It’s January 2025 and it’s cold, wintry and dark. It reminds me of my school days. Even when I was a student in St Flannan’s College in Ennis, the only month I really disliked was January.
The Christmas lights were gone and Leaving Cert exams were getting closer – although we never worried about them until the grass was cut in April and May.
It was the hurling and football that kept us alive. With darkness descending early, it was difficult to train for the Harty Cup and senior football teams, despite the best efforts of who was later to become Bishop Willie Walsh, Fr Seamus Gardiner and Fr Ollie O’Doherty.
But on reflection, these were great days. Full of memories, full of characters. Some of us were lucky to be on the senior teams, few of us were fortunate to have Bishop Willie for our Leaving Cert physics class, the last class of the day on a Friday.
He was, with Fr Gardiner, the Harty Cup manager – the senior hurling managers. But the Friday after a Harty Cup or Munster Colleges game that we had won, the players in the class had to show initiative and ask the questions.
“Father…Father”… we would shout. “What did you think of Barry Smyth’s display on Wednesday against the North Mon?”
A great footballer like Mick Lillis, later to become a Clare and Laois footballer and Laois manager, would say: “Fair play Father, ye made great changes.”
Under no circumstances could we allow him to start teaching and he was, by the way, a brilliant teacher.
Eventually he would relent and say in his Tipperary accent: “Right… we will talk about the game for five minutes.”
“No problem Father – five minutes,” in unison we would reply. But the truth is we knew we had him.
He smiled. We smiled. A double class of physics became a double class of hurling and football. No homework. Job Done.
This January is very different as I reflect on the last 12 months. I miss the characters that once were part and parcel of our games.
So many inter-county players say off the record to me how great it is in one way to be involved at the highest level in their chosen sport, but also how relentless it is, how time-consuming it is and how much of the fun has gone out of it for some of them.
Do you remember the great Tipperary hurler and footballer, and later manager, Michael ‘Babs’ Keating?
In an interview with Ger Canning the day before the 1990 Munster hurling final against Cork, he said: “You can’t win a derby with a donkey.”
As they say these days – it went viral.
John Mullane was shown a red card in the 2004 Munster final against Cork, and told Tony O’Donoghue afterwards, surrounded by hundreds of his own people: “I loves me county. 21 years later, it is still out there.”
Ten years ago, after Kerry won the All Ireland football title, Kieran Donaghy, now of course a key figure in the Armagh management team that won the All Ireland last year, looked down the barrel of the camera and roared: “Well Joe Brolly, what do you think of that?”
Joe had said previously that the Kerry team were in a period of transition given the lack of underage success and “the production line was grinding to a halt in the Kerry football factory”.
But then Kerry won.
29 years ago, there was my own interview with Clare manager Ger Loughnane at half time in the All Ireland hurling final in 1995 against Offaly.
He spoke to me as the teams emerged onto the field for the second half, and I asked: “Are ye going to do it?”
His response was simple: “We’re going to do it” And they did. And Ger gave me the quote that still resonates decades later.
Back then, life at the top of the GAA world seemed a lot simpler. Were there any major quotes from this year’s GAA season? I don’t really think so.
Clare hurlers did it again this year in one of the most dramatic and scintillating All Ireland hurling finals ever.
One of Loughnane’s protegees from the 1995 and 1997 All Ireland winning teams, Brian Lohan, was the man in charge and deserves great credit for what he has done for the Banner County.
It has been a remarkable journey in 2024 alone.
A National Hurling League title earlier on was followed by heartbreak – losing to the then-All Ireland champions Limerick in Cusack Park in Ennis in the first round of the Munster Championship in front of a sell-out crowd at home.
When Clare were in control for so long, it really did hurt.
The Banner had to re-focus because they had to beat Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on the next day out, which they did.
They then lost another Munster final to Limerick, only to come good in Croke Park against a Kilkenny side that had ended their All Ireland dreams in the previous few seasons.
At least from their perspective, Clare were now in the final.
Cork, meanwhile, were simply outstanding.
I will never forget doing the commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 with former Tipperary hurler Shane McGrath and painting the pictures for the listeners to the wireless on a sunny Saturday evening in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Cork bravely fought for their Championship survival against an incredible Limerick side who were chasing their sixth Munster title in a row and fifth All Ireland in a row – what a game.
Patrick Horgan faced Nickie Quaid at the Blackrock End in a late penalty.
It was his 27th goal in his Championship career. Full-time score Cork 3-28 Limerick 3-26. It was epic. It was emotional.
The scenes afterwards were incredible. Thousands descended on to the pitch to lift their new heroes on to their shoulders.
You’d swear Cork had won the Munster Championship rather than a Round 3 game against their rivals up the road on Shannonside.
I said it on commentary that night that while Cork has produced amazing iconic talents like Christy Ring, Roy Keane, Sonia O’Sullivan, Rob Heffernan, Donal Lenihan and more recently Paul O’Donovan, there is a connection between the people of Cork and the game of hurling that is special.
It’s a love affair that is unquenchable and that night on Leeside will forever be etched in my mind.
Cork hurlers went on to beat Tipperary in Round 4 of the Munster Championship before seeing off the challenge of Offaly and Dublin and setting up another clash with Limerick, only this time in an All Ireland semi final in Croke Park.
The Rebels and the Banner would face each other in the All Ireland hurling final as they did 11 years earlier in 2013 and once again, the result was the same.
It was a game for the ages, but let’s be honest, when we are all in heaven or wherever, the generations to come will talk about one moment of magic from the magician that is Tony Kelly.
I played hurling at minor level with Ballyea and so got an opportunity to play with players like Paddy Quinn, Brian Hayes and Donal Kelly.
I have maintained that long-standing friendship with a great community and over the years visited Donal and his family regularly.
Donal is father to Tony Kelly, and not once did I visit the Kelly family over the years that Tony didn’t have the sliothar and the hurley in his hand. Every visit. Every time.
As I write this, I can hear the ball banging off the wall outside.
It always reminded me of the stories of Christy Ring, always having the sliothar and the hurley in the cab of the oil truck as he travelled around the country doing his job.
After Tony Kelly scored his magical goal, Michael Duignan on co-commentary beside me in Croke Park seized that very special moment perfectly when he said: “That’s 20 years practicing out the back.”
And I knew from personal experience that those words were so true and so accurate.
Read more: Is Clare success the beginning of a new golden era?
The homecoming for me was breathtaking and filled me with pride.
40,000 in the Fair Green Park in Ennis was mind-boggling, while the crowd at Wolfe Tones GAA Club in Shannon waited for hours in the torrential rain to see the newly-crowned All Ireland champions Clare bring Liam MacCarthy home.
But they waited too out of respect for one of their own who had given five years of his life to build a team who overcame adversity and heartbreaking defeats to their neighbours Limerick in Munster finals to finally get over the line.
Brian Lohan is a legend, a colossus in Clare.
On 11 January, in Dromoland Castle, the Clare team will be presented with their Allianz League medals and their All Ireland medals.
The final chapter of 2024 – a Clare Year.
This has absolutely nothing to do with Clare winning the All Ireland, but I honestly think on reflection, as we say goodbye to 2024, that hurling was the real star of last year’s GAA season.
The other factor that saved the GAA inter-county year from being forgettable was Armagh winning the football All Ireland.
The Munster Hurling Championship, like the Ulster Football Championship, are the real jewels in the provincial championship set up, but allow me to concentrate on hurling for a moment.
I make no apologies to anyone when I say it is the greatest game in the world.
Some of the football games this year were very poor.
Many were good to be fair, but too few to maintain the status quo. Something had to be done.
Armagh v Kerry was my game of the year and here are some interesting stats from that game:
- 38% shooting accuracy
- 14 wides
- 4 shots saved
Armagh shone brightly in the last quarter and in extra time, outscoring Kerry 1-9 to 0-5.
This was a really enjoyable game of football.
Galway v Dublin was my second choice for the best game of the year. The last quarter of the quarter final tie in Croke Park was an absolute cracker.
Most of the football matches I attended had become so defensively minded that a large number of games were being played laterally from sideline to sideline. From the Hogan Stand to the Cusack Stand and back to the Hogan. It drives me mad.
Tactically it was interesting, or so I was told many times, but ultimately it was not the game I fell in love with.
Football was becoming boring and predictable, and I will never forget a Derry club game that I commentated live on TV in Owenbeg a few months ago between Newbridge and Magherafelt. Man…it was bad. Let’s say it tested my vocabulary to its limit.
But I should say congratulations to Newbridge on winning the Derry Championship a few weeks later.
That being said, 2024 was a great year for Ulster football.
Armagh won the All Ireland; Glen, the Derry champions, won the All Ireland club; Omagh CBS won the Hogan Cup, the All Ireland Colleges title, for the second year in a row; Derry footballers won the Allianz League and the Derry minors won the All Ireland Minor title under the guidance of Damien McErlain while Tyrone’s under 20 footballers were flamboyantly stylish in winning all around them and well done to Paul Devlin, their manager.
Ulster football is in a great place and are clearly poised for world domination.
I really think there is great credit due to Kieran McGeeney for his ten-year stint in charge of his beloved Armagh.
Himself and Brian Lohan (both of whom were All Stars in the same year) are a clear indication that county boards and the county supporters need to stop this nonsense of dropping managers after a year or two in charge.
Lohan’s five-year run and McGeeney’s decade-long stint shows that loyalty and commitment are better recipes for success than social media keyboard warriors who often hide behind a pseudonym looking to end somebody’s management career for whatever reason.
It’s not fair and should not be considered in any analysis.
Mentioning quotes at the beginning of my review brings me nicely to what I think is a good quote from McGeeney about his Armagh team.
He said: “They were told they couldn’t beat teams above them. They beat teams above them.
“They were told they would never get out of the group of death. They topped the group of death.
“They were told they couldn’t win tight games. They won tight games.
“Everybody said they wouldn’t win the All Ireland. And they won the All Ireland.”
It was also a great year for Kerry’s ladies footballers when they won the All Ireland senior title they had sought with all their might and energy for years.
Players like Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh, Siofra O’Shea, Lorraine Scanlon and Niamh Carmody finally got what they and the Kingdom richly deserved – the Brendan Martin Cup, the symbol of All Ireland glory.
Meanwhile, their neighbours down south were winning the All Ireland senior camogie title again.
Cork looked and were brilliant as the Championship reached the semi final and final stages. The Leesiders are blessed to have wonderful players like Pamela Mackey, Hannah Looney, Laura Hayes, Laura Treacy, Aisling Thompson, Saoirse McCarthy, Amy O’Connor and Meabh Cahalane.
Going for three in a row in 2025 will be interesting to watch.
But there are other good teams out there like Galway, Tipperary, Waterford and Kilkenny to seriously challenge them.
There are many issues that were talking points in 2024 and will be again in 2025.
Read more 2024 in Review stories
The split season is still a topic of debate and for me, All Ireland finals in July is way too early.
The clear vibe I get from all the people I meet everyday of my life is simple – they love the games but it’s all too rushed.
There is no time to savour a game, and I do fully understand and empathise what Croke Park are trying to do, but the inter- county season needs more space.
I honestly believe the All Ireland finals should be on the first and third Sunday in September.
They are the crown jewels so to speak and the rest of the schedule should work around this.
There’s the whole issue of holidays, schools being open, the diaspora, the marketing of the games in September when there is little opposition.
The GAA once owned September, and they need to reclaim it before other sporting bodies cop on that space is available.
I’m a devout clubman myself but the reality is that the club championships do not capture the hearts and minds of a nation.
I remember Liam Mulvihill, a great GAA Director General, being concerned about the length of the inter-county “off season” when there was no inter-county action for four months as it left a huge gap for commentary and chatter about what the GAA should or should not be doing.
The gap has extended to almost six months now.
Add in the presence of social media into our lives and it is very difficult.
The club player has to be catered for of course, but all I’m saying is that too much has been conceded. Bring it back a little.
I’m also acutely aware that our top inter-county players need to have a break and many find that difficult to achieve.
I’m told September will never come back, which I think is a mistake and that over time, the finals might be played in August and no doubt that would help but for me and many more, July is way too early for All Ireland finals.
Money, finance and the Revenue Commissioners came into view towards the end of 2024 and no doubt will come under the spotlight once again sometime in 2025.
But right now, the GAA world is starting to crank up its inter-county season from its autumn and winter slumber and looking forward to seeing what will happen in the Allianz football leagues especially under the new rules.
The Football Review Committee (FRC) under the chairmanship of Jim Gavin has done a fabulous body of work, but in a few weeks’ time, comes the real litmus test when the counties get into action.
Read more: FRC changes: Proposed new look for Gaelic football
The dropping of the pre-season tournaments were controversial at the time, and while it was the right decision, it was maybe not at the right time as it would have given counties competitive experiences of the new rules.
But ultimately the GAA have to make space in their hectic schedule.
The 3×3, solo and go, the two points outside the arc and many more changes will all become part of our lives and vocabulary over the next number of months and I have no doubt that managers and coaches are right now plotting and planning on how best to employ these new rules to suit their particular teams strengths and weaknesses.
I was surprised that that the handpass wasn’t dealt it in some manner or means.
The handpass is part of our football game but perhaps it needed some form of restrictions in terms of number of passes.
I have absolutely no doubt that the FRC discussed that in detail amongst themselves.
But just to make my point…a final statistic for you: In the 1984 All Ireland football final, Dublin handpassed the ball 31 times. In the 2024 final, Galway handpassed the ball 347 times.
Even in 40 years, that is a substantial jump in numbers.
Right now, just like the footballers and hurlers, I’ll be preparing for the season ahead with our own team in RTÉ Sport and News.
So much to look forward to as I feel 2025 is going to be frantic but wonderful.
A privilege to be involved. A privilege to report on what I think will be an historic year. See you in Ballybofey or Killarney or Croke Park!
