By John Harrington

The 2018 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship has run its course, and if you haven’t quite caught your breath just yet that’s perfectly understandable.

It’s not hyperbole to suggest this was the greatest hurling championship in the history of the game.

The new Championship structures gave us more matches, and because there are now so many evenly matched and genuinely competitive teams, that was effectively a guarantee of high drama.

Be even the most wide-eyed optimist couldn’t have predicted how sensational this Championship would turn out to be.

And just when it looked like it might all end with a relatively ordinary All-Ireland Final, the hurling Gods decided that simply wouldn’t do at all and delivered 10 of the most eye-popping minutes of injury-time ever seen in Croke Park.

Picking the top 10 moments of such an action-packed Championship is no easy task, and doing so leaves a considerable pile of honourable mentions on the cutting-room floor.

So, here, for the sake of a good argument, is GAA.ie’s very unofficial top ten moments of the 2018 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship.

1: Limerick end 45 years of unlimited heartbreak

There’s no way you could look past Limerick’s long-awaited All-Ireland Final victory for the top slot here.

Seeing a great hurling county end 45 years of underachievement and sometimes disastrous failure was a most fitting climax to a hurling championship that had it all.

Considering the weight of history on their young shoulders, you could only be impressed by the way in which Limerick went about their business.

They took the game to reigning champions Galway right from the start and comprehensively out-hurled them until they flirted with disaster in the 10 minutes of injury-time.

Limerick’s win shows what can be achieved if you combine careful planning with hard work.

This All-Ireland win was founded on putting huge time and resources into an underage academy which has now borne fruit in spectacular fashion.

We’ve now had five different All-Ireland winners in the last six years and no-one could confidently predict who is likely to claim the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 2019.

This truly is a golden era for hurling.

2: Joe Canning’s last-gasp free in the All-Ireland Final

As Joe Canning crouched to take his last-gasp free in yesterday’s All-Ireland Final, the din of noise in Croke Park was simply incredible.

Looking up and behind me into the upper reaches of the Hogan Stand was like witnessing a Caravaggio painting in real life – every extreme of human emotion was on display.

Such was the tension in the stadium it seemed to coil around you and squeeze your chest as Canning’s ball dropped short and into the crowded goal-mouth to a sound-track of roars, wails, and an almost unnatural high-pitched keening as tens of thousands of people simultaneously lost their minds.

When Limerick’s Tom Condon managed to claim it and the final whistle blew a second later, the explosion of noise from Limerick supporters was a sonic boom that cleared the air as dread transformed to unfettered joy.

It was a privilege to be in Croke Park to experience the moment.

3: Nickie Quaid’s All-Ireland semi-final save v Cork

When a team looks back on an All-Ireland winning season, there are a few obvious forks in the road that led to them to the promised land

Limerick goalkeeper Nickie Quaid’s 72nd minute flicked save from Cork’s Seamus Harnedy in the All-Ireland SHC semi-final stands out as an obvious example this year.

It wasn’t noteworthy just for the fact that it prevented Limerick from crashing out of the Championship at the penultimate stage.

The skill and anticipation that Quaid displayed to dive and get that vital saving touch on the ball was as fine a piece of technical skill as you’ll ever see on a hurling pitch.

Quaid’s save was so spectacular that even the famous US sports magazine, Sports Illustrated, felt compelled to crown it their ‘sports highlight of the weekend’.

4: Jason McCarthy’s equalising point for Clare v Galway in the drawn All-Ireland semi-final

You could make a strong case for crowning the drawn All-Ireland SHC semi-final between Clare and Galway as the best match of the Championship.

An absorbing over and back battle finished with a fitting climax when Clare substitute Jason McCarthy struck a last-gasp extra-time equaliser to bring the match to a replay.

What made the score all the more special was the manner in which Clare kept their heads to construct it.

The allotted three minutes of injury-time in the second-half of extra-time were up when Clare goalkeeper Donal Tuohy took a puck-out, but rather than blast it down the field as far as he could he picked out Colm Galvin with a short-pass.

With the whole stadium a high-pitched frenzy of noise, Clare somehow kept their cool as they worked the ball patiently downfield through Galvin, Conor Cleary and David Fitzgerald until it came to McCarthy who held his nerve and shot the sliotar between the posts.

5: Peter Duggan’s point for Clare v Galway in the drawn All-Ireland semi-final

Peter Duggan’s point for Clare against Galway in the drawn All-Ireland SHC semi-final was the score of the Championship.

Winning the ball on the ’45 yard line, he powered past four Galway defenders and somehow kept control of the ball as tackles came in left, right and centre.

He then produced one of the most audacious pieces of skill you’re ever likely to see as he created room for a shot with a couple of one-handed bounces of the sliotar on his hurley before doubling on it in the air to send it between the posts.

6: Clare’s Aron Shanagher hits the post v Galway in the All-Ireland SHC semi-final replay

It was a hurling championship of fine margins and perhaps Clare rather than Galway would have faced Limerick in the Final but for the width of the post.

Having trailed by nine points at one stage in the first half of the All-Ireland SHC semi-final replay against Galway, the Banner staged a stirring comeback.

The Galway players looked punch-drunk late in the second-half as Clare’s onslaught reduced the deficit to a single-point.

It looked like the Banner were about to deliver a knock-out blow when substitute Aron Shanagher was put clean through on goal by Shane O’Donnell with 68 minutes on the clock.

Shanager’s first effort was saved by James Skehill and when the sliotar rebounded into his path he seemed certain to score but his scooped effort from close-range hit the post and rebounded to safety.

Had it hit the back of the net instead, then Clare would have had a two-point lead and probably a winning momentum.

7: Jake Morris hits the post for Tipperary against Clare in the Munster SHC

The Premier County by 1-19 to 0-18 with 65 minutes on the clock they fashioned a goal chance that surely would have buried Clare once and for all.

Jake Morris’ shot was well struck but bounced back off the upright, and Clare went straight back down the field to score a goal of their own through Ian Galvin that gave them the surge of impetus they so badly needed to win the match.

There was still plenty of drama thereafter, most notably the two match-winning points from Peter Duggan, but there’s no doubt that Galvin’s goal was the key moment of the match as they advanced to the knock-out rounds at the expense of Tipp.

8: Comebacks, comebacks, comebacks

Okay, we’re cheating slightly here by not picking a specific ‘moment’, but there were so many spectacular comebacks in this year’s All-Ireland Championship it was impossible to pick just one.

The saying ‘there’s no such thing as a safe lead in hurling’ has now been verified as fact after this year’s All-Ireland Championship.

Tipperary were the King of the Comebacks. They trailed Cork by nine points at half-time in their Munster SHC clash, but a second-half revival saw them claim a draw.

A week later they were down to 14 men and trailing Waterford by 11 points with 16 minutes of normal time remaining but somehow snatched a draw then too.

Clare recovered from nine points down in the first half of their All-Ireland SHC semi-final against Galway to claim a draw.

Kilkenny found themselves trailing Wexford by nine points in their make or break Leinster SHC clash and ended up winning by one.

Limerick were six points down after 62 minutes in the All-Ireland SHC semi-final against Cork and managed to force extra-time without scoring a goal.

There were also plenty of comebacks that fell just short. Galway's, most obviously in the All-Ireland Final when they cut a nine-point deficit to just one, Clare in the All-Ireland semi-final replay against Galway when they also cut a nine-point deficit to just one, and Kilkenny in the Leinster SHC Final replay when they briefly cut a 12-point defict back to one point before Galway finally finished them off.

9: Luke Meade’s goal for Cork v Clare in the Munster SHC Final

Trailing by 2-11 to 0-9 in the 35th minute of the Munster SHC Final against Clare, Cork found themselves in a pretty dire situation.

They were being out-hurled by an increasingly rampant Clare team and it seemed as though they’d go to their dressing-room at half-time in a state of crisis.

When your back is to the wall like that you need your leaders to lead by example, and that’s precisely what Cork captain Seamus Harnedy did.

With his hurley held aloft he demanded that Anthony Nash drive a puck-out towards him straight down the middle of the pitch.

Nash obliged and Harnedy soared into the air to claim a brilliant catch above Clare’s Patrick O’Connor before turning on a five-cent piece and charging towards the Clare goal.

Luke Meade was on his shoulder and Harnedy popped the perfect pass so the wing-forward wouldn’t have to break stride as he collected it. That allowed him to stay one step ahead of the chasing Clare defenders before driving it to the back of the net.

It’s no exaggeration to say the match turned on that moment because instead of going into their dressing-room with their heads down, Cork now had their tails up and would go on to destroy Clare in the second half.

10: Tom Morrissey’s point for Limerick v Kilkenny in the All-Ireland SHC Quarter-Final

It feels like a long time ago now, but Limerick’s victory over Kilkenny in the All-Ireland SHC Quarter-Final was one of the matches of the Championship

It ended in a welter of excitement as Limerick came with a late charge following Richie Hogan’s 66th minute goal for Kilkenny.

The sides were level in injury-time when Tom Morrissey set off on a turbo-charged run down the right-wing that left a desperately chasing James Maher in his wake before somehow arcing a brilliant shot over the bar while in full flight.

Aaron Gillane added an insurance score shortly afterwards, but Morrissey’s point remains the stand-out memory from a brilliant contest.