So what learnings have we made? From the old school it's almost as you were. Steve Finnan's a rock. Ditto Richard Dunne, player of the year three seasons in a row now for Manchester City. Robbie Keane can still blow hot and cold, from fighting for a starting spot to matchwinning, sevengoals-in-a-month kind of form. Damien Duff has had two tough years. As always though, it's the unknowns and the unpredictables that are most interesting, the players we've found out . . . for better or worse.

Of the newbies, Paul McShane . . . remember, he wasn't on the Irish squad nine months back . . . has seen a reputation rise with some steady performances. He held tough at West Brom, has filled in at rightback and centre-half to become a regular and . . . surprise, surprise given his bustling style . . . a bit of a crowd favourite, to the extent that their fans had an Irish day for their last away trip of the season, dressing in green leprechaun outfits as a salute to himself and Dean Kiely. While there's still improvement to be made in distribution and there was the odd mistake, he's chipped in with goals, bombing runs down the wing and even a Ronaldinho-style flip-flap . . .seriously, check it out . . . to beat a player last weekend. A promotion and weekly exposure to the Premiership at this stage of his development wouldn't do any harm.

Stephen Hunt's had the sort of year most guys dream about but that he pretty much expected, clocking up 27 starts, four goals, a bagful of assists and man-of-the-match awards to go with a penchant for winning ball when he really shouldn't before taking on defenders with a much bigger reputation and whipping in crosses all day long.

Basically, the sort of form that Steve Staunton couldn't really ignore.

Anthony Stokes was another in that category, making that step from a young fella who everyone assumed was handy because Arsene Wenger was making the right noises, to a �2million player with those three hat-tricks up in Falkirk. And if his half-season with Sunderland has been bitty . . . seven starts, some quality touches, two goals, a couple of incidents that make you realise he's only 18 with a rep for being a bit of a lad . . . there's the fact he's heading into the big league and the feeling he could hardly be in better hands right now. Anyway, McShane and Hunt have had career-making years. That's probably a few years down the line for Stokes.

And he could hardly have a better inspiration than a certain striker who made the move from championship to Premiership as naturally as he's made every step asked of him so far. People couldn't expect much more of Kevin Doyle than a young player of the year nomination from the PFA and a top five goalscorers spot with 12 goals despite missing a couple of months injured. It's the most impressive debut season in the Premiership from an Irish player since Robbie Keane's 99/00 with Coventry (when he also got 12 goals and a PFA young player nomination by the by).

The best Keane's done since then was 16, a figure surely not beyond Doyle with more improvement or, perhaps, a move upwards.

Stephen Ireland's had a strange mishmash of a year that'd probably get the nod under success mostly. Way back in August we mentioned a target of at least 20 starts in the league (he's got 13) and a couple of goals, but injury and Claudio Reyna held up the first part till December and, well, one league goal (he's now scored more international goals than Premiership) to his name ain't all that bad when playing with this Man City side. There was the fact he was picked out in the Observer across the water as the emerging talent of 2007, leaving Nemanja Vidic on his backside in setting up a goal at Old Trafford, getting starts that he needed against the top sides and just a general sense of class about the passing, movement and vision that's got him honourable mentions in most games he's played.

He's turned the workrate up a notch as well, but there are still doubts, physical mainly, over whether Ireland can slot into the centre of a 4-4-2 and influence the game. Stuart Pearce has been slow enough to try it . . . as was Steve Staunton in fairness . . . and the possibility is that Ireland needs to play off the front players or in a threeman central midfield. If he can hang in there, there'll be better targets than Bernardo Corradi and Georgios Samaras to find with killer passes come August.

Of random others, Stephen Quinn showed enough in a couple of months of balled-up energy and two cracking goals to suggest there's more to come at Sheffield United; Daryl Murphy, Stephen Ward and Andy Keogh all ended the year in a better place than they started it as striking options; Owen Garvan recovered from a nasty virus, looks the best of the lot at Ipswich and at 19 is only a move or a promotion tilt away from a call-up; Liam Miller looked neat and tidy up in Sunderland but still needs a big year to convince. And up in Scotland, Aiden McGeady mirrored Celtic's form, stunning for a few months and then a little underwhelming while Darren O'Dea probably learned more from those two Milan matches than six months of Scottish league games. McGeady needs more consistency in the bigger games, O'Dea just needs to nail down a spot in defence.

Genuine disappointments were only around the corner as well. Steven Reid followed up his best season for Blackburn with an altogether more frustrating nine months, starting only three games before being hit with a back injury and then a cruciate problem; it'll be tough to regain the momentum he had this time 12 months ago. Joey O'Brien didn't even get one game for Bolton with knee trouble and went from bright young thing to well down the pack. After spending so long struggling to get himself into the Premiership, Andy Reid now finds himself out of it again with Charlton after a season that flittered with a couple of man-of-the-match displays before Christmas where he looked a genuine playmaker to not actually playing from mid-January on with niggly injuries. Thing is, he mightn't have done enough to warrant any rush to bring him back to the top league either, and at a time he ought to be looking at getting 30 games a year, he's barely had 20 starts in the past two. Andy O'Brien . . . and again, remember that he started the year as one of the first choice Irish centre-halves in Germany and Cyprus . . . couldn't get a game for love nor money with Portsmouth, only started once, at Old Trafford, and has slipped down the pecking order with Ireland due to that club form.

That's where we're at then.

As many club regulars as we've had for a while and a nice group of younger players pushing towards that level.

It won't go down as the worst year Irish players have had by a long shot.