So you've sat down to pick your PwC Football All-Stars for 2023 but you're stumped on where to even begin? Turns out you're in good company.
Picking a team of the year, in either code, is always a head scratcher. Sometimes it'll present a mathematics dilemma in midfield - how do you fit three or even four deserving nominees into just two positions? Other years, you'll be spoiled for choice in the full-forward line and be left wondering how to cram in all those point poachers.
Pick your PwC All-Stars football team for a chance to win €3,000
This year's football quandary appears to be how exactly you settle on a defence that reflects the breadth of brilliance displayed throughout Championship 2023?
Truth is, there are no right or wrong answers. Only pressing cases for inclusion which come at you one after the other as you look at the long list of options.
Take the easy one first. It's a given that you can scribble down Stephen Cluxton's name in goals and take it from there, right? A solitary goal conceded in his eight Championship starts, a 100% success rate with his All-Ireland final kick-outs, that innate leadership. And all of that after only returning from retirement to resume life as Dublin's number one this year. Or maybe you were won over by Rory Beggan's sweeper 'keeper role, complete with standout saves and regular scores. Kerry's Shane Ryan was totemic too. And so the decisions begin!
The beauty of it all is that you'll finish with a gifted lineup, regardless of who you pick.
So while you might favour Conor McCluskey's dynamism in the full-back line for Derry over, say, Aidan Forker of Armagh, you're still going to be left with a gifted man in the corner. Give Kerry's Tom O'Sullivan the nod in the other corner-back slot and you've two jet-heeled defenders onboard.
Michael Fitzsimons probably has the best chance of all of a full-back line pick. Even at 35, the Dublin management happily tossed him the toughest assignments, against the likes of Tommy Conroy, Conor McManus and then David Clifford. Each time the Cuala colossus delivered.
The half-back line is probably where opinions are most divided. Conor McCarthy looks like a lock at number seven. His Monaghan colleague Karl O'Connell was terrific too. But so was Kerry's Tadgh Morley. And if you're going with James McCarthy in the half-back line instead of midfield - Brian Fenton and Brendan Rogers surely have midfield sewn up? - then O'Connell and Morley could very well get squeezed out.
So then, two McCarthys, James and Conor. That leaves you with one more half-back to pick. You could make a decent argument for Gavin White. His GPS figures for Kerry were off the charts and his goal against Derry separated the teams.
Or you could go with the other goal-scorer from that All-Ireland semi-final, Derry's Gareth McKinless, an attack minded half-back cut from the very same cloth.
If you do favour the Fenton-Rogers midfield combination, you'll have to leave out Brian Howard. That's tough on a player who put out all sorts of fires for Dublin between the two 45-metre lines.
Up front, anyone leaving David Clifford out of their selection would be in the minority. Sure, the Fossa phenom had relative off days against both Tyrone and Dublin at Croke Park. But he still scored five points against Tyrone, delivered 'that' killer pass in the buildup to Sean O'Shea's goal and had a direct hand in 1-5 of Kerry's scores v Dublin!
Clifford was only narrowly beaten to the Championship's top scorer position by Derry's Shane McGuigan, a Slaughtneil warrior, like Rogers, who has developed into a genuine marquee performer and a likely PwC All-Star recipient. Colm Basquel would neatly round off your full-forward line.
Paudie Clifford had another great year and if both he and little brother David land PwC All-Star awards, it will be the third year running that they have done so. Some three-in-a-row! Throw in Paul Mannion, Dublin's All-Ireland final Man of the Match, and perhaps Kerry's Sean O'Shea and you have a lethal strike force - and a team to be feared.
Pick your PwC All-Stars hurling team for a chance to win €3,000
Meanwhile, in hurling, perhaps the historians will someday use the awards to gauge just how great this current Limerick team is and when it was at its peak.
Five All-Ireland wins in the space of six seasons is some feat but when were John Kiely's crew at their very best? It's an intriguing question.
Rewind back to 2018 and Limerick's breakthrough All-Ireland win. They earned six places on that season's Team of the Year, confirming that they were a talented bunch.
Yet two years later, when Limerick won the All-Ireland again, they took home a stunning nine PwC All-Stars, equalling the record for a single county.
Somehow, even better was to come from a gifted group who increased their take to a remarkable dozen in 2021, the most any county has ever managed.
They haven't released their grasp on the MacCarthy Cup since though they were back to a more modest seven PwC All-Star awards for 2022 and, the way things are shaping up for 2023, it could be a similar figure.
So what does that rainbow shaped All-Stars arc from the last five years tell us about Limerick? Well, certainly 2021 was their zenith.
Two years on, they're still setting Championship standards but the trouble for Limerick is that their rivals have all been putting in the hard yards to narrow the gap.
Clare now consistently threaten Limerick's provincial hegemony while Kilkenny represent the greatest threat in the All-Ireland series.
And if Derek Lyng's Kilkenny collect as many as half a dozen PwC All-Stars at the PwC All-Stars awards ceremony in Dublin's RDS on Friday, November 17, it won't be a shock.
Eoin Murphy, for starters, seemed a banker for the goalkeeper award from the moment he pulled off 'that' save from Clare's Peter Duggan in Kilkenny's All-Ireland semi-final win.
Limerick and the Cats could easily share out the six outfield defensive slots between them. Huw Lawlor's job on Aaron Gillane in the final probably secured his place. Likewise, Lawlor's Kilkenny colleague Mikey Butler may have done enough for inclusion with his phenomenal man-marking job on Clare's Tony Kelly in the semi-final.
Reigning Hurler of the Year Diarmuid Byrnes, Dan Morrissey and Kyle Hayes were all dominant in their positions so must fancy their chances. Will O'Donoghue won his last award in 2021 as a midfielder but might get the nod in the half-back line this time given his excellence there while covering for the injured Declan Hannon in the All-Ireland series.
Clare, who contested another epic Munster final with Limerick, could get their first look-in at midfield. David Fitzgerald was terrific and both himself and Limerick's Darragh O'Donovan would make a nice pair.
Which brings us to the attack, the point where another county, Galway, must come into the reckoning. Conor Whelan was Man of the Match for the Tribesmen in both the Leinster final loss to Kilkenny and the All-Ireland quarter-final defeat of Tipperary.
It's hard to imagine that Clare's Shane O'Donnell won't make the final XV as well.
And if you go with Gillane and his Limerick colleague Tom Morrissey, then you'll probably have to leave out Cian Lynch and Peter Casey. That's not to mention Limerick's other two forward nominees, Seamus Flanagan and David Reidy!
TJ Reid and Eoin Cody, two Ballyhale Shamrocks men, were Kilkenny's best forwards. Jackie Tyrrell said a few years back that Cody has the potential to be a 'wow' player for Kilkenny, like Henry Shefflin, Tommy Walsh and JJ Delaney once were. Has Cody now reached that point? His first PwC All-Star would certainly help.
All will shortly be revealed with the 53rd PwC All-Stars selections. Watch the awards on Friday 17th November from 7:30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
