Ninety players currently harbour ambitions of winning a PwC All Star following the announcement of the nominations in both codes last week.
Ultimately only 30 will be chosen, some of them for the first time, others will have been honoured before, while the rest will hope that their time will come again.
The nature of the scheme is such that players from the most successful counties will claim the lion’s share of awards, though some notable multiple All-Ireland winners have missed out.
Then there are so many from less celebrated counties who were never close enough to the limelight to earn the ultimate recognition. It could be argued that, for those, earning a nomination is a more notable achievement than a player from a well established county picking up an award having been propped up by a strong supporting cast.
We’ve singled out five particularly unlucky players in either code that were nominated regularly but, ultimately, never called up on stage on banquet night.
Hurling
Jim Troy (Offaly)
One of only two Offaly hurlers (the other being Joe Dooley) to hold three All-Ireland medals, though Troy never won an All Star to supplement his glittering collection, which also included eight Leinster medals and a National League.
An outstanding custodian, he was nominated for the goalkeeping position in 1985, ‘91 and ‘94 but lost out to Ger Cunningham (Cork), Michael Walsh (Kilkenny) and Joe Quaid (Limerick) respectively.
It appeared that his younger brother John would also miss out despite his prominence during a great era for the county, though he was finally recognised in 1999, completing the 30 All Star positions for Offaly in both codes.
John Taylor (Laois)
A brilliant hurler, Taylor is one of the finest players never to win an All Star and, without doubt, would have collected several were he born in a more successful county.
He was central to Laois’s best era since they won their last Leinster title in 1949, as they came close to a breakthrough in the ‘80s, reaching the Centenary Cup final in 1984 and a first provincial final in 36 years in ‘85.
His teammate Pat Critchley was recognised at midfield on the 1985 All Star team but despite being nominated at left half-back in 1983, ‘84, ‘86, Taylor lost out to Cork pair Tom Cashman, and Dermot McCurtain and then Tipperary’s Bobby Ryan.
James McGarry (Kilkenny)
It’s widely accepted that the standard of inter-county goalkeeping rocketed from the mid-1990s on and McGarry was unlucky to face fierce competition once he emerged as Brian Cody’s first choice netminder in 1999.
He received his first All Star nomination that year, starting a run of six-in-a-row, with a seventh coming in 2006.
But he lost out to Donal Og Cusack (twice), Brendan Cummins (three times), Davy Fitzgerald and Damien Fitzhenry, each of whom were more spectacular goalkeepers who happened to be playing behind less vaunted defences than McGarry.
Paddy Quirke (Carlow)
It’s worth noting that the All Stars selection process placed less emphasis on how far a county progressed through the Championship in the earlier days than is the case now, but Carlow star Quirke was nominated in 1979, ‘80 and ‘81 at a time when his county wasn’t mapped at all.
Also a fine footballer, Quirke’s best opportunities to shine came when representing Leinster in both codes in the Railway Cup, making the hurling team for four successive years from 1978-81.
Nominated twice at midfield, he lost out to Joe Hennessy (Kilkenny) and Johnny Callinan (Clare) in 1979 and then Joachim Kelly (Offaly) and Mossie Walsh (Waterford) the following year, with Geroge O’Connor (Wexford) getting the nod ahead of him at centre-forward in 1981.
Pat Moriarty (Kerry)
Causeway man Moriarty was a brilliant forward for Kerry ‘70s and ‘80s, a time when the county’s footballers were carving up the history books, but he still found his niche as a starting player on the Munster Railway Cup hurling team.
Winning the 1976 All-Ireland B title gave Kerry a shot at Galway in the All-Ireland quarter-final, a game in which he hit 2-1 in a three-point defeat.
He was nominated at right-corner forward in 1976 and full-forward the following year but Mick Brennan (Kilkenny) and Ray Cummins (Cork) got the nod.
Football
Brian Talty (Galway)
Talty was one of Galway’s most prominent players as they pushed for major honours in the early ‘80s, winning the League in 1981 followed by Connacht titles in the next two seasons.
He was nominated at midfield each year as Galway lost a semi-final to eventual champions Offaly by a point in ‘82 before being edged out by Dublin in a hugely controversial final the following year as Talty didn’t emerge for the second half after an incident in the tunnel.
Competition was stiff, however, with Kerry legend Jack O’Shea selected each time as his teammate Sean Walsh, Padraig Dunne (Offaly) and Liam Austin (Down) were chosen alongside him.
John Galvin (Limerick)
A superb midfielder and Limerick’s most influential player as they emerged from obscurity under Liam Kearns and then Mickey Ned O’Sullivan to challenge Kerry and Cork strongly in Munster.
He was regularly nominated for All Stars, making the list in 2004, ‘09 and ‘10, but Limerick could never make it to the Croke Park stage that would enhance his chances until 2011, when he was sidelined with a cruciate injury.
Martin McGrath (Tyrone) and Sean Cavanagh (Tyrone) were chosen in 2004, Dermot Earley (Kildare) and Seamus Scanlon (Kerry) in ‘09, and Paddy Keenan (Louth) and Aidan Walsh (Cork) in ‘10.
Paul Barden (Longford)
Longford are one of just two counties, along with Carlow, that remain without an All Star but Barden’s achievement in earning two nominations over his many years of service was particularly notable for the fact that the final round of the qualifiers was as far as they ever progressed in the Championship in his time.
That happened just once too, in 2006, when he earned his first nomination as a half-forward, though Paul Galvin (Kerry), Alan Brogan (Dublin) and Alan Dillon (Mayo), all of whom were involved up to the All-Ireland semi-final stage or later, formed the half-forward line.
Paul Flynn (Dublin), Dillon and Mark McHugh (Donegal) held him off in similar circumstances six years later, though Barden’s brilliance was recognised elsewhere in terms of interprovincial and International Rules selections.
Vinny Claffey (Offaly)
Claffey arrived on the scene in the mid-80s with Offaly in freefall after the 1982 All-Ireland win and he was into his 11th season before they made an imprint on the Championship, coming from nowhere to win Leinster in 1997 as he hit 1-5 in the final against Meath.
He was nominated that year and again the following season as he helped inspire Offaly’s only National League title but was overlooked on both occasions as the League winners didn’t earn a spot on the All Star team for the first time in the history of the scheme.
With more fluidity to team selections by then, Joe Brolly (Derry), Brendan Reilly (Meath) and Maurice Fitzgerald (Kerry) were the chosen inside forwards in 1997, with Karl O’Dwyer (Kildare), Padraic Joyce (Galway) and Declan Browne (Tpperary) selected in ‘98.
Ross Munnelly (Laois)
Munnelly made a flying start to his Laois career as he starred in the county’s first Leinster Championship win in 57 years in his debut season in 2003, earning his first nomination that year, with two more coming in ‘05 and ‘06.
Laois’s failure to progress past a quarter-final didn’t help Munnelly’s All Star ambitions as Tyrone and Kerry forwards dominated the key latter stages, while their regression in subsequent years effectively took him out of the shop window despite his enduring class.
As he approaches his 40th birthday, Munnelly has just completed his 20th season with Laois and may yet be back next year.
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