Twenty-first century icons: the best hurling team from 2000-2024

You thought picking a team of the decade was tough? How about selecting the game's finest from the first quarter of the new century? Actually, not so bad, argues Enda McEvoy - though the green machine might demur

Clockwise from top left: Michael 'Brick' Walsh, Henry Shefflin, Patrick Horgan, Eoin Kelly, Cian Lynch. 

Strange as it may sound, this entity was easier to pick than a team of the decade. The latter equates to being obliged to assess a sprint: so many runners and inevitably a blanket finish demanding much casuistry, jesuitry, chin-stroking and hair-pulling. By contrast a quarter-century combination is, if not a marathon, then a middle-distance affair. The field is strung out long before the winning post.

Longevity and consistency were the guiding criteria. Or three other words: body of work. Brilliance for three, four, even five years was by and large insufficient. Legends become legends because they are fixed planets, not shooting stars. In an era when inter-county careers have never been shorter the stalwarts of our XV went on and on. And on.