It’s actually really tough to call it this year.
Once Limerick and Galway booked their place in the All-Ireland final, the hurler of the year was always going to be from either of those counties. They’d been the two best teams in the country on balance and outstanding individual contributions were the reason they’d made it to the final hurdle ahead of everybody else.
It’s easy to get carried away on the back of a final and let the unrivalled significance of that whole occasion diminish the importance of all that has gone before, so we’ve been conscious not to have our judgement clouded by one game in a season where both Galway and Limerick played more than eight of them.
Indeed, there were star performers from outside of those two counties as well.
Peter Duggan stood tall in 2018 for Clare, so too did Seamus Harnedy for Cork. Men like Eoin Murphy and TJ Reid rarely put a foot wrong for Kilkenny and granted one man shouldn’t suffer for the frailties of their teammates, but the hurler of the year award should also have a link with the highest achiever of that year. Therefore making a final, and indeed, winning a final do weigh heavily on it all.
And going into this final, there were many Galway and Limerick men in with a shout. For Limerick, one more big display from Aaron Gillane might just have won it for him. Similarly, his marker Daithà Burke could have landed it if he’d managed to keep the Treaty at bay.
But with the final ball pucked in the decider, we’ve whittled it down to three men.
Joe Canning
The best way of summing up how good Joe Canning was for Galway this year is that he was even better than he was last year, when he won this honour.
The Portumna club man put in powerful displays in both Leinster finals against Kilkenny, particularly that second one in Semple Stadium where he clipped points from all angles that eventually won the day for the Tribesmen.
First time out against Clare, Galway’s centre forward was simply untouchable. Again he hit four from play as well as two sweet, signature sidelines.
It was again his coolness under pressure which rescued Galway as they eventually saw off the Banner in Thurles, Canning striking three from play as well as four frees and another sideline.
In the final, things didn’t go Joe’s way in the first half but he still had the mental resolve to single-handedly drag Galway back into it in the second.
That’s the sign of a class player, that he can turn it around even when things are going against him.
Padraic Mannion
The Ahascragh-Foghenagh club man has been Galway’s most consistent player for two seasons now but it was this season that people started to take notice.
Has everything you want from a half back. Fire, tenacity and steel as well as a penchant to ghost forward for a valuable score. Few if any forwards got the better of him in 2018 and though he should have been red carded in the final for throwing his hurl (31 seconds into the below video) when he was already on a yellow card, he still acquitted himself well despite not hitting the heights of previous games.
https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1031245984838369280
Graeme Mulcahy (Our HOTY)
One man who’s form has never once dipped this year, however is Limerick’s Graeme Mulcahy. For that reason, the Kilmallock man is our Hurler of the Year.
He skinned each and every of Tipperary’s inside back line on his way to four points from play when Limerick laid down their marker in the first game of this championship.
The lively corner forward’s form extended all the way through his side’s Munster campaign and up to today as he gave corner backs the runaround all year.
These, his scoring returns for the year.
- 0-4 vs. Tipperary
- 0-2 vs. Cork
- 1-0 vs. Waterford
- 0-0 vs. Clare
- 1-1 vs. Carlow
- 0-3 vs. Kilkenny
- 0-4 vs. Cork
- 1-2 vs. Galway (Final)
Big players come up with big plays and when Limerick needed him most, and when the stakes were at their highest on Sunday, he grew into his number 13 jersey.
His early goal was a case of persistence paying off, but his late, match-winning point was the most important hurling contribution on an extraordinary year for the sport.
