GAA fans, you can set your watch by these events occurring over the next 12 months.
It is often said that familiarity breeds contempt but that couldn’t be further from the truth as far as the GAA is concerned.
In fact, one of the most appealing, almost comforting, aspects of our native games is that certain incidents, events and controversies can nearly be predicted in advance such are the frequency with which they have occurred in the GAA in the recent past.
Ahead of the commencement of the National Leagues in both codes in the coming weeks, we’ve got the crystal ball out and put forth our forecast for the GAA season in 2015.
February
1. The new penalty rule in hurling meets with almost universal disapproval
We sincerely hope this doesn’t happen because we think it makes a lot of sense, but GAA fans love few things better than harping on about a new rule change; you only have to think of how every foul in the National Football League last year was greeted with a cry of ‘Where’s your black card ref?”
One high-profile dissenting voice will be enough to build up significant opposition to hurling’s new rule; here’s hoping the top brass hold firm and keep the faith when the tide turns.
March
2. The first calls are in for the Dublin footballers to play matches outside Croke Park
Dublin will actually play four of their seven league matches away from HQ in this season’s National League but if you think that will cease calls for them to play elsewhere you’ve another thing coming.
Yes, playing at Croke Park does give Dublin an extra advantage but what seems to be conveniently forgotten when this debate rears its head every year is that it’s not their fault.
It will be conveniently forgotten again this year, of that we have no doubt.
April
3. Murmurings about foreign training camps for the big teams begin
The only thing more common than a training camp abroad for the top teams these days is the anger amongst some members of the GAA community about the top teams having training camps abroad.
Phrases like ‘amateur ethos’ ‘food chain’ and ‘level playing field’ are bandied about freely for a few weeks only to be put in cold storage until August or September and used again when a team retreat into a domestic training camp in the week leading up to the All-Ireland Final, a la Donegal in 2014.
May
4. The All-Ireland Football Championship begins with a whimper… again
Galway play New York in Gaelic Park on May 3. All you’ll hear about is a minute or so on the news the next day and the GAA will have missed the opportunity to launch their best product with a bit of style and razzamatazz. Again.
5. Pat Spillane laments the style of Ulster football and its influence on the championship as a whole
It’s over a decade since Pat coined the phrase ‘puke football’ and a few years since he suggested that nobody should win the man of the match award after a particularly dour encounter between Donegal and Antrim so he’s due a rant about the order of things up north.
Given his history (see above) Pat might want to avoid offending the northern counties, but he’s never been a man to care what other people think and if Donegal and Tyrone doesn’t live up to expectations on May 17, expect Pat’s latest State of the Nation from the RTE studio.
Expect him to also lament the growing influence of statisticians, dieticians and growing backroom teams that are hugely to blame for Gaelic Football no longer being ‘brillint’.
June
6. A big gun is written off for the All-Ireland hurling championship (this is no bad thing)
Last year, it was Tipp written off after they narrowly lost to Limerick; they subsequently went within millimetres of winning the All-Ireland.
Clare were written off the year before after losing to Cork in Munster; Kilkenny the year before that after getting flaked by Galway in the Leinster final; both of those ended up lifting Liam in September.
If we were a big hurling county, to paraphrase Kevin Keegan, we’d only love it if nobody gave us a hope of winning from a long way out.
7. The Mayo for Sam bandwagon kicks into gear
The Green and Red don’t start their Championship campaign until the middle of June this year and in all likelihood, it will be Galway providing the opposition in a Connacht semi-final.
If Mayo can get over that one, and even if they don’t and go on a run in the qualifiers, expect various celebrities to be spotted holding crude Mayo for Sam placards in all sorts of exotic locations, as well as the obligatory appearance at every popular sporting event worldwide.
July
8. Cyril Farrell proclaims the 2015 Championship as the ‘greatest in the history of hurling’
It has been noted before and the contrast between the portrayal of the football and hurling championships by the country’s main analysts will likely become apparent once again this year.
While Pat, Joe, Colm et al will once again despair about the state of Gaelic Football, Cyril, Ger, Donal Óg and company will likely bill this year’s hurling championship as even better than the fantastic ones we’ve experienced in 2013 and 2014.
We happen to prefer the hurling analysts’ approach and if Cyril can mention ‘wristy hurlers’ and ‘nuts to a monkey’ while waxing lyrical about the small ball game, all the better.
9. A local commentator proves once again that nothing captures the magic of the GAA better than regional radio
Nothing but nothing captures the passion associated with GAA like local radio accounts of closely-fought championship matches and unlike the national media, neutrality is not an issue; in fact it goes out the window.
We can’t wait to hear more of the type of epic commentary delivered by Liam Aherne of Limerick Live 95 FM in the closing stages of the 2013 Munster hurling final.
August
10. The All-Ireland hurling semi-finalists attempt to break the record for fastest sprint out of the tunnel in Croke Park
For some reason, the frenzied sprint out of the tunnel appears to be more of a hurling than a football thing and with plenty of ground between the tunnel and the pitch in HQ, there’s no better place to do it than Croker. Expect 30 finely-tuned athletes to emerge at a Usain Bolt-like pace from the tunnel come the first two weekends in August this year.
The lads at Second Captains, with some help from the great John Mullane, explained this trend best last year…
September
11. Ger Loughnane somehow manages to top our favourite moment of 2014 after the All-Ireland Hurling Final
Actually, scratch that. We’re not sure this moment can ever be topped.
12. Mayo to finally win the All-Ireland Football Championship
You heard it here first. Incidentally, this prediction has absolutely nothing to do with the background of the author of this piece.
October
13. Comparison with another sport provokes touchy reaction in GAA circles
The Rugby World Cup actually begins in September, but diehard GAA fans will be so focused on the end of the Championships (a FOURTH All-Ireland hurling final replay in a row would take us to the end of the month) that it won’t come into their consciousness until October at the earliest.
During a closely-fought Ireland match, a throwaway comment in a pub along the lines of ‘Isn’t it great to see a man’s game rather than that Gaaahh sh*te?’ is picked up by the ear of a GAA man.
Before you know it, chat show phone-lines are hopping, outrage is widespread and Twitter is awash with current GAA players comparing their professionalism to that of their rugby counterparts. All the while, Stephen Hunt sits back and looks on with a wry smile on his face.
November
14. Inter-county stars buck a trend by coming out of retirement en masse
More big names seemingly retired in 2014 than any other year in the GAA’s history and one would assume that would be the case again in 2015.
Instead, Declan O’Sullivan, Stephen O’Neill, JJ Delaney and Tommy Walsh all announce their intention to return to the inter-county scene, with Tommy saying he was “bored as sh*te” on Tuesdays and Thursday evenings during the summer and he was “fierce worried” that younger brother and 2015 Hurler of the Year Padraig would end up eclipsing his All-Star haul.
After another great season and another All-Ireland, meanwhile, King Henry says he won’t call it a day until 2018 “at the earliest”.
December
15. The over-training and burnout debate heats up once again
With the Leitrim footballers setting a new trend of 3am training sessions and embarking on a weights programme that would make Arnold Schwarzenegger blush, well-known GAA figures rush to decry the conditions of inter-county players in this day and age.
Joe Brolly has particularly strong views on the matter, going on national radio to compare their plight to that of the hundreds of thousands enslaved by Julius Caesar after he conquered Gaul.
The radical suggestions given to change the status quo include amending the actual Gregorian calendar to 16 months so that sufficient time is given for all competitions, including club games.
With the hotly contested regional competitions like the O’Byrne Cup around the corner and demanding all the attention, however, it is decided to put the issue on the back burner until the same time in 2016.
