GAA: The nominations for this year's Vodafone hurling All Stars take a more conventional shape than the football list announced yesterday and are dominated by the All-Ireland finalists Kilkenny and Cork with 24 players listed between them, dividing in the champions' favour by 13 to 11. Seán Moran, GAA Correspondent, reports.

The list will be seen as a reflection of Kilkenny's dominant season during which Brian Cody's team won all competitions they contested.

In a further departure from the football names, there is a fairly healthy scattering of last year's award winners, with nine of the 2005 selection in a position to hold on to their places: 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).

Of the 12 counties contesting this year's Liam MacCarthy Cup, only Leinster finalists Wexford are left without any nominations. Defender and captain Keith Rossiter is the hardest done by. There is a nomination, however, for Laois, defeated in the championship amidst a monsoon in Portlaoise last May with the county's prolific dead-ball specialist James Young earning a tick in the half forwards after a season when he totalled 1-33 for an average of nine points per game, a haul that left him placed third in the overall scoring records for this year's championship behind Henry Shefflin and Tipperary's Eoin Kelly.

The county breakdown is: Kilkenny (13), Cork (11), Waterford (8), Clare (5), Tipperary (4), Laois (1), Galway (1), Offaly (1), Limerick (1).

There is slightly greater divergence than in the football from the GPA players' team of the championship list of nominations, compiled by a committee of Donal O'Grady (chairman), Cyril Farrell, Dominic McKinley and Michael Duignan, from which GPA members will select their final 15.

Five of the 45 nominations are different. There was a fair amount of controversy over the non-selection of Kilkenny's JJ Delaney in the GPA list despite the player having missed the All-Ireland final because of injury. That omission is rectified and for good measure Delaney's team-mate, Noel Hickey, who had a superb final although he had been less impressive up to that point, is also included.

The players to lose out are Rossiter and Clare's Ger O'Grady, who had a very solid championship. There will be some surprise that either of these two absentees failed to get in ahead of Limerick's Damien Reale, who after an excellent NHL campaign struggled during the summer.

Nonetheless Limerick can argue swings and roundabouts in that they were unfortunate not to see veteran defender Mark Foley included in the half-back line. The player who replaces Foley from the GPA list is Kilkenny's James Ryall, who nonetheless had a very good year.

There is some chopping and changing elsewhere. Michael Walsh was nominated by the GPA at centrefield although the Waterford management seemed reluctant to start him there. In the middle Walsh played his best hurling but is nominated for the All Stars at half forward. His fellow Waterford player Dave Bennett is the beneficiary of this switch with Cork's Timmy McCarthy the ultimate loser, as he fails to make the All Star cut after being selected on the players' list.

Similarly Westmeath's Andrew Mitchell loses out to Young in the half forwards.

The only other difference between the nominations is that Cork's Ben O'Connor and Kilkenny's Martin Comerford are named in the All Stars' half forwards and full forwards respectively, as opposed to vice versa.

Goalkeepers - Donal Cusack (Cork), Davy Fitzgerald (Clare), James McGarry (Kilkenny).

Full Backs - Brian Murphy (Cork), Diarmuid O'Sullivan (Cork), JJ Delaney (Kilkenny), Noel Hickey (Kilkenny), Eoin Murphy (Waterford), Tom Feeney (Waterford), Paul Curran (Tipperary), Frank Lohan (Clare), Damien Reale (Limerick).

Half Backs - Tommy Walsh (Kilkenny), James Ryall (Kilkenny), John Tennyson (Kilkenny), Ken McGrath (Waterford), Tony Browne (Waterford), Ronan Curran (Cork), John Gardiner (Cork), Eamon Corcoran (Tipperary), Seán McMahon (Clare)

Midfield - Jerry O'Connor (Cork), Tom Kenny (Cork), Derek Lyng (Kilkenny), James Fitzpatrick (Kilkenny), Shane McGrath (Tipperary), Dave Bennett (Waterford).

Half Forwards - Eddie Brennan (Kilkenny), Henry Shefflin (Kilkenny), Eoin Larkin (Kilkenny), Dan Shanahan (Waterford), Michael Walsh (Waterford), Niall McCarthy (Cork), Ben O'Connor (Cork), Tony Carmody (Clare), James Young (Laois).

Full Forwards - Joe Deane (Cork), Brian Corcoran (Cork), Martin Comerford (Kilkenny), Aidan Fogarty (Kilkenny), Tony Griffin (Clare), Eoin Kelly (Tipperary), Damien Hayes (Galway), John Mullane (Waterford), Joe Bergin (Offaly).