Hurling All Stars to reflect balance

Tonight's 35th instalment of the All Star hurling awards is unlikely to cause the sort of furore which arose when All-Ireland runners-up Cork had six players named on the Gaelic Players Association team of the year to just four from champions Kilkenny.

That prompted Kilkenny manager Brian Cody to ridicule the decision to select only one of his men, Tommy Walsh, among the 18 nominations for the six defensive positions. In contrast, James Ryall, Noel Hickey and JJ Delaney have been included on the All Stars list.

This can be explained in part by the different methods used in the selection process of the two award schemes. For the GPA awards, two committees, chaired by Donal O'Grady and John O'Mahony, select a 45-strong panel from which members vote in a postal ballot. And only one from three players can be chosen in any position.

O'Grady pointed to Cody's propensity for shuffling his players as a hindrance to their nomination in any one position. And yet, this proved the most effective method in delivering the Liam MacCarthy Cup to Kilkenny for the first time since 2003.

The All Stars are selected by senior GAA journalists who are afforded greater flexibility; the categories are broken down into the goalkeeper, and then groups of full backs, wing backs, midfielders, wing forwards and full forwards. This allows, for example, two outstanding full backs to make it on to the team.

The football All Stars were released earlier this week with three changes from the rival GPA line-up, which also created controversy by selecting just one Kerry forward. The hurling team and the respective hurling and football players of the year and young players will be announced.

Nine nominees - David Fitzgerald (Clare), Diarmuid O'Sullivan (Cork), John Gardiner (Cork), Jerry O'Connor (Cork), Ben O'Connor (Cork), Henry Shefflin (Kilkenny), Tommy Walsh (Kilkenny), Eoin Kelly (Tipperary) and Damien Hayes (Galway) - were named in last year's team. Five of them made the GPA team, so a few may make a familiar walk to the podium.

RTÉ will broadcast tonight's ceremony live from the Citywest hotel.