There was unanimity among the various committees and other hurlers on the ditch about this year’s hurler of the year awards.  Kilkenny’s Eoin Larkin was awarded the triumvirate of senior awards - the Texaco Hurler of the Year, the Vodafone Hurler of the Year and the GPA Hurler of the Year award.  As for the young hurler of the year, it was no surprise that Galway’s Joe Canning was the recipient.

Joe Canning

Larkin had a superb year for Kilkenny and scored freely from play in every match.  He started with 4 points against Offaly in the Leinster semi-final and struck 3 more in the final versus Wexford.  His goal against Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final (when he ran through the center of the Cork defence and coolly stroked the sliotar past Cusack) illustrated not only his skill and determination but also a ruthless self-confidence which many of this current Kilkenny side seem to possess.  In the All-Ireland final, he contributed 1-4 of the Cats’ 3-30 haul, his goal coming early in the second half to well and truly exstinguish any lingering Déise hopes.  Larkin is a soldier with the Irish army and spent 6 months on a peace-keeping mission in Kosovo only arriving back in Ireland in April.  It makes his achievement this year all the more impressive.

Joe Canning is probably the most high profile hurler ever to win the Vodafone Young Hurler of the Year award.  His exploits with the Galway minors, under-21s, Limerick Institute of Technology and Portumna created a huge degree of hype so a lot was expected of him in the Galway senior jersey.  And if 2008 is anything to go by, the hype is justified.  He was behind most of Galway’s good play in their League final loss to Tipperary in April and scored a memorable goal.  But it was his one man show against Cork in Thurles that really whets the appetite for more of the same in 2009.  Canning scored 2-12 and established himself as the leader of the Galway attack in his debut year.  Galway compete in Leinster next year so hopefully we will see a lot more of Canning.