Ten years ought to constitute a sufficient sample size for undertakings such as these and in the present instance it does. It was not a difficult team to pick, nor should it have been.

One was accused of not paying tolls for more than 500 trips and was allegedly sent almost 2,000 letters demanding payment.

The successful Kilkenny U21 team of 1999 that won the All-Ireland spawned a generation of iconic hurlers, from Michael Kavanagh to Eddie Brennan to Henry Shefflin.

Picking the comparative, up-to-that-stage Hurling XV of the Noughties this time a decade ago was an exercise competed in 30 seconds, if even that.

Corporate and commercial law firm LK Shields has announced its expansion into western Ireland with a new Galway office.

Two brothers have lost €38,000 damages claims they each made in the Circuit Civil Court for personal injuries they allegedly suffered in a road traffic accident, and are now facing hefty legal bills.

He won six All-Irelands with Kilkenny but there was surely more in Martin Comerford, who has now acknowledged that retiring from the inter-county game in 2011 may have been the ‘wrong’ move.

The frightening thing is they might just be starting out.

It remains a mystery why RTÉ hasn’t cashed in on the Irish people’s love of nostalgia.

Check out our guide to tonight's best TV.

Babs Keating and Eddie Keher last night paid their respects to the Tipperary hurling great Jimmy Doyle who passed away yesterday.

Kevin Fennelly said it was a regret of his he didn’t produce Henry Shefflin when he was Kilkenny manager in 1998.

RTÉ’s League Sunday switched its attention to hurling with the opening round of the Allianz National Hurling League taking place over the weekend, and the panel focused on

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Cummins or Nash? Bugler or Brendan Maher? Reid or Dowling? Picking the best hurling team of the last five years is no easy task

This tent, it seems, is pitched here forever.

You know, of course, that Henry Shefflin, 35, has an autobiography coming out soon, a traditional indication that a player is approaching the end of his career.

Who best to talk about Henry Shefflin than those who knew him best — his team-mates.

It is one of the great inconveniences hindering daily newspapers; the inability to postpone our All-Ireland final verdicts until Up For The Match is over.

It was a surprise when Seamus Hickey was named in the starting 15 for Limerick in their Munster semi-final win over Tipperary on June 1 after returning from a cruciate injury suffered in the All-Ireland semi-final loss to Clare last August.

Are we seeing the end of this great Kilkenny team, did the final minutes of Sunday’s drawn Leinster semi-final in Tullamore herald the final demise of hurling’s most dominant side?

As we head for Tullamore tomorrow and the Leinster SHC semi-final between Galway and Kilkenny there’s a question: who holds the most Leinster senior hurling championship medals?

LEINSTER SHC SEMI-FINAL:

The best games in the last number of years have been between Kilkenny and Tipperary.

Brian Cody will take charge of Kilkenny for a 16th season in 2014 but will do so without long-term selector Martin Fogarty.

Dingle manor has won numerous awards and would be ideal for family or other uses, Tommy Barker reports.

In the basement of a Yonkers pub, aspiring hurling coaches from the New York area gathered around coffee cups and notepads early last Saturday morning.

Kilkenny legend Eddie Brennan fears that James ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick may be the one player the All-Ireland champions simply cannot do without.

For those who were hoping the recent spate of retirements would cause a little slackening of intensity within the Kilkenny panel, Sunday’s demolition job on Tipperary in the opening round of the 2012 Allianz Hurling League is bad news.

Kilkenny’s Jackie Tyrrell isn’t a fan of the new hurling league structures, which offer fewer games and give managers fewer chances to look at players.

Kilkenny midfielder Michael Fennelly suspects retired stars James ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick and John Dalton will return to inter-county hurling in the future.

The host of retirements from inter-county fare has taken the hurling community by surprise.

Common sense takes week off — now that is a dealbreaker.

“It’s an epidemic,” said Michael Kavanagh yesterday, as news that John Dalton — citing work commitments — became the latest Kilkenny player to retire from the 2011 panel.

Michael Kavanagh, the winner of eight All-Ireland medals with Kilkenny, has ended what has been a glittering inter-county hurling career.

Eight-time All-Ireland SHC winner Michael Kavanagh has become the fourth player from last year's successful Kilkenny panel to call time on his inter-county career.

JAMES ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick was the first to walk before Christmas, Eddie Brennan followed him soon after and PJ Ryan handed in his notice just two weeks into the New Year.

ONE of the pleasures of writing in these pages this past year was the opportunity to get an extensive one-to-one interview with Henry Shefflin.

KILKENNY are celebrating one of their highest All Star tallies ever under Brian Cody after picking up eight of the GAA-GPA awards sponsored by Opel.

BRIAN CODY will be in charge of Kilkenny for a 14th consecutive season in 2012, reckons Tommy Walsh.

Upwards of 30,000 spectators braved the wet conditions to welcome home the victorious Kilkenny All-Ireland SHC title-winning team in the Marble city tonight.

Kilkenny 2-17 Tipperary 1-16

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody has made one change in personnel to his starting line-up for Sunday's All-Ireland SHC final against Tipperary at Croke Park (throw-in 3.30pm).