Seamus Callanan wheels away in celebration after scoring a goal for Tipperary against Kilkenny in the 2019 All-Ireland SHC Final.
By John Harrington
‘Class is permanent’ is an over-used sporting cliché, but sometimes it’s a very apt one.
It’s a thought that surely struck all the inter-county hurlers when they sat down to cast their vote for 2019 PwC All-Stars Hurler of the Year.
The three candidates – Tipperary’s Seamus Callanan, Kilkenny’s TJ Reid, and Cork’s Patrick Horgan – aren’t just three of the most gifted forwards of their generation, but three of the most durable and consistent.
All three made their Championship debuts in 2008, so it really is remarkable that they are still hurling as well as they ever have in their 12th season of inter-county hurling.
Callanan, incredibly, scored a goal in every championship match he played in 2019, Patrick Horgan produced one of the great Croke Park performances when he scored 3-10 against Kilkenny in the All-Ireland quarter-final, and Reid was more important than ever to the Cats this year.
Tipperary’s Padraic Maher has hurled against all three throughout his career – in club action against Callanan and on the inter-county scene against Horgan and Reid – and isn’t surprised the trio have maintained such excellence over a long period of time.
“It says a lot about them,” said Maher. “You build a lot of experience as you get older. You could say the three lads have been through different experiences in their life; maybe they're enjoying it more and you can see that in their performances.
“Plus, they are three unreal hurlers. Three lads all the same: dedicated, everything is about their sporting lives. The three of them are there on merit, you can't say they are not.”
TJ Reid of Kilkenny celebrates after scoring his side's first goal during the 2019 Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 1 match between Kilkenny and Dublin at Nowlan Park in Kilkenny.
When you look at their body of work as a whole over the course of their respective careers, it’s hard not to be astounded by the numbers these three hugely productive forwards have generated.
Callanan is now the highest scorer from play in the history of the All-Ireland Hurling Championship with a whopping tally of 35-111 after overtaking Henry Shefflin in 2019.
He’s also now joint-second on the all-time goal-scoring list with Kilkenny’s Eddie Keher.
Horgan moved past Tipperary’s Eoin Kelly and Keher on the all-time top scorers list (scores from play and frees combined) this year and is now third in the table behind Shefflin and Joe Canning with a tally of 21-404 from 57 games played.
Reid is now up to sixth on that same top scorers list with a career-total thus far of 22-338.
The interesting thing about this high-scoring trio is that they all go about their business in different ways, and would complement one another beautifully if they all played in the same team together.
“Now that you say, the three of them are different,” says Maher.
“Seamie is more of a full-forward. Hoggie can go to the corner or full, he's a different type of hurler - he could score 3-13 in a game. Seamie might score 2-1 or 2-2.
“TJ can do it all, he could play midfield like he did against us in the 2016 All-Ireland - he's naturally able to play anywhere, he's an unbelievable free-taker and he can win ball for a team, score for a team.
“The three of them are different styles of hurlers. Trying to mark any of them is tough going, believe you me, I know from experience.”
Before the PwC All-Stars selectors whittled down the nominees for 2019 Hurler of the Year down to three, Tipperary duo Noel McGrath and Brendan Maher were also in the reckoning.
They both made their Championship debuts in 2009, so the five best hurlers in the country this year were all men who have been hurling for 11 championship seasons or more, with McGrath the only man not in his thirties already.
Patrick Horgan celebrates after scoring his third goal for Cork against Kilkenny in the 2019 All-Ireland SHC quarter-final.
We hear a lot that inter-county hurling is increasingly a young man’s game, but clearly there is still no substitute for class.
“People say that the game is getting faster and you have to be faster and more physical,” says Maher.
“Obviously, the likes of us, we have miles on the clock and it's hard to keep going but if you're enjoying it and able to keep your body some way right, with a small bit of luck, you have a lot of experience to draw on, which young lads might not have.
“It's a young man's game but 30 is still young enough, isn't it?!”
Reid is the only one of the trio to have previously won the Hurler of the Year award having been honoured in 2015 and also nominated in 2014.
This is Horgan’s first nomination, while Callanan was nominated in 2014, 2015, and 2016.
He was perhaps most unfortunate not to win the award in 2016 after capping a stellar year with an incredible haul of nine points from play in the All-Ireland Final against Kilkenny.
Pádraic Maher was also nominated for Hurler of the Year that year but he and Callanan lost out to Waterford’s Austin Gleeson.
You won’t be surprised to hear he hopes his Tipperary team-mate will finally get over the line first this time around.
“He's had a tremendous year; to score a goal in every game is an unbelievable accomplishment,” says Maher.
“Obviously, we'll all be rooting for him. In fairness, the three lads have been unbelievable hurlers for the past ten years, Hoggie and TJ as well.
“You couldn't begrudge any of them but we'd be hoping for a home win to crown an unbelievable year for Seamie; to score a goal in every game, to captain Tipp to win the All-Ireland - imagine topping it off being Hurler of the Year, you be delighted for him, hopefully he does it.”
