BEST GAA MATCHES
Some may disagree, but there were some absorbing games in this year’s Ulster Championship (Cavan v Monaghan, Monaghan v Fermanagh and Monaghan v Donegal), while the first Munster clash between Kerry and Cork was excellent - but the most enjoyable game I covered in 2015 was the All-Ireland U21 Football final between Tyrone and Tipperary.
The pace and skill levels of the two finalists were exemplary. Played at a packed Parnell Park, this was the night players like Mark Bradley, Ruairi Brennan and Mark Kavanagh announced their arrival on the big stage. The genuine pity was that the game was remembered for all the wrong reasons afterwards.
In second place was the Ulster Club Senior Hurling Championship final between Cushendall and Slaughtneil. This truly epic encounter swung one way, then the other before man-of-the-match Neil McManus and Conor Carson nailed scores for Cushendall to win it deep into extra-time.
In third place, the Ulster Club Senior Football final between Crossmaglen Rangers and Scotstown was also a magnificent advertisement for the club scene.
GAELIC FOOTBALL'S NEW PURIST
Scotstown manager Mattie McGleenan deserves huge credit for his purist approach to Gaelic football. The Monaghan champions were a breath of fresh air in 2015. In an age where every club manager is playing sweeper systems, McGleenan opted to play “total football”.
“We just go man-for-man,” explained McGleenan, “it’s total football. We’re going to play total football. Every man has to do their job. Every man pulls his own weight. That’s who we are.”
Only dead fish go with the flow…
MOST LETHAL HALF OF FOOTBALL
Darren Hughes single-handedly blitzed reigning champions Slaughtneil in the first-half of their Ulster Club Championship clash in Clones, hitting a magnificent 1-4 from play.
With Slaughtneil playing without a sweeper, the Scotstown full-forward managed to turn highly-rated full-back Brendan Rogers several times to see off the Derry men. Slaughtneil were left reeling and, although they made a fist of it in the second-half, they never really recovered from Hughes’ ruthless scoring spree in the first-half.
BEST DUEL
Conor McManus versus Neil McGee from this year’s Ulster SFC final in Clones. McManus broke McGee’s stout resistance just before half-time with a brave score and never looked back. This duel summed up everything that’s great about the Ulster Championship.
MOST UNHELPFUL QUOTE
“On the journey back from Croke Park, Rory had been trying to convince me that we needed to rebuild from the beginning now and that a lot of the senior boys had had their day.”
This was the neatly packaged incendiary - page 214 - that was rolled under the table of Donegal manager Rory Gallagher by Jim McGuinness in his recently published autobiography, Until Victory Always.
There’s nothing like creating a bit of paranoia among the more senior members of the Donegal squad and putting your former assistant on the back foot after just one season in charge. Omerta, it seems, only lasts until you decide to sit down and write your autobiography.
BEST GAA RESULT
Antrim’s All-Ireland SFC Qualifier win over Laois. Frank Fitzsimons’ men came back from nine points down to beat their hosts in a thrilling finale. It was the most dramatic result in the 2015 Championship bar none.
BIGGEST FLOP
They fought five years too late and, when they eventually did back in May, Floyd Mayweather jr and Manny Pacquiao served up one of the most boring fights of their illustrious careers. Mayweather skated to a unanimous 12-round decision, while Pacquiao claimed afterwards he wasn’t fit to fight in the first place because of a shoulder injury he’d kept under wraps until after the fight.
COLDEST DAY AT A GAME
Nothing will ever eclipse the legendary cold of St Patrick’s Day 2006, when St Gall’s lost the All-Ireland final to Salthill-Knocknacarra. It’s the coldest I’ve ever been at a football match.
This year’s Ulster Club final between Crossmaglen Rangers and Scotstown was played in woeful conditions. Stationed in the media overspill area at the back of the main stand in the Athletic Grounds, Kenny Archer and I were coping fine until the game entered extra-time. Those extra 20 minutes done untold damage to our marrow.
BEST SPORTS BOOK
Until Victory Always, by Jim McGuinness. An absorbing read from the first page to the last. What the Glenties man achieved with Donegal in four years was nothing short of miraculous. But this was more than a mere sports book. McGuinness talks openly about loss and his sense of vulnerability.
Until Victory Always captures the raw grief McGuinness felt from the tragic loss of his brothers Charles and Mark. Elsewhere in the book, the real pity is there was no sense of regret or remorse from McGuinness over how Kevin Cassidy was cut from the Donegal squad in 2011. Keith Duggan of The Irish Times gives a masterclass in ghostwriting.
COUP OF THE YEAR
An email landed with The Irish News sports department in late October from a new group calling themselves ‘Saffron Vision’. Turned out they were the real deal. In their address, the group said it was “time for change” in the county and for Antrim GAA to start fulfilling its potential.
They backed up their words with actions too. Their strategy yielded incredible results at county convention, winning six out of eight available posts. Antrim approaches 2016 with a rare spring in its step.
BEST IRISH LEAGUE MOMENT
George McMullan’s perfect chip against Linfield back in October. With the ball stuck under his feet and surrounded by Linfield defenders, McMullan aimed for the postage-stamp corner of the visitors' goal and found it. A supreme piece of skill from a supremely gifted footballer.
BEST MOMENT
Watching, from high in the Aviva Stadium’s press box, Republic of Ireland striker Shane Long out-stripping Mats Hummels and Jerome Boateng and lashing the ball past Manuel Neuer to sink world champions Germany.
HE SHOULD'VE WON AN ALLSTAR
The game isn’t played the way it used to be and perhaps it’s something the GAA’s Allstars committee needs to be more cognisant of when they make their selections at the end of every year.
Tyrone’s Colm Cavanagh played a very specific, deep-lying role as the Red Hands reached the All-Ireland semi-finals and he was consistently outstanding. His performances were deserving of Allstar recognition.
BEST QUOTE
“I had a body like Bruce Lee. Seriously.” - Joe Brolly explains how serious he became about his conditioning in the latter stages of his playing career.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Jonathan Walters. The Stoke City front man was the Republic of Ireland’s best player in their successful Euro 2016 qualification campaign by a considerable distance. He popped up with crucial goals against Scotland (h), Georgia (h) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (h) in 2015.
Walters mightn’t have the flair, the touch or the fancy flicks of a top striker - but what he lacks in grace he more than makes up for in heart. He is a living, breathing parable of what can be achieved with the right attitude and dogged determination.
MESSI MOMENTS YOU'D LIKE TO RELIVE
1. Messi dribbling past five Athletic Bilbao defenders and putting Barcelona in front in last season’s Copa Del Rey final.
2. Messi nutmegging James Milner in the Champions League.
3. Messi stealing Jerome Boateng’s soul and scoring yet another brilliant individual goal against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
IF YOU COULD TURN BACK TIME
If he had to do it all again, Tiernan McCann wouldn’t have thrown himself to the ground in dramatic fashion, claiming injury, after Darren Hughes had ruffled his fine mop of hair in Tyrone’s All-Ireland quarter-final win over Monaghan.
BIGGEST BLUFFER
Louis van Gaal. The Dutchman spends £250m, moulds one of the worst teams ever seen at Old Trafford and proceeds to tell Manchester United fans to lower their expectations.
BEST TACTICS
The way in which Malachy O’Rourke set up Monaghan to beat Donegal in the Ulster final was brilliant. To overcome Donegal’s blanket, the Monaghan players patiently moved the ball from one flank to the other, pulling the opposition defenders out of position and, with some precise kick-passing, they exploited every hole that appeared and went on to win their second provincial crown in three years.
LEAVING HIS MARK
His words were perhaps lost in the close season, but Barry Johnston bid a fond farewell to Cliftonville Football Club to take up a player/coaching role at newly promoted Carrick Rangers.
‘Janty’ suffered a horrific knee injury in the St Stephen’s Day derby clash with Crusaders and never played for the Reds again. In an emotional salute to Solitude, the teak-tough midfielder was asked how he would like to be remembered by the club’s fans: “I just want to be remembered as someone who left everything on the pitch,” he said.
“Now, I’ll look forward to taking my kids to Cliftonville games.”
PEOPLE REMEMBER CLASS
After making a dramatic recovery from a life-threatening head injury he sustained during a club game for Pearse Óg's in August, Ronan Clarke was “overwhelmed” by the support and goodwill he received across all sporting codes. The 33-year-old came out of a five-day coma and has made a full recovery.
In an interview with The Irish News earlier this month, the 2002 All-Ireland winner was mystified as to how people remember him: “We won the All-Ireland 13 years ago,” he laughed. But people remember class. That’s why they remember Ronan Clarke.
MISSING THE CARGIN ROGUE
Antrim's Tony Scullion decided to hang up his boots in the summer after giving over a decade’s service to the saffron jersey. Everyone will miss his lung-busting runs from his wing-back position and his no-nonsense approach to the game. Reporters will also miss his roguish turn of phrase and craic after Antrim games. Pure gold.
THE NIGHT THE WHEELS NEARLY CAME OFF
How did Carl Frampton ever end up risking it all in some small-hall show in El Paso, Texas against rangy Mexican Alejandro Gonzales back in July?
Dropped a couple of times in the opening round, Frampton dug deep to successfully defend his IBF super-bantamweight belt after 12 gruelling rounds. Sold as The Jackal’s first step to conquering America, it was as giddy as it was dangerous. Putting aside the rights and wrongs of the El Paso odyssey, Frampton will still beat Scott Quigg.
BEST GAA SOAP OPERA
It was a surreal year in Down. The county committee appointed Jim McCorry and, a handful of months later, voted (7-6) to get rid of him. The county committee brought their recommendation forward to the clubs to sack the manager after one season in charge. (No, this is not the English Premier League).
In a further twist, the clubs voted to retain McCorry, albeit by a narrow margin. Weeks later, the county committee said they supported their man “100 per cent”. Forgive McCorry, but he didn’t think that a committee that voted 7-6 to sack him can ever be “100 per cent” behind him.
McCorry had little option but resign. In an interview with The Irish News, McCorry expressed his misgivings. When the dust settled, it turned out it was all the media’s fault. (Please note: this is not someone’s fertile imagination. This really happened).
A SHOCK BUT NOT SHOCKED
Initially, the news of Tommy Breslin’s resignation felt like a shock but, on closer inspection, the former Cliftonville midfielder was always a reluctant manager and was never in it for the long haul.
He took the reins from Eddie Patterson in April 2011 and became the club’s most successful manager, winning back-to-back league titles, three League Cups and, memorably, saw the Reds play Celtic in the Champions League.
Breslin’s decision had little to do with the side’s 6-1 mauling by Ballymena United the previous Saturday. He was simply running on empty since the end of the previous season.
MANAGER OF THE YEAR
This has to be a joint award between Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill for guiding Northern Ireland to their first major finals since 1986 and long-serving Crusaders boss Stephen Baxter, who finally got his hands on the league title in 2015.
DOING IT FOR THOSE WHO MATTER
Joe Gormley provided a touching insight into the real joy of winning a full-time professional contract with English League club Peterborough United.
After another prolific season with Cliftonville, Gormley was snapped up by Peterborough in the summer. His father passed away 13 years earlier. He was his son’s biggest fan.
A day after realising his dream, this is what Joe had to say to The Irish News: “I’d love to see what my dad would be like now, how he would feel about it… if he was here. I know he’d be happy with what I’m doing. It’s for my mummy [Marguerite], too, because she’s looked after me since my daddy passed away. I owe her big-time.
“I want to take this opportunity. I want to aim high and hopefully I can help her because she’s looked after me all my life. When you’re a kid people ask you what you want to be when you grow up. I would say: ‘A footballer’ and they’d laugh at you. I dreamt about it all my life and it has come true.”
Unfortunately, Joe suffered a serious knee injury while playing for Peterborough’s reserves at the end of September. He’s expected to be back for the start of next season. The dream’s not over. It’s just on hold.
ONE OF THE SADDEST SIGHTS
Watching Colm Cooper - one of the greatest forwards of the modern era - trailing in Philip McMahon’s wake in this year’s All-Ireland final. The ‘Gooch’ was being nursed through Kerry’s summer after recovering from a cruciate ligament injury he sustained in February 2014. But he simply couldn’t cope with Dublin’s intensity and McMahon’s surges out of defence. The ‘Gooch’ was never placed on this earth to track runners.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS
This year’s All-Ireland final between Kerry and Dublin, Armagh’s meek exit to Donegal in the Ulster Championship and Antrim’s NHL relegation play-off loss to Kerry.
STILL FLOGGING A DEAD HORSE
After Antrim’s hurlers suffered relegation in the National League back in April, RTÉ pundit Donal Óg Cusack floated his giddy ‘Team Ulster’ idea again. A nonsensical proposal from beginning to end.
BEST CHARACTER
Fermanagh's Sean Quigley. Brought colour to an otherwise average summer. You gotta love the big guy.
KIND OF A BIG DEAL
The late Aaron Devlin #Dook of Ballinderry, while hurling lost one of its most influential figures in Jim Nelson. RIP.
