Ready to go again for 2019

Since 1999, there has been a constant presence among our Christmas presents.

Sportsfile’s annual collection of pictures from the GAA year, A Season of Sundays, is an essential record of what happened.

The look back at the previous season also serves to whet the appetite for what is to come – your humble correspondent got in the mood by braving the wintry conditions in Mallow on Wednesday night for Cork against Waterford in the CoOpSuperStores.ie Munster Hurling League.

In trying to foresee what might transpire in 2019, we’ll start with the GAA and football, simply because it looks, on the surface, to be the easiest task.

Another book under the tree for us at Christmas was Me And The Table, Stephen Hendry’s autobiography. Three decades ago, the Scotsman was about to embark on an unprecedented run of dominance in snooker, winning six world titles in seven years, including five in a row from 1991-96. It was a period where he was so far ahead of the rest that it almost became boring, meaning his excellence wasn’t always given due credit, and it’s something similar in Gaelic football right now.

Dublin obviously do have certain advantages over the rest of the country, in terms of population and finance, but we have seen plenty of examples from other sports where the richest teams fail to properly assert themselves. Dublin have six All-Irelands since 2011 and the last four – it mightn’t be fun for anyone else but such levels of consistency and focus, under the guidance of Jim Gavin, should not be taken for granted. This is an incredibly special team and they begin 2019 on the brink of achieving something that no team has done in senior hurling or football.

Cork and Kilkenny in hurling and Kerry (twice) and Wexford in football have run off four straight, only to find the fifth to be elusive.

If the Dubs are to do it, they will have a longer journey than any of those sides but also one with the safety net that not every game has to be won. The Super 8 and having to travel didn’t faze them in 2018 and it’s hard to see them being derailed in 2019. Tyrone, beaten in last year’s final, will find it tough to take the extra steps while Kerry, now under the management of Peter Keane, may need another year of transition. Galway are improving but perhaps not enough to properly challenge Dublin, while James Horan’s return to Mayo will be a boost but may not translate to them finding more scoring forwards.

If the football is predictable, then the hurling is anything but.

Limerick’s win last year will leave them as the team to beat but it will also give hope to everyone else, having shown that it’s not necessary to lose one before you win one.

After such a seismic win, ending a 45-year drought, it would be easy for Limerick to live off the spoils of victory – and there have been plenty of teams caught in such a way – meaning that they could almost be written off as contenders.

However, such is the determination and maturity of the team, feeding off the level-headed leadership of John Kiely, that there is little or no chance of the Shannonsiders not being ready for action.

The other side of that is that others may have a greater hunger. Cork are going for a Munster three-in-a-row, having not lost in the province since the 2016 defeat to Tipperary, but each of the previous two wins has been followed by an All-Ireland semi-final defeat to a fellow Munster side.

The 13 years since the Rebels’ last Liam MacCarthy Cup represents the longest wait without a senior hurling title on Leeside and they will feel they aren’t far away, having been so close to beating Limerick in the semi-final in July.

Clare beat Limerick in 2018, let’s not forget, and could and should have beaten Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final and replay, while Tipperary didn’t even get out of Munster and that surely won’t be allowed to happen again.

Likewise, Waterford may be ranked fifth ahead of the start of the championship but it wouldn’t take much for that situation to be altered.

That’s five contenders straight off before you even look at Leinster. Galway were on the verge of going back-to-back and did only fall a point short.

They will definitely be advancing from Leinster along with two from Dublin, Wexford and Kilkenny (with apologies to newly promoted Carlow) and any of the six teams involved from the All-Ireland quarter-finals on can go all the way. Call it a gut feeling, but the Liam Sheedy factor could be enough to get Tipp back on top of the tree.

Obviously, the early ending of the GAA season is still something we’re not fully familiar with, but it does mean that, in 2019, the stage will be clear for the Rugby World Cup, which commences on 20 September in Japan.

After such a good 2018, there will be plenty expected of Ireland but it’s important to bear in mind that, in eight attempts, the country has never managed to win a knockout game in the competition.

At the same time, there has never been a better opportunity to make an impact, but before any of that there is the defence of the Six Nations.

There’s no hard and fast formula as to how form in the spring will hold until the autumn – and Ireland have been guilty of peaking too soon in previous World Cup years – but there isn’t anything to be gained by having a bad Six Nations. In any case, the sense from players and management is that there is no reason why the strong form can’t be maintained.

Likewise, Leinster will seek to retain their European crown and Munster will want to push on from two consecutive semi-finals, but given that the Champions Cup is such a bear pit there can be no looking beyond the tasks at hand.

Right now, that means safely qualifying for the quarter-finals, something which Ulster are also in agood position to do that. Once the knockout stages begin, it’s rather like the hurling championship in that it’s survival of the fittest.

Starting from a lower base will be the Republic of Ireland soccer team, who commence their Euro 2020 qualification campaign in March. Games against Gibraltar and Georgia to start the campaign will give a great opportunity for Mick McCarty’s men (how retro does that sound?) to get off to a good start and put points on the board before the trip to Denmark on 7 June. Qualifying will be a tall order, but it’s not impossible.

Sadly, a lack of qualification is the case with the Ireland cricket team, who won’t be present at a World Cup for the first time since 2003, and it’s not just patriotic bias to say that the tournament will be poorer for that.

Certainly, international rowing has been enlivened since the O’Donovan brothers’ emergence and they will defend their title – as will Sanita Puspure – at the World Championships in Austria. With it being a year out from the Olympics, there is more riding on next year’s event and the same is the case for the Irish looking to impress at the World Athletics Championships in Doha at the end of September.

The success enjoyed in 2018 will take a lot of living up to, but the potential is there for 2019 to be even better.