The Man Behind the Wire - Offaly Senior Hurling Championship Team of the Year

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3 – Full back: Ciaran Burke (Ballinamere)

A position where there was some really outstanding contenders in Oisin Mahon, Ciaran Burke, Darren O'Meara (Shinrone), Stephen Burke (Coolderry), Birr's Oisin Murphy and Pat Camon (St Rynagh's). You could pick any of them and stand over it. It is very hard to leave some of them off and there is a temptation to fit one in at corner back but they were all specialist full backs and we will resist that one.

Oisin Mahon is very unlucky not to make it as are Darren O'Meara and Pat Camon. An old fashioned, traditional type full back who doesn't suffer fools gladly, Mahon was a real giant for Kilcormac-Killoughey and never put a foot wrong. He was a perfect example of a player performing to the best of his ability almost every day.

The choice, however, is Ciaran Burke. He was outstanding for almost all the campaign and he is the best full back in Offaly. He unfortunately made a handful of very uncharacteristic errors in the semi-final against Shinrone but he also mopped up and cleared a huge volume of ball that day so we have decided not to punish him for one questionable display. The bottom line is that Burke deserves to be on the team when you take the full campaign into consideration.