Cream rises to the top as we close in on top players of the last 50 years

Millennium men are overtaken by Shefflin and Carey

THE county choices have been completed in our 202050 ranking series – and today we carry the provincial selections, clearing the way for the announcement tomorrow of the 20 top footballers and hurlers in the country since 1970.

It will be the culmination of a week in which a total of 940 players were ranked within their counties, 160 in their provinces (including Galway hurlers, who represent Connacht) and 40 in the national selections.

Players from all six lines are represented at the pinnacle of the provincial selections, starting with Dublin goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton, who takes top spot in Leinster football, followed by Matt Connor, Brian Mullins, Colm O’Rourke and Trevor Giles.

Brian Corcoran – who played at corner-back, centre-back and fullforward – is No 1 in Munster hurling, while ‘Sambo’ McNaughton (halfback, midfield and attack) takes top spot in Ulster hurling.

Kerry midfield maestro Jack O’Shea leads the way in Munster football, while snipers supreme – Peter Canavan (Tyrone) and Pádraic Joyce (Galway) – represent the fullforward line.

Henry Shefflin flies the half-forward flag at No 1 on the Leinster hurling selection, followed by DJ Carey, Brian Whelahan, Eddie Keher and Tommy Walsh.

Kerry (14) dominate the Munster football selection, followed by Cork on four. They are joined by Limerick’s John Galvin and Tipperary’s Declan Browne.

In Connacht football, all five counties are represented, with Joyce followed by Dermot Earley, Lee Keegan, Ja Fallon and Mickey Kearins.

Antrim and Cavan are the only counties to miss out in Ulster football, where No 1 Canavan is followed by Michael Murphy, Seán Cavanagh, Anthony Tohill and Kieran McGeeney.

Today’s choices narrow the options for the national selections as, obviously, the top spot in both codes will go to one of the No 1s from the provinces. Who will they be?

Find out tomorrow.

THE big difficulty with choosing a Leinster Top 20 is that you could name an entire set of Kilkenny men and still be unable to accommodate lots of multiple All-Ireland winners.

The Kilkenny supply lines have always maintained a high production rate, but they went into complete overdrive since the turn of the Millennium, yielding 11 All-Ireland titles. That group provides seven of our Leinster 20, with four more from the earlier decades.

Given Kilkenny’s extraordinary achievements between 2000 and 2015, seven may seem like underrepresentation, but then some fellow county men from previous decades had to be included too.

Offaly (five) and Wexford (four) also feature, but there’s no room for anybody from Laois, Dublin, Westmeath or Carlow.

Brian Whelahan, Tony Doran and Liam Dunne are the only three non-Kilkenny men in the top ten, which won’t please Offaly and Wexford supporters, but they would also have to admit that their contenders were up against fierce opposition.

Whelahan breaks up Kilkenny’s top-eight monopoly, slotting in third behind Henry Shefflin and DJ Carey. Having been chosen on the Team of the Millennium, Whelahan would, in different circumstances, take top spot, but then he was up against two players who have genuine claims to be regarded as the best ever.

Shefflin’s career was only in its second season when the Millennium team was announced while Carey had another five years on active duty.

Eddie Keher, who, like Whelahan, is another Millennium man, takes fourth place, a well-deserved ranking after an amazing career which spanned a time when hotshot forwards didn’t get anything like the same level of protection as their modern-day counterparts.

Tommy Walsh ahead of JJ Delaney? This is tight borderline territory between two great Kilkenny defenders who did so much to build the black and amber post-Millennium empire.

Tony Doran didn’t win anything like as many big titles as the Kilkenny men, but will always be remembered in Wexford as a heroic figure who electrified many occasions in a long career.