Acknowledging the individual brilliance of Donal Burke, Killian Doyle and Co

The halfway point of the league has been reached. So far we know, that Limerick are very good and the rest are trying to catch up. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.

From watching games at home as a supporter and then lucky enough to be at them for radio purposes, one thing has stood out to me: that is the individual brilliance of some of the performances this early in the year.

Should these performances be forgotten once the Championship kicks into gear or should there be some weight put on them in terms of All-Star selection later in the year?

Team wins and everyone wins, I wholeheartedly agree with this, but the recognition of individual brilliance is also a great honour to get and in GAA terms the greatest example of this is making the All-Star XV.

The committee do a great job picking these teams. Every year there will always be a position or two up for debate but all in all the team selected is the best team of the year.

And I know they do take the league performances into consideration somewhat but the honours are mainly bestowed on the teams reaching the championship semi-finals and finals as the greatest weight is put on these games.

Unless your team is reaching the business end of the year, your chances of recognition is small, except where individual performances are off the scale in earlier rounds.

So my idea is this – a points system for All-Star selection in hurling.

A selection committee of 12 people could be set up, two attending each game, scoring the players live on the day and comparing scores to ensure there is fairness in the points system. The bigger the game, the higher the points on offer.

Championship is a different animal and so should be weighted differently in terms of the points up for grabs. So