The turkey is hardly digested yet the 2024 GAA season has already begun with pre-season provincial football competitions taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday night.
The cliché is that every county is beginning a journey that they hope will end with glory at Croke Park in high summer.
To an extent, that is more true in the past couple of years as the advent of the second-tier Tailteann Cup has afforded more teams a realistic chance of silverware. Even so, it is difficult to look beyond a few realistic candidates to win the Sam Maguire Cup.
To be fair, that’s not exactly a new situation – while there might be a tendency to don rose-tinted glasses and hark back to a golden era when anyone could win, it never truly existed.
There’s the reigning champions, Dublin, their predecessors and the team they beat in the final, Kerry, and…who else?
Derry v Kerry - GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Semi-Final.
Mayo won the Allianz Football League last year, but were up and down in the championship and couldn’t really lay a glove on Derry in the All-Ireland quarter-finals. They will look to evolve in Kevin McStay’s second year in charge, but they are a team in something of a state of flux, too.
With Jimmy McGuinness returning to Donegal, they are likely to command some attention but it’s worth remembering that first time around it took a year to lay solid foundations before taking the big step to the next level.
It could well be that their neighbours, Derry, are the side best-placed to make a proper assault. Winners of the last two Ulster titles, the Oak Leaf County have developed a system that is very hard to break down and Kerry needed all of their wherewithal to beat them in last year’s semi-final.
With Mickey Harte having decamped there after an impressive stint with Louth, it could be the last piece of the jigsaw.
The race for the Liam MacCarthy is in theory more open than the football, while at the same time, it could be said to be locked down to a greater extent.
Hurling
Last year, Limerick lost to Clare by a point in the group stage of the Munster Hurling Championship, then they drew with Tipperary. Needing to beat Cork to advance, they did so by a point before doing the same in their rematch with Clare in the final.
From there, they drove on and saw off Galway and Kilkenny to achieve a four-in-a-row. Now, they will look to do what no other hurling team has ever done.
Fourteen years ago, injuries weighed more heavily on Kilkenny than history did as they looked to make it five on the trot. Throughout their reign, Limerick have shown themselves to be able to overcome such setbacks and, as a group, have never seemed to be affected by internal or external expectations.
While Clare may struggle to improve on their recent showings, Kilkenny should continue to evolve, Cork need to build on under-age successes and Galway and Tipperary have room to get better, as well. Limerick’s position in the pantheon is already assured, but to do something unprecedented would surely mark them as the best-ever.
Are Cork set for a spell of success in camogie?
Camogie
In camogie, it’s too premature to speculate that a Limerick-like period of dominance is about to begin, but Cork claimed a first All-Ireland in five years in 2023 and the county has been the clear force at minor level for the past while, ensuring a steady flow of talent.
Kilkenny and Galway haven’t gone away but they are in varying states of transition, while Waterford may find it tough to back up last year’s final appearance.
Like their male counterparts, Dublin’s ladies got back to the top of the tree in 2023 after Meath’s back-to-back wins. Having lost the last two deciders, it would be nice to see Kerry regain the Brendan Martin Cup – 1993 was the Kingdom’s last win – while Cork, who held supremacy from 2005-16, will feel they are overdue a victory, too.
Rugby
Given that the memories – good and bad – of the Rugby World Cup are still fresh, it seems a little bit strange to think that the beginning of the Guinness Six Nations Championship is only four weeks away.
Ireland’s start could be easier, as they face a return to France for a Friday night fixture on 2 February. Let’s hope it’s not a case of Groundhog Day.
Hurt and disappointment can be strong fuels for a team and it’s easy to forget that the quarter-final loss to New Zealand followed a 17-game unbeaten run. The post-Jonathan Sexton era won’t be without its challenges, but equally it won’t lack for opportunity.
The Ireland women, a year down the road of professionalism, will look to reap the benefits of that but it’s worth remembering that they are playing catch-up behind their rivals.
For the Ireland women’s soccer team, the hope will be that the focus can be solely on on-field activities. They certainly kept up their end of the bargain in the post-Vera Pauw era with a good showing in the UEFA Nations League. Qualifying for Euro 2025 would underline their status further. On the men’s side, the first ojective is to get a manager in place quickly and then build from there. The ‘bonus’ of not getting near qualifying for Euro 2024 is that there is a nice lead-in time to the World Cup qualifiers. Progress is the watch-word?.
Olympics
And, of course, 2024 is also an Olympic year, with competitors having had a three-year preparation compared to the usual four. Will that be a factor? Perhaps, but everybody is affected in the same way.
Rowing will once again be a strong medal hope while the performances of Rhasidat Adeleke and Ciara Mageean in last year’s World Championships give hope for track and field, too.
Whatever happens, we won’t be short of things to talk about.
Read more
Gardening: the majestic Mahonia
Meet The Maker: Siobhán Kennedy of Artzy.ie
The turkey is hardly digested yet the 2024 GAA season has already begun with pre-season provincial football competitions taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday night.
The cliché is that every county is beginning a journey that they hope will end with glory at Croke Park in high summer.
To an extent, that is more true in the past couple of years as the advent of the second-tier Tailteann Cup has afforded more teams a realistic chance of silverware. Even so, it is difficult to look beyond a few realistic candidates to win the Sam Maguire Cup.
To be fair, that’s not exactly a new situation – while there might be a tendency to don rose-tinted glasses and hark back to a golden era when anyone could win, it never truly existed.
There’s the reigning champions, Dublin, their predecessors and the team they beat in the final, Kerry, and…who else?
Derry v Kerry - GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Semi-Final.
Mayo won the Allianz Football League last year, but were up and down in the championship and couldn’t really lay a glove on Derry in the All-Ireland quarter-finals. They will look to evolve in Kevin McStay’s second year in charge, but they are a team in something of a state of flux, too.
With Jimmy McGuinness returning to Donegal, they are likely to command some attention but it’s worth remembering that first time around it took a year to lay solid foundations before taking the big step to the next level.
It could well be that their neighbours, Derry, are the side best-placed to make a proper assault. Winners of the last two Ulster titles, the Oak Leaf County have developed a system that is very hard to break down and Kerry needed all of their wherewithal to beat them in last year’s semi-final.
With Mickey Harte having decamped there after an impressive stint with Louth, it could be the last piece of the jigsaw.
The race for the Liam MacCarthy is in theory more open than the football, while at the same time, it could be said to be locked down to a greater extent.
Hurling
Last year, Limerick lost to Clare by a point in the group stage of the Munster Hurling Championship, then they drew with Tipperary. Needing to beat Cork to advance, they did so by a point before doing the same in their rematch with Clare in the final.
From there, they drove on and saw off Galway and Kilkenny to achieve a four-in-a-row. Now, they will look to do what no other hurling team has ever done.
Fourteen years ago, injuries weighed more heavily on Kilkenny than history did as they looked to make it five on the trot. Throughout their reign, Limerick have shown themselves to be able to overcome such setbacks and, as a group, have never seemed to be affected by internal or external expectations.
While Clare may struggle to improve on their recent showings, Kilkenny should continue to evolve, Cork need to build on under-age successes and Galway and Tipperary have room to get better, as well. Limerick’s position in the pantheon is already assured, but to do something unprecedented would surely mark them as the best-ever.
Are Cork set for a spell of success in camogie?
Camogie
In camogie, it’s too premature to speculate that a Limerick-like period of dominance is about to begin, but Cork claimed a first All-Ireland in five years in 2023 and the county has been the clear force at minor level for the past while, ensuring a steady flow of talent.
Kilkenny and Galway haven’t gone away but they are in varying states of transition, while Waterford may find it tough to back up last year’s final appearance.
Like their male counterparts, Dublin’s ladies got back to the top of the tree in 2023 after Meath’s back-to-back wins. Having lost the last two deciders, it would be nice to see Kerry regain the Brendan Martin Cup – 1993 was the Kingdom’s last win – while Cork, who held supremacy from 2005-16, will feel they are overdue a victory, too.
Rugby
Given that the memories – good and bad – of the Rugby World Cup are still fresh, it seems a little bit strange to think that the beginning of the Guinness Six Nations Championship is only four weeks away.
Ireland’s start could be easier, as they face a return to France for a Friday night fixture on 2 February. Let’s hope it’s not a case of Groundhog Day.
Hurt and disappointment can be strong fuels for a team and it’s easy to forget that the quarter-final loss to New Zealand followed a 17-game unbeaten run. The post-Jonathan Sexton era won’t be without its challenges, but equally it won’t lack for opportunity.
The Ireland women, a year down the road of professionalism, will look to reap the benefits of that but it’s worth remembering that they are playing catch-up behind their rivals.
For the Ireland women’s soccer team, the hope will be that the focus can be solely on on-field activities. They certainly kept up their end of the bargain in the post-Vera Pauw era with a good showing in the UEFA Nations League. Qualifying for Euro 2025 would underline their status further. On the men’s side, the first ojective is to get a manager in place quickly and then build from there. The ‘bonus’ of not getting near qualifying for Euro 2024 is that there is a nice lead-in time to the World Cup qualifiers. Progress is the watch-word?.
Olympics
And, of course, 2024 is also an Olympic year, with competitors having had a three-year preparation compared to the usual four. Will that be a factor? Perhaps, but everybody is affected in the same way.
Rowing will once again be a strong medal hope while the performances of Rhasidat Adeleke and Ciara Mageean in last year’s World Championships give hope for track and field, too.
Whatever happens, we won’t be short of things to talk about.
Read more
Gardening: the majestic Mahonia
Meet The Maker: Siobhán Kennedy of Artzy.ie
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