So here it is. After weeks of head-scratching and brain-racking, the quest to find the best XV club players of the noughties is finally at an end. JOHN SAVAGE takes you through the selection process. IT'S not definitive and it won't be cast in stone anywhere, but we reckon the team lined up to the right could more than hold its own in any decade - past, present or future.

Like any good team it has a bit of steel, a bit of power, a bit of pace and a bit of finesse; and in the case of some selections, it has all four rolled into one!

No-one will agree with the selection 100% (we didn't even agree 100% with each other!), but the jerseys certainly weren't handed out cheaply and some were debated for quite some time.

So how close was Martin Farrelly to making the final XV? No JP Rooney? Stephen Melia?

For what it's worth, here's a bit of an insight into the selection process...

The selectors

Behind any good team is a good manager, but in this case it was a fiveman selection team comprising of former county and club players and managers with years of experience in the world of Gaelic football behind them (Paddy Clarke, David Reilly and Niall Lambert); and two journalists ( John Mulligan and John Savage) who, between us, covered the Louth club scene across the entire decade.

Moreover, Clarke, Reilly and Lambert all managed a Louth club side in the noughties - in Paddy's case more than one team - so could not be better placed to run the rule over the prospective candidates.

The candidates

All that said, football is a game of opinions and the first job was to line up a list of candidates. Well over a hundred made the first short-list, purposely selected from every team in the county.

After two weeks, these were whittled down to just 60 names (4 goalkeepers; 12 fullbacks; 12 halfbacks; 8 midfielders; 12 half-forwards; and 12 full-forwards), from which the final team would ultimately be selected.

At this point 22 clubs were still represented, while on the final XV, eight clubs made the cut -a refreshing statistic given that All-Star selections usually span about four or five teams at the most.

The criteria

The clue is in the name....CLUB Team of the Decade! Put simply, some players excel at county level, but don't always serve their club as well as might be expected, while some players never gain inter-county recognition, but drive and inspire their clubmates over many years.

Obviously there will be a crossover between the two, but for the purposes of this exercise we looked at players exclusively as clubmen, attempting to quantify their influence on their team in terms of success, leadership and inspirational qualities.

However, first and foremost, the purpose of this exercise was to find the BEST team of the noughties, so raw talent was a pre-requisite!

The decision

With the house-keeping out of the way, let's get down to the nitty gritty of team selection.

With three Senior titles apiece, Newtown Blues, Mattock Rangers and St Patrick's were always going to feature heavily. They were the three best teams of the decade and the reason for that is simple: they had the best players. While they failed to end their Joe Ward jinx, Cooley Kickhams were never far behind the big three and dominated the O'Donnell and Sheelan Cups throughout the decade, which is no mean feat in its own right and deserves recognition.

The old cliche that every team starts with one name on the teamsheet may or may not be true, but in this case Paddy Keenan slotted into the number 8 jersey without so much as the batting of an eyelid. Selecting his partner proved a little trickier, but we'll come back to that in due course.

Colm Nally got the nod as goalkeeper, but came under pressure from Seamus Quigley, his understudy for Louth during Paddy Clarke's tenure as manager.

For some reason, unknown to us all, next up was the full-forward line. Potentially one of the toughest lines on the team, it didn't take long for Colin Kelly and Aaron Hoey to be installed at top of the right and full-forward respectively.

The point was made that Hoey and Keenan were by far and away the two outstanding players in Louth football during the noughties, while Kelly was Man-of-the-Match in senior (with the Blues) and intermediate finals (with the Dreadnots) at either end of the decade.

The race for no. 15 was trickier! Darren Kirwan, Niall Sharkey and Shane Lennon all made the short-list, but Lennon ultimately missed out by virtue of the fact that Hoey claimed the full-forward spot.

That left Brian White and JP Rooney and the general consensus was that White, four-time top-scorer in the senior championship, was more influential for a Cooley team who won three O'Donnell Cups, than Rooney was for a Naomh Mairtin side who ultimately failed to deliver on their undoubted potential in the noughties.

The choice of Christy Grimes, Ollie McDonnell and Mark Brennan on the half-forward line was unanimous. Joe's had many stars in their 2006 Joe Ward success, but Ollie provided the cutting edge on the forty as they went on a giant-killing spree. David Reid was extremely unlucky not to make the final XV, but his Mattock teammates Christy Grimes and Mark Brennan got the nod from all five selectors.

The full-back line wasn't quite so straightforward, but Breen Phillips and Colin Goss slotted in at right corner and full-back quite smoothly and, after some lively debate on the

merits of Owen Zamboglou and Ronan Greene, Alan Page was unanimously handed the number four shirt.

The half-back line was perhaps the toughest call of the night. Ray Finnegan got a collective thumbs-up straightaway, but John O'Brien came under severe pressure at left-half back from Newtown Blues' pair Ray Hughes and Simon Gerrard, with the former pushing particularly hard for inclusion.

O'Brien could have filled the no. 6 jersey instead, but there were plenty of strong candidates there too, in the shape of Stephen Melia, Ray Kelly and Nicky Malone. But these teams always throw up a surprise or two and Colin Hoey's selection is sure to raise a few eyebrows.

However, as anyone who has been heavily involved in club football in Louth over the past ten years will testify, Hoey has been to St Mochta's what Melia was to the Joes. A true clubman, he could play anywhere, but at centre-back he has few equals, a fact underlined by his performances for St Mochta's in their Junior and Leinster Championship runs this season.

Similarly, Keith Lynch's service to Newtown Blues earned him the second midfield berth. A key member of the double winning side at the turn of the century, he was a central figure in the 2008 success and even 2005 when Blues were pipped by Mattock in the final.

Martin Farrelly is the obvious casualty, and if this were a Louth County Team of the Decade he would have been one of the first names on the teamsheet, ditto JP Rooney!

But until then... So here it is. After weeks of head-scratching and brain-racking, the quest to find the best XV club players of the noughties is finally at an end. J

OHN SAVAGE takes you through the selection process. IT'S not definitive and it won't be cast in stone anywhere, but we reckon the team lined up to the right could more than hold its own in any decade - past, present or future.

Like any good team it has a bit of steel, a bit of power, a bit of pace and a bit of finesse; and in the case of some selections, it has all four rolled into one!

No-one will agree with the selection 100% (we didn't even agree 100% with each other!), but the jerseys certainly weren't handed out cheaply and some were debated for quite some time.

So how close was Martin Farrelly to making the final XV? No JP Rooney? Stephen Melia?

For what it's worth, here's a bit of an insight into the selection process...

The selectors

Behind any good team is a good manager, but in this case it was a fiveman selection team comprising of former county and club players and managers with years of experience in the world of Gaelic football behind them (Paddy Clarke, David Reilly and Niall Lambert); and two journalists ( John Mulligan and John Savage) who, between us, covered the Louth club scene across the entire decade.

Moreover, Clarke, Reilly and Lambert all managed a Louth club side in the noughties - in Paddy's case more than one team - so could not be better placed to run the rule over the prospective candidates.

The candidates

All that said, football is a game of opinions and the first job was to line up a list of candidates. Well over a hundred made the first short-list, purposely selected from every team in the county.

After two weeks, these were whittled down to just 60 names (4 goalkeepers; 12 fullbacks; 12 halfbacks; 8 midfielders; 12 half-forwards; and 12 full-forwards), from which the final team would ultimately be selected.

At this point 22 clubs were still represented, while on the final XV, eight clubs made the cut -a refreshing statistic given that All-Star selections usually span about four or five teams at the most.

The criteria

The clue is in the name....CLUB Team of the Decade! Put simply, some players excel at county level, but don't always serve their club as well as might be expected, while some players never gain inter-county recognition, but drive and inspire their clubmates over many years.

Obviously there will be a crossover between the two, but for the purposes of this exercise we looked at players exclusively as clubmen, attempting to quantify their influence on their team in terms of success, leadership and inspirational qualities.

However, first and foremost, the purpose of this exercise was to find the BEST team of the noughties, so raw talent was a pre-requisite!

The decision

With the house-keeping out of the way, let's get down to the nitty gritty of team selection.

With three Senior titles apiece, Newtown Blues, Mattock Rangers and St Patrick's were always going to feature heavily. They were the three best teams of the decade and the reason for that is simple: they had the best players. While they failed to end their Joe Ward jinx, Cooley Kickhams were never far behind the big three and dominated the O'Donnell and Sheelan Cups throughout the decade, which is no mean feat in its own right and deserves recognition.

The old cliche that every team starts with one name on the teamsheet may or may not be true, but in this case Paddy Keenan slotted into the number 8 jersey without so much as the batting of an eyelid. Selecting his partner proved a little trickier, but we'll come back to that in due course.

Colm Nally got the nod as goalkeeper, but came under pressure from Seamus Quigley, his understudy for Louth during Paddy Clarke's tenure as manager.

For some reason, unknown to us all, next up was the full-forward line. Potentially one of the toughest lines on the team, it didn't take long for Colin Kelly and Aaron Hoey to be installed at top of the right and full-forward respectively.

The point was made that Hoey and Keenan were by far and away the two outstanding players in Louth football during the noughties, while Kelly was Man-of-the-Match in senior (with the Blues) and intermediate finals (with the Dreadnots) at either end of the decade.

The race for no. 15 was trickier! Darren Kirwan, Niall Sharkey and Shane Lennon all made the short-list, but Lennon ultimately missed out by virtue of the fact that Hoey claimed the full-forward spot.

That left Brian White and JP Rooney and the general consensus was that White, four-time top-scorer in the senior championship, was more influential for a Cooley team who won three O'Donnell Cups, than Rooney was for a Naomh Mairtin side who ultimately failed to deliver on their undoubted potential in the noughties.

The choice of Christy Grimes, Ollie McDonnell and Mark Brennan on the half-forward line was unanimous. Joe's had many stars in their 2006 Joe Ward success, but Ollie provided the cutting edge on the forty as they went on a giant-killing spree. David Reid was extremely unlucky not to make the final XV, but his Mattock teammates Christy Grimes and Mark Brennan got the nod from all five selectors.

The full-back line wasn't quite so straightforward, but Breen Phillips and Colin Goss slotted in at right corner and full-back quite smoothly and, after some lively debate on the

merits of Owen Zamboglou and Ronan Greene, Alan Page was unanimously handed the number four shirt.

The half-back line was perhaps the toughest call of the night. Ray Finnegan got a collective thumbs-up straightaway, but John O'Brien came under severe pressure at left-half back from Newtown Blues' pair Ray Hughes and Simon Gerrard, with the former pushing particularly hard for inclusion.

O'Brien could have filled the no. 6 jersey instead, but there were plenty of strong candidates there too, in the shape of Stephen Melia, Ray Kelly and Nicky Malone. But these teams always throw up a surprise or two and Colin Hoey's selection is sure to raise a few eyebrows.

However, as anyone who has been heavily involved in club football in Louth over the past ten years will testify, Hoey has been to St Mochta's what Melia was to the Joes. A true clubman, he could play anywhere, but at centre-back he has few equals, a fact underlined by his performances for St Mochta's in their Junior and Leinster Championship runs this season.

Similarly, Keith Lynch's service to Newtown Blues earned him the second midfield berth. A key member of the double winning side at the turn of the century, he was a central figure in the 2008 success and even 2005 when Blues were pipped by Mattock in the final.

Martin Farrelly is the obvious casualty, and if this were a Louth County Team of the Decade he would have been one of the first names on the teamsheet, ditto JP Rooney!

But until then...

Let us know your view.