GAA Top 20: Leinster Hurling - Millennium men are overtaken by Shefflin and Carey

The big difficulty with choosing a Leinster Top 20 is that you could name an entire set of Kilkenny men and still be unable to accommodate lots of multiple All-Ireland winners.

The Kilkenny supply lines have always maintained a high production rate, but they went into complete overdrive since the turn of the Millennium, yielding 11 All-Ireland titles. That group provides seven of our Leinster 20, with four more from the earlier decades.

Given Kilkenny’s extraordinary achievements between 2000 and 2015, seven may seem like under-representation, but then some fellow county men from previous decades had to be included too.

Offaly (five) and Wexford (four) also feature, but there’s no room for anybody from Laois, Dublin, Westmeath or Carlow.

Brian Whelahan, Tony Doran and Liam Dunne are the only three non-Kilkenny men in the top ten, which won’t please Offaly and Wexford supporters, but they would also have to admit that their contenders were up against fierce opposition.

Whelahan breaks up Kilkenny’s top-eight monopoly, slotting in third behind Henry Shefflin and DJ Carey. Having been chosen on the Team of the Millennium, Whelahan would, in different circumstances, take top spot, but then he was up against two players who have genuine claims to be regarded as the best ever.

Shefflin’s career was only in its second season when the Millennium team was announced while Carey had another five years on active duty.

Eddie Keher, who, like Whelahan, is another Millennium man, takes fourth place, a well-deserved ranking after an amazing career which spanned a time when hotshot forwards didn’t get anything like the same level of protection as their modern-day counterparts.

Tommy Walsh ahead of JJ Delaney? This is tight borderline territory between two great Kilkenny defenders who did so much to build the black and amber post-Millennium empire.

Tony Doran didn’t win anything like as many big titles as the Kilkenny men, but will always be remembered in Wexford as a heroic figure who electrified many occasions in a long career.

LEINSTER TOP 20

1. Henry Shefflin (Kilkenny), 2. DJ Carey (Kilkenny), 3. Brian Whelahan (Offaly), 4. Eddie Keher (Kilkenny), 5. Tommy Walsh (Kilkenny), 6. JJ Delaney (Kilkenny), 7. Noel Skehan (Kilkenny), 8. TJ Reid (Kilkenny), 9. Tony Doran (Wexford), 10. Liam Dunne (Wexford), 11. Johnny Dooley (Offaly), 12. Ger Henderson (Kilkenny), 13. Frank Cummins (Kilkenny), 14. Richie Hogan (Kilkenny), 15. Eugene Coughlan (Offaly), 16. Damien Fitzhenry (Wexford), 17. Martin Hanamy (Offaly), 18. Jackie Tyrrell (Kilkenny), 19. Joachim Kelly (Offaly), 20. Martin Storey (Wexford)

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