Sport

The highs and lows of 2016

<strong>&nbsp; CLEANING UP:</strong> Slaughtneil chairman Sean McGuigan gathers up the trophies won by the club in 2016 following a photo shoot of the captains of the Emmett&rsquo;s football, hurling and camogie teams
  CLEANING UP: Slaughtneil chairman Sean McGuigan gathers up the trophies won by the club in 2016 following a photo shoot of the captains of the Emmett’s football, hurling and camogie teams   CLEANING UP: Slaughtneil chairman Sean McGuigan gathers up the trophies won by the club in 2016 following a photo shoot of the captains of the Emmett’s football, hurling and camogie teams

New champions in Armagh, same old name on Sam, Slaughtneil sweep through Ulster and heartbreak for goalkeepers, Antrim hurlers and, of course, Mayo. Andy Watters looks at the moments of joy and pain of the last 12 months...

THE HIGHS

Slaughtneil win everything


SLAUGHTNEIL is a way of life. If only you could bottle the spirit of that Derry club and flog it around every other club, GAA or otherwise, in the country and then stick it on eBay and take it to Dragons Den and demand 100 million quid for half a per cent of your company… Brother, you would make a clean fortune. 


But let’s not get carried away because of course you can’t buy what they have up in Slaughtneil. 


That sort of magic comes from love of club, love of community, love of Gaelic Games and, of course, love of being the best and winning everything.  


The Robert Emmet’s outfit took Ulster by storm in 2016 and won senior provincial titles in hurling, camogie and football. Next year they intend to do the same on the national stage and could necessitate a headache for Croke Park’s scandalously under-resourced fixtures department think tank if they can take out St Vincent’s in the football semi-final and Cuala in the hurling. That would mean switching one of the club final from its traditional St Patrick’s weekend home. H’on the Emmets!

Maghery raid the Orchard


THEY say a change is as good as a rest and while that will be cold comfort for perennial Orchard county champs Crossmaglen, Maghery’s success must be viewed as a good thing by Armagh Gaels.


The Sean McDermott’s club had never made a final before this season but they saw off Crossmaglen conquerors St Patrick’s, Cullyhanna – beaten in the senior and junior deciders – to lift the Gerry Fegan Cup. 


The celebrations must have been off the Richter Scale but that didn’t stop Maghery accounting for Cavan’s Ramor United (who, in fairness, were probably only coming around from county championship celebrations of their own) in the first round of Ulster. 


Meanwhile, around about now in a field in south Armagh, Gareth O’Neill and his Cross boys are single-mindedly plotting their revenge in 2017. They’ll be back next year, oh yes they will be back…



Tipp’s two-pronged attack 


SURE isn’t Tipp a hurling county? I hear you ask. Well, yes of course it is. Sure aren’t they All-Ireland champions!


But the footballers did well too and showed that you don’t actually have to play the same way as everybody else to have success – you can go out and play to your strengths and not spend all your time worrying about the opposition. 


Liam Kearns’ side went all the way to the All-Ireland semi-finals and gave Mayo a good game of it. 


The hurlers of course went a step further and beat Kilkenny in the Liam MacCarthy decider.

It’s not just about winning


THE image of the Championship. At the end of the Waterford-Kilkenny All-Ireland hurling semi-final replay at Semple Stadium, a distraught Pauric Mahony slumped to the ground with his head buried in his hands after his late free had dropped just short.


Spectators invaded the field and an RTE camera caught young Kilkenny supporter Jennifer Malone stopping to console Mahony. 


It was a touching sight that would have taken a tear out of a stone. Let’s never forget this sort of sportsmanship is what the GAA is about at its best.

Stand uuuuuuuup for the Ulstermen


OUR political representatives played fast and loose with the best part of half-a-billion pound up in Stormont but Ulster’s footballers did their best to take our minds off it by beating Connacht in the inter-provincial football final.


Sadly there was no tickertape open-topped bus ride through celebrating throngs warmed by the heat of a thousand wood-pellet-burning stoves along the streets of Belfast to mark the occasion. 


After 100 or so hardy souls had turned out to watch Ulster beat Munster in the semi-final a week previously, the GAA needed to give the ailing competition a bit of a lift by scheduling the decider for erm… Carrick-on-Shannon. 


Are they trying to tell us something?

Tyrone get their Hands on the Anglo-Celt again


SINCE their last win in 2010, Ulster had been dominated by Donegal and Monaghan and Tyrone faced defending champions Donegal in this year’s final.


It was classic Clones – every paying supporter went home with a farmers’ tan to savour and the game reached an unforgettable crescendo in the six minutes of ‘Mickey time’ that were played. 


Donegal had led by three points and looked in control at half-time but the Tyrone bench dragged the Red Hands back into it and first Sean Cavanagh and then Peter Harte stepped up with superb scores to snare the Anglo-Celt.

THE LOWS 

Mayo’s first own goal


THE predictably unpredictable westerners were under the cosh early in the AllIreland final against Dublin when Kevin McLoughlin stabbed the ball into his own net. Someone rightly described the moment as “The most Mayo thing that had ever happened to Mayo in the entire history of Mayo”. Which it was.

Mayo’s second own goal


IN typical Mayo style, the most Mayo thing that had ever happened to Mayo in the entire history of Mayo was quickly relegated to the second most Mayo thing that ever happened to Mayo in the history of Mayo. One own goal was bad enough, but a second arrived a few minutes later when Colm Boyle smashed a piledriver past his own goalkeeper. It took 31 minutes before a Dubliner scored, but in the end Mayo were happy to salvage a draw. Crazy stuff.

Jeepers keepers


THERE was a time, and I know this from bitter experience, when you stuck someone expendable in nets and he took the blame and let the talented lads enjoy the credit they so richly deserved. But then goalkeepers had to go and become important with their fancy strategic kick-outs and their longrange frees and all that. Mayo goalkeeper Rob Hennelly’s performance in the All-Ireland replay was a reminder that being a goalkeeper is a thankless task and that anyone with an ounce of footballing talent should avoid the position at all costs. Remember how it went? A high ball came in but Hennelly, a late replacement for David Clarke, fumbled it, Paddy Andrews picked it up, Hennelly took him down and got a black card for his trouble, Diarmuid Connolly scored the peno and Clarke (on for Hennelly) picked the ball out of the net. Later Hennelly posted a heartfelt apology on Instagram that was ripped to shreds by pundit Joe Brolly. Mothers, don’t let your children grow up to be goalkeepers…

Kilcoo losing in Ulster again


ONE for sorrow, two for joy? Unfortunately not for Down’s leading lights Kilcoo AKA The Magpies. After Jim McCorry left, there were those who thought that the men from the Mournes would begin to fade, but Paul McIver took over and the operation didn’t skip a beat. They completed five in-a-row in Down by hammering Burren and then Clonduff and then beat Scotstown, Glenswilly and Maghery to get to their second Ulster final. No club deserved an Ulster title more but old hands Slaughtneil denied Kilcoo the prize they craved in the final. They’ll be back again next year though.

Armagh do a treble


RECORDS haven’t been easy to come by for Armagh in recent seasons but they did manage one in 2016. However, it’s an unwanted one for being the first side to lose three Championship games in the same season. Cavan had ended the Orchardmen’s Ulster Championship hopes before Kieran McGeeney’s men travelled to O’Moore Park to face Laois. With the game in the third minute of injurytime and Laois winning by three points, manager Mick Lillis sent on Shane Murphy as the seventh substitute. A replay was ordered – at the same venue – and Laois survived a spirited Armagh comeback to win by a point and bring down the curtain on a forgettable campaign for the Orchardmen.

Antrim hurlers’ scoreboard debacle


YOU know the craic. You’re at the match and somebody taps you on the shoulder and offers you a Starburst. “Aye, thanks,” you say as you put your hand into the bag hoping for an orange one or, failing that, at least a green one. You draw a red but before you can decide whether it’s OK to swap it or take a second one you hear a roar, turn back around and see that you’ve just missed a score. “Who got that?” you ask. That’s kind of what might have happened in the Christy Ring Cup final when Antrim took on Meath. The final score was given as 2-18 to 1-20 but it soon emerged that the Starburstloving scoreboard attendant had missed an Antrim point and Meath’s celebrations were cut short as a replay was ordered. Sadly Antrim lost again and this time the scoreboard was correct.