A TO Z OF AN EPIC FOOTBALL YEAR

A is for Anticipation: It might seem an odd way to begin a review of 2019, but my mind – and I suspect the same applies for most supporters – is already on 2020.

And that has everything to do with what has happened over the past 12 months – Kerry’s resurgence, Donegal’s promise, Mayo’s stirring spring and Cork’s summer of redemption – which means that suddenly a lot of counties are straining at the leash.

All that, allied to question marks as to whether Dublin’s appetite has been sated and what impact Jim Gavin’s departure will have had on the team, means the sense we may see a changing of the guard is a potent one.

B is for Breakthrough: They may not have ended up with silverware, but this will go down as a breakthrough year for a number of counties. Leitrim winning promotion from Division 4, Meath following up promotion from Division 2 by making the Super 8s, Cavan reaching a first Ulster final in 17 years and Armagh winning a match for the first time in five years under Kieran McGeeney were all noteworthy achievements.

The most significant, though, may well be Cork’s return to competitiveness, with a stirring summer for the senior team backed up with AllIreland success at Minor and Under 20 level.

C is for Ciarán Kilkenny: In the build-up to the All-Ireland final replay his form – particularly after an anonymous performance in the drawn game – was a major talking point, even if that did ignore a sublime second-half display against Mayo in the semi-final.

However, he saved his best for last with a magnificent performance in the replay. His impact went beyond even the four points he kicked, as he won possession, forced turnovers and linked play superbly.

D is for Dead rubbers: The conclusion to the Super 8s was little short of embarrassing and a stain on the Championship summer. On the final Sunday, four men and a dog were in Páirc Uí Rinn to watch Roscommon and Cork fight over a comb to style their bald heads, while already qualified Dublin and Tyrone understandably put out second string teams for a challenge game in Omagh.

Hopefully we will be spared that farce next summer as a result of the GAA tweaking the format, making first-round winners face off in the second round to ensure at least one team has something to play for in the final round.

E is for Epic: And there is no other way to describe the conclusion to this year’s Championship, which was staggering given that the hype preceding the drawn and replayed finals teed both games up to be an anti-climax.

We were treated to football and drama of real quality – the beauty of Dublin’s goal in the drawn game, the nerveless quality of Seán O’Shea’s kicking, the breathless fluency and execution by both teams in the first half of the replay – all ensuring a perfect backdrop to Dublin’s moment of history.

F is for Five-in-a-row: I am not going to say that it did not hurt, particularly because it was achieved at Kerry’s expense, but I’m not one for wearing blinkers when it comes to recognising greatness. There is something humbling about witnessing a moment in history and seeing a very special team reach the very summit. The exuberance and dynamism makes them such an easy watch and, as I know from experience, so hard to beat.

G is for Goals: That old line about how goals win games never felt so true given that it was Eoin Murchan’s run and strike straight after half-time that was so decisive in the replay, but goal of the year goes elsewhere.

Galway’s defending may have been questionable but the way Mayo’s James Carr swallowed ground in the Gaelic Grounds, accepting the invite to scorch through the middle and fire to the roof of the net was a thing of beauty.

H is for Hill 16: I have never put Dublin’s dominance down to their financial resources, but there is no disputing they have been gifted a major advantage in their access to Croke Park.

Even on All-Ireland final day, the little pockets of Kerry supporters pushed up into corners of the back of the terrace appear to declare that this is Dublin’s patch and not the national stadium.

Personally, and this goes for everyone I played with, I never had an issue with playing in Croke Park, but I know enough about sport, and the psychological advantage we had every time we played in Killarney, to know that home comforts are a genuine advantage.

The tweak to the Super 8s which will limit Dublin to one home game will go some way to addressing that anomaly, but it won’t really be addressed until they develop a stadium for their own use.

I is for injuries: They are a fact of life when you are a sportsman but there are few teams – Dublin, perhaps, the exception due to their extraordinary depth – who will not be derailed if they lose a key player.

Donegal were the big losers on that front this summer as Eoghan Bán Gallagher, just as with Paddy McBrearty 12 months previously, suffered a season-ending injury that may have cost the Ulster champions a place in the last four.

J is for Jim Gavin: The timing of his departure left us stunned, but the timing of his arrival was perfect for Dublin.

As good as the champions are, it is impossible to believe they would have become such a winning machine without the culture he created.

The manner in which he absorbed the lessons from that defeat to Donegal in 2014, the ruthless streak in benching some of his biggest names and willingness to make big calls – including bringing back Diarmuid Connolly this summer – made him a manager out on his own and one that will be a hard act to follow.

K is for Kerry: There is no doubt that it was a very encouraging season for Kerry, although the failure to close out the drawn final was a bitter pill for all of us to swallow.

While the team is in a good place, the assumption that they are primed to take down Dublin may be premature because issues still need to resolved. Until you develop an inside defensive line in which you have absolute trust, you won’t win an All-Ireland. Kerry are getting there, but they still have some road to travel.

L is for leading scorer: The emergence of Cathal McShane utterly transformed Tyorne as he went from being a cog in the wheel to driving force in a blink of an eye, providing not only a target for direct ball in the full-forward line, but also a source of constant threat to defences.

His end-of-season stats were staggering. He finished with the Championship’s golden boot after racking up 3-50 in nine games, with an astonishing 3-24 coming from open play.

M is for Michael Murphy: He has always been a gifted talent – what makes him so extraordinary is that a player of his physical size has such a mastery of the game’s technical skills – but this was arguably his finest season.

He controlled games for Donegal, making himself available as the main target for vital kick-outs, putting in big tackles, linking play and kicking scores – including converting a penalty against Kerry as a number of stewards walked into his line of sight. Peerless.

N is for National League: The one competition which consistently delivers, provided the game with some great spring yarns. Leitrim’s big day in Croke Park, Cork’s demotion to the third tier while Meath finally shed their

second -class citizen’s status. Above all, though, the raucous passion which erupted around Croke for Mayo’s thrilling win in the final over Kerry was one of the moments of the year. It might not have been the national title they covet, but it was one that reminded this Mayo team still has a future.

O is for Offensive mark: It was trialled in the Allianz League and in the New Year it will be a permanent feature in our rule book. I would have major reservations about it, not least that over the past 12 months we have seen hard evidence that the game has evolved with a more attacking trend.

And, speaking with my corner-back hat on, the art of good defending is in what you do when your opponent gets the ball. Under this rule change the skill of defending is in danger of being decomissioned.

P is for Peter Keane: The Kerry managerial seat is never an easy one to slip into, but Keane (below) made light work of it in his first season. It can be argued, given his background as a three-time All-Ireland MFC winning manager, he was always going to give youth its chance, but it was the judgment calls he made in recalling Jack Sherwood and Tommy Walsh which had a profound impact on Kerry’s season – without that pair, they wouldn’t have beaten Tyrone in the semi-final.

Q is for Quality: As football folk, unlike our hurling brethren, we are never slow when it comes to giving our game some tough love but we were blessed with some exceptional quality this year, which provided top entertainment.

And not just the two All-Ireland finals, the Kerry/Donegal clash in Croke Park, a rip-roaring Munster final, Cavan’s joust with Monaghan in Ulster, Armagh pushing Mayo to the wire in the qualifiers and my personal favourite, the Dublin/Mayo semi-final. Mayo’s incredible intensity in the first half – eventually surpassed by Dublin’s brilliance in the second period, showed us how wonderful this game can be.

R is for the Retired: As inevitable as night follows day, the end of the season is always tinged with sadness as great players leave the stage for the final time and among them were two of the most difficult players I ever marked – Bernard Brogan and Andy Moran.

In truth, Bernard all but brought the curtain down on my career when he blitzed me in the 2016 League final and was a player of exceptional ability and conviction, which he showed by refusing to throw in the towel even when he was no longer a first-choice player.

Andy was always a handful and got even better with age to the point where there was a strong case to be made for him staying on another season, but he obviously realised his time. Two truly great talents of our time.

S is for Stephen Cluxton: Just when you think you have seen it all, he goes and does this. As if it was not enough to captain Dublin to a fifth All-Ireland in a row, arguably he also had his greatest season while in his 37th year.

While Dublin’s relentless pressure in the final minutes got the champions out of a hole, all of that would have been irrelevant had Cluxton not kept them in the game with two superb saves and a masterclass in kicking. In particular, when down a man and faced with a Kerry press, his control off the restart tee in the third quarter of the drawn game was nothing short of breathtaking. Simply the greatest goalkeeper of all time.

T is for Tier Two: It has not happened yet, but it was the big talking point all year and as a result of the decision at Special Congress we will see it walk the walk in the New Year. In theory, it is something I would favour to ensure more counties have a chance of winning but for this to work, it has to succeed in getting the buy-in from the counties for which it was dreamed up.

It has received, at best, a mixed reception and if this does not work then we are looking at a more radical Championship reform, because going back is not an option.

U is for Underage: I accept that changes have had to be made to the fixtures calendar, but the treatment of the Under 20 championship – not allowing county teams to have first call on players and squeezing it into a six-week window – is disrespectful to a grade that deserves better.

V is for the Vanquished: We know this is a game all about winners, but more than Dublin can walk away from this season with a sense of satisfaction.

And no team can take more out of losing this year than Cork, who might have ended the year relegated and trophy-less but the future could hardly be brighter.

In pushing Kerry, Tyrone and Dublin to the wire – and they could easily have won at least one of those games – they revealed they are a team ready to contend again.

W is for Wonderful: And that is perhaps an adjective that does not quite do justice to David Clifford, who made light of that difficult second album.

He was out-gunned – and outpolled in the young-player-ofthe-year award by team-mate Seán O’Shea – but given the hype and the heat he attracted on the pitch as a result of his sensational rookie season, it was staggering that his performance levels didn’t drop.

His response to a couple of botched chances in his first All-Ireland final said much about his maturity and also suggests he will wear the captain’s armband comfortably despite his tender years.

X is for Dublin’s missing X factor: This may sounded begrudging, but despite Dublin’s five-in-a-row success, I still consider Mick O’Dwyer’s superb team of the 1970s and ’80s as the greatest of all time.

And until Dublin players match the eight-medal haul which my uncle Páidí, Pat Spillane, Ger Power, Ogie Moran and Mikey Sheehy secured – I will not entertain any argument to the contrary. Mind, I might be delaying the inevitable.

Y is for Young talent: Our best players are getting younger and younger, especially when you consider that Seán O’Shea, David Clifford and Brian Howard have been in the frame for young player of the year and would also make a credible short-list for player of the year.

And there are more coming – keep an eye out for Dublin duo Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne and Ciarán Archer, Cork’s Mark Cronin and Cathal O’Mahony as well as Tyrone’s Darragh Canavan in the New Year as new stars are about to shine bright.

Z is for zzzzz..: We have been here before, but the provincial championships continue to bore. We had a thrilling Munster final as well as Roscommon’s ambush of Mayo, which was the sum total of drama, outside of the ever-functioning Ulster SFC, that the opening seven weeks of the summer offered.

I have always been a traditionalist when it comes to the provincial system, but I am a realist, too. How much longer can this go on?