ALL-IRELAND champions Kilkenny dominate the nominations for the 2008 Opel Gaelic Players Association Players of the Year awards.
The 13 nominations constitute one fewer than the county secured in the All Stars nominations, released two weeks ago. Richie Power is the player to lose out and joins Martin Comerford as the only players from the champions' All-Ireland final starting line-up not to get nominations. Overall there are minimal differences between the selections.
Cork suffer the biggest drop in representation with Cathal Naughton and John Gardiner losing out whereas Wexford, none of whose players made the All Stars list, pick up two, wing back Michael Jacob and wing forward Stephen Doyle.
In an unusual twist, Clare and Offaly have players nominated instead of team-mates who featured on the All Stars list. At corner back Pat Vaughan replaces his Clare colleague Gerry O'Grady and Offaly's David Kenny comes in with team-mate David Franks in the All Stars full-back line list.
The stricter approach to enforcing positions has less drastic consequences than in the players' football selections and one hard call has been clarified. With four outstanding nominations for the three full-forward line places in both awards schemes, the GPA nominations have narrowed the choice to between Waterford's John Mullane and Galway's Joe Canning, both of whom are listed at left corner forward.
The county breakdown is (All Stars nominations in brackets): Kilkenny 13 (14), Tipperary 9 (9), Clare 6 (5), Cork 5 (7), Waterford 4 (5), Offaly 3 (2), Dublin 2 (2) and Wexford 2 (none) and Galway (1) 1 and broken down on a provincial basis the 45 nominees divide as follows: Munster 24 (26), Leinster 20 (18) and Connacht one (one).
