It's 15 years since Kilkenny defeated Limerick in the All-Ireland hurling final to win the second of four consecutive titles.
That year, the Cats were rewarded with six All-Stars while defeated finalists Limerick picked up three. Waterford, Munster champions that season, had five players recongised while Tipperary were the only other county with a player on the All-Star team.
We've taken a look at where, 15 years on, that year's winners are in their lives and Gaelic games careers.
2007 All-Star Hurling Team
Brian Murray (Limerick)
Murray was just 23 when he won an All-Star in 2007, but his senior inter-county career would last just four more years. He was dropped from the panel at the end of the 2011 season.
Murray continued to play with Patrickswell. In 2019, what was his 20th season playing senior hurling with the club, he won his fourth Limerick Senior Hurling Championship title. The 38-year-old was also between the posts when Patrickswell lost the 2021 final to Kilmallock.
11 October 2015; Patrickswell goalkeeper Brian Murray makes a save from Adrian Breen, Na Piarsaigh. Limerick County Senior Hurling Championship Final, Patrickswell v Na Piarsaigh. Gaelic Grounds, Limerick. Picture credit: Diarmuid Greene / SPORTSFILE
Michael Kavanagh (Kilkenny)
Won four All-Stars (2002, 2003, 2007, 2008). Retired from inter-county hurling in 2012 as an eight-time All-Ireland winner.
Kavanagh has had coaching roles with the Meath and Wicklow hurlers, along with Kilkenny and Laois development squads. He's also involved at underage level with St Lachtains. In 2019, then Offaly manager Michael Fennelly appointed his former teammate to his backroom team.
Declan Fanning (Tipperary)
The Killenaule man retired from inter-county hurling in 2010, aged 31, two months after Tipperary defeated Kilkenny in the All-Ireland final.
He was part of Michael Ryan's backroom team for Tipperary's 2016 All-Ireland final win. Fanning joined Ryan at Limerick club Na Piarsaigh for the 2019 season, and continues to be involved with the club under manager Kieran Bermingham. He was there when Na Piarsaigh won the 2020 county title.
24 July 2020; Na Piarsaigh manager Kieran Bermingham, left, with selector Declan Fanning during the Limerick County Senior Hurling Championship Round 1 match between Kilmallock and Na Piarsaigh at LIT Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Jackie Tyrrell (Kilkenny)
Won four All-Stars (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010). Retired from inter-county hurling in 2016 having won nine All-Ireland senior medals. In retirement, he began working in the media. He's a regular pundit on RTÉ's hurling coverage, and has also had a column in the Irish Times.
When club action returned during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Tyrrell - one of hurling's greatest defenders during his inter-cunty career - played in the forwards for James Stephens at junior level.
Indeed he did. Don’t want to get carried away but he appears to have a bright future ahead of him.
— James Stephens GAA (@VillageGAA) July 24, 2020
Tommy Walsh (Kilkenny)
A nine-time All-Star winner (2003 - 2011) in five different positions. He was also Hurler of the Year in 2009. Retired from the inter-county game in 2014 after winning nine All-Ireland titles.
He continues to play club hurling with Tullaroan. In 2019, he was part of the Tullaroan side which won the club's first adult title in 25 years, and went on to win that season's All-Ireland intermediate club title with victory over Fr O'Neill's of Cork.
He works as a bank official, and is also in the media with Off The Ball.
Ken McGrath (Waterford)
A three time All-Star winner as a forward (2002), midfielder (2004), and defender (2007). Retired from inter-county hurling in 2011 aged 33 following a 15-year career. A year later he was appointed as a Waterford selector under Michael Ryan.
In December 2013, he suffered a brain haemorrhage and later required open heart surgery.
A year to the day over open heart surgery , crazy , mad , year , feel great now thou 💪 if they bring back the hand pass goal I'd go back 😀😀😀
— Ken McGrath (@kenmcgrath78) April 15, 2015
He runs Mean Bean Coffee with his brother Eoin, also a former Waterford hurling.
Tony Browne (Waterford)
A three-time All-Star (1998, 2006, and 2007). He was also Hurler of the year in 1998. Retired from inter-county hurling in 2014 after a 23-year career.
In 2021, he was a coach with the Dicksboro hurlers under manager Paraic Fanning. Browne was also a Waterford selector under Liam Cahill in 2022.
15 January 2022; Waterford manager Liam Cahill, right, and selector Tony Browne before the 2022 Co-op Superstores Munster Hurling Cup Semi-Final match between Clare and Waterford at Cusack Park in Ennis, Clare. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
James 'Cha' Fitzpatrick (Kilkenny)
A three-time All-Star winner (2006, 2007, and 2008). He was also Young Hurler of the Year in 2006. Retired from inter-county hurling in 2011 aged just 26.
He now lives in Xi'an, China, where he's married, and works as an English Medium Language teacher. In January 2022, the Ballyhale man appeared in a video for China Xinhua News, a state affiliated media outlet, extolling the benefits of his adopted home's response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"I was asked to do a clip as a foreigner," he told the Irish Daily Mail about that appearance.
"I answered it fairly positively - I think any of the negative bits were cut out! I do believe in what they're doing here."
10 August 2008; Kilkenny captain James 'Cha' Fitzpatrick leads the Killkenny team during the parade. GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Semi-Final, Kilkenny v Cork, Croke Park, Dublin. Picture credit: David Maher / SPORTSFILE
He added: "A few of the lads in the WhatsApp were laughing away, saying 'There must have been pressure on you to say that'. There was no pressure."
Fitzpatrick also said that he hasn't picked up a hurley in years.
Michael 'Brick' Walsh (Waterford)
A four-time All-Star winner (2007, 2009, 2010, and 2017). He won as both a back and forward. Retired from inter-county hurling in 2019 after a 16-year career.
In 2021, he was player-manager with the Stradbally footballers.
Dan Shanahan (Waterford)
Won three All-Star awards (2004, 2006, and 2007). He was also Hurler of the Year in 2007.
Shanahan retired from club hurling this year, aged 45 - 12 years following the end of his inter-county career - after playing for Lismore in their Waterford SHC quarter-final defeat to Mount Sion.
28 August 2022; Dan Shanahan of Lismore during the Waterford Senior Hurling Club Championship Quarter-Final match between Mount Sion and Lismore at Fraher Field in Dungarvan, Waterford. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
"I was disappointed with the way it ended for me but that’s sport," he told WLR FM.
"I’ve given 30 years to my club and I’ve no regrets. I played one junior year, one intermediate year and the rest was all senior. It was phenomenal.
"I loved going up to my club, I loved putting on the jersey, I gave it everything I had on the good days and on the bad days. I always say it to young lads in Lismore, the club is where you start and the club is where you finish.
"I’ve had a fantastic career. I loved putting on the jersey and I’ll never forget where I came from. It’s time for other lads to stand up and be counted now and I’ve no doubt they will."
Shanahan, who was a Waterford selector when Derek McGrath was Deise manager, will be part of Willie Maher's Laois backroom team in 2023.
Ollie Moran (Limerick)
The Ahane man retired from inter-county hurling in 2009 following a 12-year career. He was subsequently involved as coach with the Limerick U21s, and later the Laois senior team under Eamonn Kelly. This year, he was a coach with Limerick senior hurling side Blackrock.
He is the principal director of Ollie Moran Financial Services which is based in Limerick.
Stephen Molumphy (Waterford)
11 June 2022; Podge Boyle of Kerry exchanges a handshake with Kerry manager Stephen Molumphy as he is substituted during the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Preliminary Quarter-Final match between Kerry and Wexford at Austin Stack Park in Tralee, Kerry. Photo by Diarmuid Greene/Sportsfile
Retired from inter-county hurling in 2014, aged 30, after eight years on the Waterford panel. He joined Davy Fitzgerald's Wexford backroom team as a selector in 2019, and the following year filled the same role with the Waterford hurlers under Liam Cahill.
Molumphy is manager of the Kerry hurlers. He led them to the 2022 Joe McDonagh Cup final where they lost by a point to Antrim.
The Ballyduff Upper man is a Commandant in the Irish Defence Forces.
Andrew O'Shaughnessy (Limerick)
The Kilmallock man retired from inter-county hurling in 2011, aged just 26. Two years earlier, he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
O'Shaughnessy went on to win Limerick SHC titles with Kilmallock in 2010, 2012, and 2014. His final involvement with the club was in the 2015 All-Ireland club final defeat to Ballyhale Shamrocks. In 2018, he coached Tournafulla to the club's first ever Limerick Junior A Hurling Championship title.
16 August 2009; Andrew O'Shaughnessy, Limerick, in action against Gavin O'Mahony, left, and Damien Reale, Tipperary. GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Semi-Final, Tipperary v Limerick, Croke Park, Dublin. Picture credit: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE
During his episode of TG4 series Laochra Gael, which aired in 2019, O'Shaughnessy explained that his condition had not worsened since its diagnosis.
"My last MRI, it showed up the lesions that I had originally, instead of further developing, there was a dramatic decrease in the lesions," he said.
"That's good, [Doctor] Peter Boers is delighted with that. He goes, 'I wouldn't know that you have MS other than the fact that I'm looking at an MRI of you.' How it hasn't escalated from my diagnosis, as you would normally see, that bodes well for the future, hopefully.
"People think of MS and they associate it with the worst case scenario before the medication developed and got better. Fortunately enough, I'm not in that case. I might be in the future but I cannot worry about that. If you're worrying about the future and what could affect you, you're going to miss a bus driving down the street and it could hit you."
The 37-year-old is an officer in the Irish Defence Forces.
Henry Shefflin (Kilkenny)
An 11-time All-Star winner (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012), and also three-time Hurler of the Year (2002, 2006, 2012). He retired from inter-county hurling in 2015 as a 10-time All-Ireland winner, and began a media career as a pundit with RTÉ on The Sunday Game.
Shefflin subsequently managed Ballyhale Shamrocks to All-Ireland club titles in 2019 and 2020.
In 2021, he was named as the surprise successor to Shane O'Neill as Galway hurling manager. His first season saw Galway win a Leinster title before falling to eventual All-Ireland champions Limerick in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Eddie Brennan (Kilkenny)
A four-time All-Star (2003, 2006, 2007, 2008). He retired from inter-county hurling in 2012 as an eight-time All-Ireland winner with Kilkenny.
The guard managed the Laois hurlers for two seasons, stepping down in the winter of 2020.
See Also: The 1997 GAA All-Star Football Team: Where Are They Now?
