Hurling 2023 season review: Hurler of the Year, Game of the Year, highs and lows

Hurler of the Year

Denis Walsh: Eoin Cody and Aaron Gillane were the front runners for Hurler of the Year heading into the final, but it often happens that the last game of the year sabotages the favourites for that gong, and it happened to Gillane for the second time in his career. Kyle Hayes was terrific on Sunday, not just in the second half, but in the second quarter too when Limerick were struggling. With the exception of the Clare defeat, he had been consistently influential and often brilliant.

Malachy Clerkin: Aaron Gillane will presumably win the official award but Darragh O’Donovan would be my choice. Kept Limerick ticking over in the periods when they were under most pressure, demanding ball and finding passes. His best displays were against Galway and Kilkenny – badly needed when Declan Hannon wasn’t in the middle third.

Seán Moran: Limerick’s Aaron Gillane went into the final as the front-runner but Huw Lawlor was always going to be the litmus test. The Patrickswell man struck 0-5, including three frees and the symbolic 47th-minute equaliser. Starting the championship slowly, Gillane amassed 3-47, averaging over 0-3 from play in a schedule with no easy matches. He was MOTM material in three of his last four outings, getting the nod twice. As the ascent steepened, he picked up pace.

Ian O’Riordan: For consistency, reliability and efficiency it’s hard to look past Aaron Gillane. He may have been kept relatively quiet by Huw Lawlor in the final showdown, but still his attacking presence for Limerick never wavered.

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[ Limerick player ratings: Byrnes, Hayes, Lynch and Casey lead the way to four-in-a-row ]

[ Kilkenny player ratings v Limerick: Tom Phelan defies his relative inexperience ]

Gordon Manning: While Aaron Gillane didn’t have his best game of the season on Sunday, he still finished with 0-5, including two from play and he was also fouled for one of his converted frees. He was Limerick’s top scorer in the championship, finishing the campaign with 3-47 (0-32 frees). At stages during the Munster SHC Gillane was unmarkable, his 1-11 haul against Clare in the provincial final was a standout performance.

Game of the Year

Denis Walsh: For the closeness of the games and the weekly uncertainty the Munster championship was compelling, but the Limerick v Cork game in final series of round robin matches was the best of the bunch. A game with 58 scores was decided by a point: hard, hectic and full of magical stuff.

Malachy Clerkin: The Leinster final between Galway and Kilkenny had everything. Six goals, including stunners from Mikey Butler and Walter Walsh. Conor Whelan’s glorious 1-6 from play. Galway coming from eight down to two up across the last 20 minutes. All leading to Cillian Buckley’s unlikely winner with the last puck of the ball.

Seán Moran: For all the four-in-a-row excitement at the sharp end of the season, the stakes were rarely higher than for Wexford – required to beat Kilkenny to prevent an existential slide into the McDonagh Cup. Nearly 10,000 showed up, the sun came out, the ball was let do the work and an inspired Lee Chin channelled Nicky Rackard.

Kilkenny of course didn’t play ball, peppering their hosts with goals and in the last seconds nearly slipping in a sixth which would have doomed their neighbours. Wexford survived but it was too late for manager Darragh Egan in an otherwise disappointing season.

Ian O’Riordan: For the sheer shifting of force between both teams, particularly given all of what was at stake, the All-Ireland semi-final between Kilkenny and Clare. So easily could have gone the other way.

Gordon Manning: There are plenty of contenders – ranging from Sunday’s history-making final watched by millions to the epic Limerick-Clare Munster round-robin match watched only by a few dozen on GAAGo (don’t mention the war). But for me the game of the year was Westmeath’s Hollywood comeback victory over Wexford in the Leinster SHC. Wexford, playing at home, led by 17 points approaching half-time. The gap was 16 at the turnaround, but Joe Fortune’s Westmeath produced one of the greatest fightbacks in the history of hurling to win 4-18 to 2-22.

Memorable moment of the Year

Denis Walsh: Aaron Gillane’s equaliser, 13 minutes into the second half of the All-Ireland final, after a chaotic episode of turnovers and tackling around the Limerick D. From that mayhem Limerick fashioned a clear-headed sequence of passes and a sweet score.

Malachy Clerkin: Lee Chin’s interview after Wexford had beaten Kilkenny to stay in the Liam MacCarthy for 2024. At their lowest ebb, their county turned out for them and they found a way to stay alive. Even so, Chin expressed only sadness that it had come to this.

Seán Moran: Obvious but Cian Lynch, hoisting the MacCarthy Cup after throwing off the shackles of injury and subdued form was a fitting coda to historic achievement.

Ian O’Riordan: Shane O’Donnell’s goal against Kilkenny in that above semi-final was properly hair-raising, coming late on just as Clare looked out of the game. Instead, it brought them right back into it – O’Donnell brushing off Tommy Walsh before unleashing an unstoppable shot into the top left corner. Nothing Eoin Murphy could do about that.

Gordon Manning: Eoin Murphy’s Marvel comic-esque acrobatic save from Peter Duggan’s volley in the closing stages of the All-Ireland semi-final is probably the greatest hurling save of all time. Even now when you watch it back it is impossible to prevent your jaw from falling to the floor.

Disappointment of the Year

Denis Walsh: The All-Ireland quarter-finals. This double-header often looks so appetising on paper and is so often a washout. This year produced two turkeys.

Malachy Clerkin: Clare setting up to keep the score down in the first half against Kilkenny. For a team that had already beaten Limerick in the championship without a sweeper, it felt like a ceding of the initiative when the opposite was needed.

Seán Moran: Holding both provincial finals on the one afternoon. Even by the speedy protocols of the new season, this was an unnecessary rationing of promotional oxygen.

Ian O’Riordan: The GAAGo controversy, particularly those Munster championship duels between Tipperary and Cork, and Clare against Limerick, left unseen by so many.

[ The GAAGO controversy is daft: How can everything be accommodated if not through this? ]

Gordon Manning: The Allianz Hurling league. When is a competition not really a competition? At times the league felt like a series of challenge games, certain weekends some teams were at the pitch of games, others they weren’t. Managers were picking and choosing which matches to target. If the GAA don’t change the format, fans will start choosing to stay away.

Best placed to stop Limerick in 2024

Denis Walsh: By a sequence of narrow margins Cork didn’t make it out of Munster this year, but huge strides were made in terms of the culture of the group, and really good players are poised to breakthrough. They could be Limerick’s biggest threat.

Malachy Clerkin: Who can beat Limerick in 2024?: Only themselves, by the looks of it.

[ Another 30 points in a final as rampant Limerick have only history to play against now ]

Seán Moran: Five in a row?

Ian O’Riordan: The temptation might be to say Kilkenny again, given what they endured in the last two finals now, but if Clare can keep their heads together that chance might well be theirs.

Gordon Manning: From a Kilkenny perspective, the most disappointing aspect of Sunday’s defeat might just be a fear Limerick are actually edging further away. It is difficult to see Kilkenny taking Limerick out next season. Galway will hope to find more consistency in 2024 while Tipp and Waterford are pinning their hopes on big second seasons under their respective management teams. Clare are the side who have rumbled Limerick more than others, but Cork might just be the coming team with the energy, talent and belief to really challenge the champions next year.