2005: a year to remember, capped by magnificent masters Nemo

WELL, that was some year, wasn’t it? There is still some tidying up to do at club level, but for all intents and purposes, with Nemo clinching another Munster Club SFC title last Sunday, the last shots have been fired in the GAA season, on the field at least.

All in all, I’d have to say it was a good one. Both leagues were competitive, even if the finals in both codes disappointed, while the new structures in both championships are starting to show their worth. Gone are the days when a couple of big wins would see a team crowned All-Ireland champions. Under the new format, the action now doesn’t really hot up until the All-Ireland quarter-final stage, so that the run-in is not a foregone conclusion anymore.

In football, Tyrone were worthy champions.

In hurling, Cork are still kingpins, but I don’t think enough credit has gone to John Allen. After the departure of Donal O’Grady, John was on a hiding to nothing, under fierce pressure, but still delivered the goods, improving on Cork’s 2004 achievements.

I was critical of him during the year, and still am, in that he was slow to make moves on the sideline, and I was also critical of some of his selections. But overall, in retaining the All-Ireland, and adding Munster, he and his team did a magnificent job.

Another manager and another team not given proper acknowledgement, I felt, was Anthony Daly and Clare. After a very impressive campaign, including a win over Cork, they reached the NHL final but underperformed. They slipped up again against Tipperary in Munster, missing a hatful of scores but came thundering back through the All-Ireland qualifier system and met Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final.

Just think, a couple of feet the other way in any one of the six wides by Colin Lynch and Clare would probably have been in the All-Ireland final, while Lynch would certainly have been an All-Star.

Nevertheless, a super year for The Banner and I would rate Clare the second-best team in the land.

Galway are one notch behind but coming fast. Another fine management job here by Conor Hayes, but with an asterisk, maybe two. I don’t care about the circumstances, a talent as proven as Eugene Cloonan should not be cast aside, while brother Diarmuid is another who could have assisted the Galway cause.

This is not to suggest that all the daftness is on one side. Far from it. And the brothers too must accept that there is a bigger picture. Had Galway won the All-Ireland this year, it would have been terrible for Eugene Cloonan, after all his years of magnificent service to the Tribesmen. Had he and his brother been there, Galway might well have done so.

And now, even as a dyed-in-the- wool hurling man, I have a confession to make. Of all the teams I saw this year, the one that most impressed was a football team. No, not Tyrone. Nemo Rangers. No praise is too high for this club. It’s their mindset, their approach, their attitude and the spirit in which they play. It’s gaelic football as it was designed: fast, skilful and positive.

In the 2-12 to 1-6 final score in Sunday’s Munster final win, all the Nemo scores came from play. No wonder. No matter what happens, they just want to get on with the game. It’s their speed of thought, speed of transfer with fist and foot, their attitude, always positive, always creative, always looking for the loose man, the break, and when that’s not readily available, they look to give advantageous ball anyway.

Winter conditions? Doesn’t matter, because, as they’ve shown time and again, good players and good teams shine even more on bad ground.

Most impressive about Nemo Rangers is they’re not a big club. City-based, yes, which leads everyone to think that they have a massive population base. They don’t, but again, it doesn’t matter. They are the embodiment of a good GAA club, of a good club of any code; like Shannon in rugby, they are proving, year after year, what can be achieved with good organisation, with hard work, with players putting back into the club what they got out of it themselves.

“Nemo is such a family-oriented club, outside of your own family it’s very difficult to get away from it, even if you wanted to,” said team manager Ephie Fitzgerald on Sunday.

“It just feels right and that’s reflected in the way fellas play for each other. Good example leads to more good example, and we’re lucky in that a lot of the older lads stay on and help out with the club. They tend not to leave. Jimmy Kerrigan’s son was playing there today, he has a very bright future ahead of him, it just repeats itself.” Yes, Jimmy’s son Paul (Jimmy was a selector), two sons of Billy Morgan (Briain, another keeper, and Alan), the magnificent David Niblock, son of Mickey, and so on. Yes, it was the last game of the year, yes it was only football (as any hurling man might say), but Nemo Rangers’ performance saw the GAA season end on a high.

They are the masters.