland final – Clare 3-29 Cork 1-34 (AET). It was draining to be a spectator at Sunday’s All-Ireland final. You’d be wrecked just watching it from the stand, so heaven knows how the players kept operating at such a high standard. The skill levels on show in a game of blistering pace and intensity were incredible. Both sets of players deserve enormous credit for what they produced. There are several games in contention for this accolade – the All-Ireland semi-final between Cork and Limerick, and also the Munster round-robin clash between those same two counties. However, the Sunday’s final gets the nod. Epic madness.
Moment of the year: Tony Kelly’s goal in the All-Ireland final. The sides were level in the 51st minute when David Fitzgerald gave a short offload to Kelly just to the left of the D. There were approximately 37 Cork players between him and the goal, so surely Kelly would just pop over a point and edge Clare in front. Nope. What followed was a play where Kelly looked like a player in a video game, weaving and avoiding opponents, driving at goal and showing incredible composure, trickery and skill – as if the sliotar was attached to his hurl like a magnet to a fridge. It was a genuine wow moment.
Biggest disappointment: Galway. The Tribesmen just never got going this season. They spluttered and stumbled through much of the season, a decent performance here, a lacklustre one there, and on it went for the year. Ultimately, they failed to progress from the Leinster championship and the last paragraph of their year was Henry Shefflin stepping down as manager. A year to be forgotten for Galway.
Biggest surprise: Davy Fitzgerald’s decision to step away from Waterford was unexpected because the Clare native could justifiably look at the pattern of the Munster championship and point to the small margins by which they exited the competition. He appeared nailed on for the third year of his second term, so it was a surprise Fitzgerald ended his time in Waterford.
