By 
SPECIAL FEATURE
By Niall Gartland
Did he just do that?
THE average baller wouldn’t even have considered it – but Peter Harte is no average baller. While Errigal Ciaran’s second-half comeback against Cuala on All-Ireland final day ultimately fell short, it wasn’t for a lack of trying, and Harte’s goal was frankly ridiculous. His bullet of a shot from a desperately acute angle will live long in the memory of all who witnessed it.
Ulster Final day, we salute you
FOR the fourth season running, the Ulster Championship final ended up in extra-time (and the year before that, Tyrone overcame Monaghan by a single point). It’s ridiculous. On this occasion Donegal ran out 2-23 to 0-18 victors over Armagh, who yet again fell agonisingly short on the biggest day in provincial football.
A brand new era
LOVE ’em or hate ’em – and most are in favour – there was no getting away from perhaps the biggest talking point of the year on the footballing front. A swathe of new rules were introduced for the 2025 season with a view to improving Gaelic Football as a spectacle and it did take some time to get used to. Some of the rules get a big hearty thumbs up from me (the solo and go, where have you been all my life) but others I’m not so fussed about: two-pointers from frees are a gimme for the dead ball specialists out there. On the whole though, it’s been a net positive.
Not sure about that one though…
OOF, that was a big decision. In the dying embers of the Munster Senior Football Championship between St Finbarr’s (of Cork) and Dingle (of Kerry, obviously), referee Chris Maguire brought the ball up 50 metres after Dylan Quinn was penalised for not handing the ball back (to get into the nitty gritty of it, the rules merely state that Quinn needed to hand the ball back in a “prompt and respectful manner” in that moment. Whether Quinn purposely held on to possession in a deliberate fashion is certainly up for debate). Anyway, we know what happened next – from the 45-metre line, Conor Geaney nailed a two-point free to put Dingle in front for the first time in nearly an hour and they held out in the closing seconds for victory.
It certainly engendered a lot of debate, and in our book it was no way to decide a mammoth championship final.
The collapse of all collapses
CORK’S unravelling in the second-half of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final against Tipperary. Grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre, unprecedented. And that was before the subsequent Whatsapp rumours about a half-time bust-up in the dressing room – apparently a load of tosh, but who knows. Anyway, it would be remiss not to mention that Tipperary played some great stuff as they surged to victory.
What just happened?
I was in Kildress covering the All-Ireland Intermediate Ladies Championship quarter-final between Tyrone and Fermanagh, on the same date as Armagh’s All-Ireland quarter-final clash against Kerry. Armagh led Kerry by 1-11 to 0-13 at half-time, after which I put the phone down to focus on my reporting duties. Fast-forward nearly an hour and I found myself checking out the final scoreline: Kerry 0-32, Armagh 1-21. Blimey. It’s fair to say Kerry never looked back.
My head hurts
FOR whatever reason, a bold new pitch design was unveiled for the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final. Bold is putting it one way – an eyesore would be another. A patchwork of zig-zags placed me in migraine territory, and hopefully they keep it simple in 2026…
Joining forces
LOUGHMACRORY and Madden won their first ever senior county championships this year, sparking euphoric scenes of celebrations in the respective clubs. They even joined forces at one stage of the festivities – the traditional ‘Monday Club’ rolled into Tuesday with Madden team arriving into Loughmacrory for what turned into an impromptu combined title-winning party. There’s a story behind it all – Madden native Ryan Grimley lines out for Loughmacrory these days.
This time there’s no doubt
WHEN David Clifford was named Footballer of the Year in 2023, it was greeted with a fair bit of scepticism from the masses out there – shure he’d a poor final, type of talk. Personally I concurred: Brian Fenton should have won the award (as an aside, the Footballer of the Year is voted upon by players, whereas it’s a select group of journos who decided the All-Star teams). Anyway, this time around, there could be no debate. Clifford had an unbelievable season culminating in a remarkable performance on All-Ireland final day. He had the ball in his hands for a total of 43 seconds and scored 0-9 from play – it’s near enough a cheat code.
And speaking of cheat codes
WHAT about Rory Beggan’s performance in the Ulster Club final? The long-standing Monaghan goalkeeper scored 11 points as Scotstown won their first provincial title since 1989. The best score of the lot was a ’45’ into the face of a howling breeze in injury time. It wasn’t quite the nail in the Kilcoo coffin but it wasn’t far off it.
End of an empire
RIGHT, it didn’t mark the end of their campaign, but Dublin’s defeat to Meath in the Leinster Championship semi-final at Portlaoise was a real sliding-doors moment.
It was the Dubs first defeat in Leinster in 15 years, and their winning run was – no offence to any Dublin readers – tedious in the extreme.
Cool as a cucumber
AS a Tyrone man, I’m biased, but one of the highlights of my year was a dramatic victory over Kerry in the All-Ireland Minor Championship final.
And talk about clutch – Tyrone were in a real spot of bother when Peter Colton stepped up and fired an unstoppable penalty kick to the net midway through the second-half. He didn’t stop there, coolly slotting over late frees en route to a one-point victory over the Kingdom. For a lad of his tender years, it was brilliant stuff. Tyrone’s U-20 counterparts also had a season to remember culminating in an All-Ireland final victory over Louth.
