A wry look at the year

Cometh the man,
cometh the hour

For long stretches of Glen’s All-Ireland final against St Brigid’s back in January, it looked like we were on course for an upset. It just wasn’t happening for the Watty Graham’s, but we all know what happened next: Conor Glass scored a fantastic goal and they ended up with their hands on the Andy Merrigan. What I’ll remember most of all was a moment a matter of minutes after his goal, Conor leaping like a salmon to get one almighty fist on the ball from a St Brigid’s restart. Seconds later the ball was over the bar, and it was hard not to get caught up in their success after the whole Kilmacud Crokes debacle in the 2023 final.

Forget about work
for a second

I covered Tyrone’s All-Ireland exit at the hands of Roscommon earlier in the year but I wasn’t the only reporter who got distracted after the game in the glittering environs of the Healy Park pressbox. The distraction? A thrilling clash against Mayo and Derry in Castlebar that went all the way to penalties. We crowded around a fellow journo’s laptop as a riveting game reached a memorable conclusion with Conor Doherty’s winning spot-kick (not quite sure what I made of the celebration though). It didn’t mark an up-turn in Derry’s fortunes, however; they were knocked out the very next week by Kerry.

Well that was
rather entertaining

We all wax lyrical about hurling at times but my god, this year’s All-Ireland Senior Championship final between Cork and Clare was unbelievable. Some of Tony Kelly’s scores bordered on the inhuman as they edged their Munster rivals by a single point after extra-time (the full-time score was 3-25 and 1-31 for crying out loud) in a game for the ages. I’m a football man but you won’t catch me poo-pooing hurling fanatics and their apparent ‘notions’ after spectacles like that.

The third Canavan son

Peter Óg McCartan is a fine player, but he isn’t a regular score-getter. But he didn’t let that get in the way deep into stoppage time of a riveting Ulster Senior Championship final. His late winning point will go down in Errigal Ciaran folklore, and he also scored a cracker earlier in the game. At the homecoming later that night, he quipped ‘some say I’m the third Canavan son.’ Pithy.

Better than all the rest…

Right, let’s take a look at what Ulster teams have won in the last 12 months or so. The All-Ireland Senior, Intermediate and Junior football titles (Glen, Arva and Cullyhanna). The Sigerson Cup (Ulster University), the MacRory and Hogan Cups (Omagh CBS), the Sam Maguire (Armagh), the All-Ireland U-20 (Tyrone) and Minor (Derry) titles. And a word for our hurlers, who landed Nickey Rackard and Lory Meagher honours (Donegla and Fermanagh). It’s been quite the year. And let’s not forget Mickey Harte’s Derry, who won the Division One title before things petered out.

Storm of the year

Storm Ashley, that put paid to the Tyrone and Armagh Senior Football finals and there were plenty more where that came from, or a late surge from Storm Darragh earlier in the month, which caused a postponement of the Mageean and Rannafast Cups? Anyway, all joking aside, there needs to be some joined-up thinking at National level about these things because the situation where some games are called off and some aren’t is fairly farcical.

Long live the queens

Donaghmoyne ladies’ long, and we mean long reign came to an end in Monaghan this year. Their winning streak of 21 consecutive Senior Championship titles was halted by Emyvale but it had to happen some-time and their legendary status within Ladies Football has long been assured.

Social media
spat of the year 1

Cahair O’Kane vs Jerome Quinn.

Social media
spat of the year 2

Cahair O’Kane vs Jerome Quinn, a few weeks later.

Now that’s what
you call a u-turn

Here, I’m not a Donegal man but I’m glad Michael Murphy has reneged on his decision to retire. He’s a legend of the game, comes across as a genuinely civil fella, and we all want to see the best players strutting their stuff on the big stage. And sure Paul Conroy won Player of the Year at the age of 36 and Michael Murphy is still a mere – checks Wikipedia – 35! A spring chicken. Welcome back Michael…

More than a game

THE Sam Maguire will reside in Armagh over the winter and deservedly so. One of my abiding memories is the photo of Niall Grimley sinking to his knees with his eyes closed at the final whistle of the All-Ireland final victory over Galway. Last year his brother Patrick, sister-in-law Ciera, and family friend Ciara McElvanna tragically died in a horrific car accident, and it was nice to see Niall reach the pinnacle of the game after such a devastating period for himself and the rest of the Grimley household.

All’s changed,
changed utterly

ARE ye a fan of the new rules? Personally, I think some sort of change was definitely necessary as I’ve spent god knows how many weeks or months of my life trying not to fall asleep during low-scoring first-halves (usually it picks up a bit – eventually). The interprovincial series, trialling the new rules, was all in good fun but Croke Park under lights is a world away from the average club game, so the jury is still very much out on whether 40-metre arcs and all the rest of it will be conducive to a better spectacle or just lead to even more rows than usual.

2025 – start your engines.

RIGHT, this is supposed to be a refresher on 2024, but think about it: Malachy O’Rourke (Tyrone), Kieran McGeeney (Armagh), Jim McGuinness (Donegal), Paddy Tally (Derry) and so on and so forth. The 2025 Ulster Championship – and beyond – should be fun…