Gordon ManningHurler of the Year: Gearóid Hegarty (Limerick)A case study to demonstrate how the hand can indeed be mightier than the hurl. Hegarty didn’t score in either the semi-final or final. He finished the championship with a scoring tally of 2-8 but nobody influenced Limerick’s attacking prowess more than Hegarty. He was Nickie Quaid’s go-to man on puck-outs and his ability to win ball in the air was Limerick’s weapon of mass destruction. King of the skies.Best game: Clare 2-33 Waterford 4-21The opening round of the Munster SHC produced a storming clash at Cusack Park in Ennis where Clare and Waterford went at each other in a game that produced 60 scores. Shane Meehan’s late goal sealed the win for Clare but the standout performer was Waterford’s Stephen Bennett, who finished with 3-12.Memorable moment: Cian Lynch’s catch from Clare’s puck-out in dying seconds of the All-Ireland semi-final. The clock read 69 minutes and 39 seconds when Éibhear Quilligan sent his restart down the field, Clare leading by two at the time. But from within a mass of bodies, Lynch emerged with the ball and seconds later Adam English fizzed a wonderful crossfield pass to Aidan O’Connor who smacked the ball beyond Quilligan. Goal. A season-changer.Biggest disappointment: The championship, the final, the whole shooting gallery – it just never sparked this year. But stripped all the way back, will any team be as disappointed as the Cork hurlers with how their lot turned out in 2026? Two years on the bounce now the Rebels are left to try figure out how exactly their year unravelled.In 2027 I would like to see: The Leinster senior hurling championship to come out swinging. The debate over which provincial championship is best has over the years become a weary conversation. There has not been an All-Ireland SHC winner from Leinster since 2017 (Galway). Kilkenny’s last win was in 2015. If those stats are to be updated, there is a responsibility on the teams in Leinster to provide each other with a robust road-test in the provincial campaign to be suitably prepared for the All-Ireland.Malachy ClerkinHurler of the Year: Gearóid Hegarty (Limerick)Didn’t score once in the All-Ireland series and yet nobody who watches Limerick could be in any doubt as to his influence. His size is only the starting point. The leadership, smarts and pure hurling skill he showed against Clare hauled Limerick through a sticky patch and he was immense again in the final.Best game: Offaly 4-22 Dublin 2-28One of the very few stone-cold epics all year. Offaly’s first game back in the Liam MacCarthy was high-tempo, full-blooded and contained countless flashes of magic. Adam Screeney, Brian Duignan and especially Charlie Mitchell whistled up goals of stunning quality. Dublin weren’t at their best but Dónal Burke pulled them out of the fire with a stunning equaliser.Memorable moment: Nickie Quaid’s non-black card. Surely the closest Limerick came to going out of the championship. Peter Duggan was through on goal, flicked the ball past Quaid to go and collect it the other side, only for the Limerick goalie to bring him down. As cynical a foul as you’ll see, yet it didn’t fit the letter of the law for a black card on the basis that Duggan didn’t actually have possession of the sliotar. Would Limerick have still won with 14 men and no Quaid for the last 10 minutes? The final must have been a bitter watch for Clare.Biggest disappointment: The Munster Championship. Whatever about Leinster, of whom nothing is ever expected these days, the one thing you’re supposed to be bale to take to the bank is Munster hurling. Yet it just never took flight this year. Of the 10 round-robin matches, five were blowouts. Tipp’s All-Ireland defence was fairly limp, Waterford still couldn’t capitalise and though the final was compelling, it descended into a moanfest about the referee. Just a bad year all round.In 2027 I would like to see: Cork win the All-Ireland. They have a lot to sort out, from psychology to personnel both on the pitch and in the backroom. But all any neutral wants from the hurling championship is a team with a story to tell and if Cork can find a way back after the past few years of disaster, it will be a glorious yarn. Limerick’s excellence is all very impressive but Cork’s wait has gone on long enough. Only they can change it.Denis WalshHurler of the Year: Gearóid Hegarty He had a resurgent year. In a forward line that stuttered at times, he was a bountiful source of influence and big plays. He carried the Limerick forward line on his back in the All-Ireland semi-final and did more than anybody to turn the Munster final in the final minutes. Failed to score in the last two matches but that was immaterial.Best game: Limerick 1-21 Clare 1-19From a dispiritingly shortlist, the Limerick-Clare All-Ireland semi-final was a refreshing storm of thunder and lightning. After a blowout in Ennis, it was an exhilarating reprise of their best days in the bear pit.Memorable Moment: Brian Hayes’ goal for Cork in the Munster final. Hayes finished the ball to the net after he was knocked to his backside. The outstanding full forward in the game, his graph continues to rise.Biggest disappointment: The number of one-sided games strangled the championship. Of the 32 games played, 16 of them were decided by double-digit margins, and of the 11 teams in the Liam MacCarthy Cup, only Limerick and Waterford – who lost by nine in the Gaelic Grounds after a stoppage-time penalty – escaped that fate. The pattern of collapses was debilitating.In 2017 I would like to see: Waterford getting out of Munster, Wexford getting back on the horse, Dublin and Cork finding answers, Tipperary and Kilkenny straightening themselves up, Offaly to get back up and keep up. Is that too much to ask?Ian O’RiordanHurler of the Year: Gearóid Hegarty (Limerick).It’s crazy to even think that Hegarty would be in the running for this after not scoring in the All-Ireland semi-final against Clare, then again in Sunday’s final against Galway, but his tank-like presence, towering catches, and all-round influence on the game remained central to Limerick’s victories. He could have scored 2-1 in the first 20 minutes on Sunday, but in the end was nothing but a joy and wonder to behold.Best game: Cork 2-17 Limerick 1-21By any consensus it hasn’t been a vintage hurling championship, particularly in Munster, despite all the usual hype and fanfare around it, although something about the final on that rainy afternoon at Páirc Ui Chaoimh stays in the mind. More growing tension than pure excitement, Limerick’s eventual wearing down of Cork on their home ground, then the way they celebrated it, was a timely reminder of their greatness.Memorable moment: It’s a rare thing for any team captain to put in such an all-round brilliant display of hurling on All-Ireland final day, but Cian Lynch pulled it off on Sunday. His orchestral running of the game was so thorough and impressive it deserved the champagne moment that was his second point in injury-time, and the fist-pump he afforded himself immediately afterwards.Biggest disappointment: Maybe this year’s hurling championship got the All-Ireland final it deserved, because despite the spectacular weather and all the usual colour and atmosphere, there was an ominous feeling throughout the first half that Limerick were going to run away with it. By the end nothing Galway did or tried could stop it from becoming one of the more lob-sided deciders in many years.In 2027 I would like to see: Some sort of backdoor or re-entry route to the counties who don’t progress straight from the Munster and Leinster hurling championship round-robin into the All-Ireland series. Former Limerick hurler Séamus Flanagan described this situation last month as “bananas”, adding that “to not have Tipperary and Waterford hurling in June, it’s criminal”. The same going for Kilkenny and Wexford, obviously.Seán MoranHurler of the Year: Gearóid Hegarty (Limerick)The anomaly was widely flagged – a forward getting the award, having scored in neither the All-Ireland semi-final nor final – but Hegarty’s big-day credentials as twice MOTM in finals were burnished by his varied contributions: a lighthouse for puck-outs in the semi-final and the strength of mind and body to pull down five of them; versatility to switch inside and a fund of assists. His rampaging runs on Sunday caused early ruptures in Galway defence. Stood tall all year.Best game: Limerick 1-21, Clare 1-19The moment of greatest danger on the champions’ march to the title came in this All-Ireland semi-final. Old adversaries Clare gathered up one last shot at them and nearly pulled it off. Nothing was vintage about Limerick that day apart from the will to survive.Memorable moment: Irrelevant in the larger scheme of things but Dublin had defeated Kilkenny only once in ininears and had lost in 11 championship matches since that breakthrough in 2013. On a blazing May afternoon in a packed Parnell Park, they won again even if this summer’s Kilkenny will not feature in Halls of Fame and although the follow-up brought everything crashing to earth.Biggest disappointment: For the second year, the disparity between the provinces and not just in teforIreland domination but even basic competitiveness. All three Leinster representatives were mauled. Offaly lost by 26 points to Cork; Dublin by 13 to Clare and Galway by a generous 11 on Sunday.In 2027 I would like to see: Hurling referees enforcing the rules as they are written down rather than according to cod-mystical interpretations designed to satisfy rheumy-eyed concepts of manliness and flowing play.