Sport

GAA all the way: the A to Z of 2016

Dublin's Diarmuid Connolly and Mayo's Lee Keegan battle it out during September's All-Ireland football final at Croke Park<br />Picture by Colm O'Reilly
Dublin's Diarmuid Connolly and Mayo's Lee Keegan battle it out during September's All-Ireland football final at Croke Park
Picture by Colm O'Reilly
Dublin's Diarmuid Connolly and Mayo's Lee Keegan battle it out during September's All-Ireland football final at Croke Park
Picture by Colm O'Reilly

HOW do you encapsulate 12 months of GAA action? It’s all as simple as Austin, Black, Calendar for Paul McConville as he recaps 2016 in the world of Gaelic games to the letter...

A is for Austin. In a year when Tipperary beat Kilkenny in the All-Ireland final and Clare were League champions, it seems all the more remarkable that Waterford’s Austin Gleeson should complete the double of Hurler and Young Hurler of the Year, but that is the measure of the immense talent of the 21-year-old Mount Sion man.

B is for Black. The men in black and the black cards they doled out. It all got too much for the man who is said to have inspired this most divisive of rule changes. Tyrone’s Sean Cavanagh could take no more when watching the All-Ireland final between Dublin and Mayo and tweeted: “Ridiculous black card. Horrible for McCarthy & huge loss to Dublin. I should never have made that tackle in 2013.” Maybe we could get the Men in Black from the movies to use that wee flashy thing and make us all forget the terrible chapter.

C is for Calendar. You may be able to pick one up with a 50 per cent discount from those stands in the middle of shopping centres up and down the country now, but the calendar challenge facing the Croke Park boffins is not an envious one. Cramming club and county matches into a 12-month cycle while allowing time for a bit of R&R is another issue which came to a head in 2016. Adh mór.

D is Dublin. The 2016 vintage made a serious case for joining the lauded Sky Blues teams of the past in the pantheon of all-time greats. Stretched their unbeaten streak to 29 games when capturing League and Championship titles this year.

E is for Extension. Mickey Harte asked for an extra year as Tyrone boss that would keep him in the hotseat until at least 2018, but the Tyrone County Board turned him down. Could 2017 really be the last year for the Red Hands’ most successful manager ever?

F is for Feet. Hey, inter-county footballers, turns out those things on the end of your legs aren’t just for running. A wellexecuted foot-pass shuffled closer towards extinction in 2016 with many Gaelic ‘foot’ballers opting instead to stretch every muscle and sinew in their arm and shoulder attempting a 20-yard lateral handpass. Get the laces through it, lads.

G is for Grassroots. 2016 saw the formation of the Club Players’ Association in a bid to give club players across the country a voice. What that voice might say will become clearer in 2017, but it’s unlikely to be quiet.

Kieran Hughes fires in a shot as Monaghan rip Down to shreds in Clones in last season&#39;s Ulster SFC
Kieran Hughes fires in a shot as Monaghan rip Down to shreds in Clones in last season's Ulster SFC Kieran Hughes fires in a shot as Monaghan rip Down to shreds in Clones in last season's Ulster SFC

H is for Hunger. Monaghan star Kieran Hughes admitted recently that the hunger just wasn’t as fierce for the Farneymen in 2016. They missed out on an Ulster final for the first time in four years and were dumped out of the Championship by Longford. They did hold on to their top flight status, though, so some tasty Division One clashes should be enough to whet the appetite in 2017.

I is for Inspiration. Jennifer Malone consoling a distraught Pauric Mahony after Kilkenny had beaten Waterford in the All-Ireland hurling semi-final replay was an inspirational sight and a display of sportsmanship which earned the Kildare girl widespread praise.

J is Java, J is also for Jamie, Clarke that is. The Crossmaglen coffee connoisseur looks to have knocked his globetrotting ways on the head for now and is to pull on the orange jersey of Armagh again. It’s one of the great sights in sport to see Clarke espresso himself on the football field.

K is for Kick-outs. Short ones, long ones, oddly enough, never mediumsized one. Kickouts were under the microscope again, not least because they are now more widely referred to as ‘restarts’. Stephen Cluxton is effectively Dublin’s playmaker due to his nuanced kick-out strategy, something Kerry targeted with almost resounding success in the All-Ireland semi-final. It was a blueprint Mayo failed to follow, though.

L is Love/Hate. Fierce rivals on the pitch, neither prepared to back down in the pursuit of the win, yet both need each other more than they’d like to admit. The enduring love-hate relationship between Mayo’s Lee Keegan and Dublin’s Diarmuid Connolly is a story for the ages.

See A section above: Waterford star Austin Gleeson picked up both the Young Hurler of the Year and Hurler of the Year awards at the Allstars
See A section above: Waterford star Austin Gleeson picked up both the Young Hurler of the Year and Hurler of the Year awards at the Allstars See A section above: Waterford star Austin Gleeson picked up both the Young Hurler of the Year and Hurler of the Year awards at the Allstars

M is for managers. No Ulster football county progressed beyond the last eight of the Championship but eight out of the nine men at the helm will be patrolling the sidelines again in 2017. Cavan are the exception, with Mattie McGleenan the only new manager for the year ahead.

N is for Neutral venue. The Dubs ventured out of the capital for the first time in over a decade of Championship action, facing Laois on the neutral ground of Nowlan Park. A change of scenery didn’t alter their fortunes, though, as they ran out 11-point winners.

O is Own goals. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, “To score one own goal may be regarded as a misfortune; to score two looks like carelessness.” The All-Ireland football final witnessed the freak occurrence of two own goals in the first half, handing Dublin a lead they barely deserved at that stage. It could only happen to Mayo.

P is for Proposals. This year’s must-have. Anybody who’s anybody has rolled out their own proposals for a restructuring of the football Championship. Roll up the League and Championship into one competition, have an open draw, a two-tier Championship – many of them involve a ‘Champions League’ style format of groups and knock-out round. Yes, because that never existed before Uefa dreamt it up nearly 30 years ago.

Q is for Quinlivan. Tipperary’s run to the All-Ireland SFC semifinal was epitomised by fast, thrilling counter-attacking football. Michael Quinlivan’s power, pace and scoring prowess were major factors in Tipp’s adventure and he deservedly scooped a first Allstar.

R is for replay and re-runs. Two Ulster football semi-finals and the Connacht football final required replays, while the Christy Ring Cup final between Antrim and Meath and Armagh’s All-Ireland football Qualifier against Laois had to be re-run for miscalculations regarding the score and number of substitutes used respectively. Both games went the same way as they had done first time round, stretching out the pain for the Ulster counties.

S is for Slaughtneil. If you want something done, ask a busy man. Not content with conquering the Ulster club scene with hurls in hand, the dual stars of the Robert Emmet’s club grabbed the big ball and captured the provincial football crown. Not to be upstaged, the club’s camogs were also crowned queens of Ulster capping a remarkable year for the south Derry club.

T is for Tipperary. Eamon O’Shea and Seamus Callanan masterminded a first AllIreland win for the Premier county in six years with a devastating dismantling of Kilkenny in the final. Callanan finished with 0-13 in the final, 0-9 of it coming from play, and O’Shea was vindicated for his handling of the mercurial Drom & Inch man.

U is for Under construction. The weeds are still growing around Casement Park, but the Ulster Council are confident the serious work of redeveloping the west Belfast venue can get underway in 2017.

V is for Vincent’s. The shortened form of Dublin and Leinster champions St Vincent’s. While all eyes were on the AllIreland football final in September, Vincent’s were honing their assault on county, provincial and now All-Ireland success by facing Crossmaglen in a challenge match the night before Dublin took on Mayo. A certain D Connolly was a more than interested spectator that night, highlighting his commitment to the cause.

Brendan Rogers was a busy man in 2016, winning Derry and Ulster titles with his club Slaughtneil in hurling and football as well as fitting in an All-Ireland Qualifier and his brother&rsquo;s wedding on the same day in July
Brendan Rogers was a busy man in 2016, winning Derry and Ulster titles with his club Slaughtneil in hurling and football as well as fitting in an All-Ireland Qualifier and his brother’s wedding on the same day in July Brendan Rogers was a busy man in 2016, winning Derry and Ulster titles with his club Slaughtneil in hurling and football as well as fitting in an All-Ireland Qualifier and his brother’s wedding on the same day in July

W is for Wedding. Derry were facing Tipperary in an All-Ireland Qualifier and Brendan Rogers’ brother was getting married on the same day in July. No problem for the Derry full-back who quickly cast off the white and red rig and got suited and booted ready to join the celebrations later in the day.

X is for Ex-county players who starred at Euro 2016. Donaghmore’s Niall McGinn, a former Tyrone U21 player, scored Northern Ireland’s second goal against Ukraine while Shane Long, a former hurler with GortnahoeGlengoole and Tipperary minors, was a key figure as the Republic of Ireland reached the knock-out stages.

Y is for Yawn. Football continued to get it in the neck from pundits this year for churning out a host of boring spectacles while hurling was lauded for its box office appeal. Are we to see a sudden surge towards the local hurling club? Let’s wait and see…

Z is for Zero. The temperatures were plunging towards zero when Donegal rocked into the Pairc Esler on the last day of January to dismantle Down in their NFL Division One opener. It was an ominous portent of what was to come for the Mournemen as zero was also the number of matches they would win against senior intercounty opposition in 2016. The only way is up for Down in 2017