A to Z: the year that was

A is for Alonso. It might seem like a dumb thing to say, but 2012 was the year Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso came of age as a truly great driver. Dumb because well he already won back-toback Formula One titles and dumb because, well, he didn’t win the title this year. That he very nearly did, driving the car he was, against the opposition he was driving against speaks to a remarkable talent. B is for boxing. Without it we wouldn’t have Barnes, Nevin and Conlan. C is for Cody. Like him, loathe him he’s the undisputed greatest GAA manager of all time. You can question whether it’s easier to win a hurling All Ireland than a football All Ireland – it all depends really, are you managing Kerry or Leitrim, Kilkenny or Carlow? At the end of the day the stats speak for themselves, he’s managed Kilkenny to nine All Ireland titles. D is for drama. The last day of the Premier League season certainly delivered in the drama stakes. Last minute, last gasp... breathtaking. E is for end of the line. It was the year Jack O’Connor stepped aside as Kerry football manager. The year Pat Gilroy relinquished the Dublin hotseat. The year John Meyler walked away from the Kerry hurling job. F is for farewell. We lost Páidí Ó Sé just a few weeks ago. Farewell to a giant. G is for grandslam. Gatty and the boys did it again. Sure we’d prefer if the Irish did it, but you can’t but admire the Welsh. H is for handbags as in “yerra shure twas only handbags”. Nine time of ten this was the case, but there were other days like the day when all hell broke loose in Portlaoise during the All Ireland Club JFC semi-final between Dromid Pearses and Derrytresk. The problem with handbags is that they sometimes get out of hand and until the GAA (players, referees and administrators) take such matters seriously then incidents like the Battle of O’Moore Park are certain to be repeated. I is for idiocy. There was plenty of it to go around in 2012. Just as there is every year. J is for Jimmy’s winning matches. McGuinness took his Donegal team to a new level and in winning the All Ireland set a new benchmark. K is for Katie. She lifted the spirits of the nation and gave us all an education in the skill and atheticism of female boxers. L is for London and their remarkable games. It took us here at The Week In Sport a little while to grasp what was going on across the Irish sea, but once we got plugged in we were addicted. Danny Boyle set the tone, the athletes lived up to all expectations and the Irish held up their end of the bargain... what more could you want? M is for McFadden. How Karl Lacey got player of the year ahead of him was beyond us. Was simply sensational all season long. N is for new blood. Young guns took over some of the biggest franchises in sport – Eamonn Fitzmaurice became Kerry boss, Brendan Rodgers ( below) took the helm of Liverpool FC. O is for our Rory. Or is he? The politics of identity threatened to attach themselves to Ireland’s and the World’s Number 1 golfer in 2012. It shouldn’t do. Let’s just enjoy the show. P is Poznan. The Polish city that fell in love with the Irish and that the Irish fell in love with during Euro 2012. On the field the place was kinder to us than Gdansk was, but not by much. Apart from the fans and the Fields of Athenry, this was a truly terrible championship for the outclassed Irish. Q is for quarrelsome. When the pressure came on Kenny Dalglish he became increasingly irate in his press appearances. It didn’t help his or Liverpool’s cause. R is for racism. The Luis Suarez affair dragged on far longer than it ought to have done. The John Terry affair likewise. In Ireland you had Wexford footballer Lee Chin coming forward with testimony about the racist abuse he’s suffered. In Kerry a youngster reported abuse during an underage GAA game and towards the end of the year Crossmaglen footballer Aaron Cunningham alleged racist abuse during the Ulster final. S is for sackings. Roberto Di Matteo’s was unsurprising. Brian McLaughlin’s at Ulster was very surprising. He’d done a huge amount to turn the Red Hand’s fortunes around, but was forced to step aside at the end of the season, despite leading them to their first Heineken Cup Final since 1999. T is for the Tribesmen. They shocked the GAA world out of its complacency about the inevitability of Kilkenny victories in Leinster and, indeed, the All Ireland. U is for uninspiring. Eugene McGee’s Football Rules Committee report offered more heat than light. There were a few worthwhile proposals – the pick up off the ground, time keeping etc – a few that have little chance of success at congress – the yellow card rule – and very little to say about what most would consider the most pressing issue in football – the handpass. V is for Vettel. He’s not the greatest, but he’s one of them. His third title in-a-row

confirmed this. W is for Wimbledon. The tennis not the crazygang. It was great this year. Murray was no near and yet so far. Serena Williams gave a demonstration of her greatness. Roger Federer did likewise. X is for the X Games. They were on apparently. Y is for yuletide. It might have sucked for the players, but for the people of North Kerry the SFC final on December 30 was one of the best days of the year. Z is for Zebo, because, well, there’s not that many Zs out there. He is good though.