PREMIER LEAD SHINING STARS

Tipp's magnificent seven are just half the story of summer stars

- BY GARRY DOYLE

THE 2025 Hurling All Stars have been named, and as ever, there's as much debate as delight.

Tipperary, the team of the summer, have claimed seven of the 15 spots. Cork follow with four, Kilkenny collect two, while Galway and Dublin take one apiece.

That arithmetic, neat and simple on paper, hides the annual ache that comes with this ritual.

Every year, the ceremony ends with the same mixture of joy, pride, and quiet resentment. For every hurler who gets to stand under the lights, tuxedoed and smiling, there's another left wondering how close he came.

For Michael Breen and Bryan O'Mara, the sense of injustice will linger. Both found their best form just when Tipperary's season caught fire.

But momentum came too late. Their excellence in July couldn't undo quieter months before that, and All-Star juries tend to remember the entire journey, not just the destination.

Then there's Darragh McCarthy, scorer of 1-13 in the All-Ireland final - a tally that would, in most years, make him an automatic pick.

But two red cards over the course of the championship drew a permanent line through his name. In the squeaky-clean world of All Stars, image still counts.

Patrick Horgan, meanwhile, might have hoped for one last nod - a parting gift to cap off a glittering career.

But the selectors are a cold bunch. Sentiment rarely sways them. Horgan's farewell season, brave though it was, didn't have enough marquee moments.

He'll retire with every honour bar the one he probably wanted most this winter. The carriage clock, as they say, will have to do.

Shane Barrett, scorer of 1-4 in the final, was another who came close, while Kilkenny's Cian Kenny can feel genuinely aggrieved to have missed out to Cathal Mannion.