SHINING STAR 2016
Our Chief Sportswriter gazes into his crystal ball to predict the big winners in Irish sport this year
NUMBERS change but the ambitions and apprehensions are as old as the hills. The hopefuls of 2016 hanker after the same goals as the champions and optimists of previous years, decades and centuries.
Whether they excel in team sports or compete as individuals, the stars featured in the following pages are fuelled by the same fire: to be the best. Their quest has added piquancy in 2016, one of the busiest in memory: the Olympics and the European championships will dominate the summer, but the most formidable field of Irish golfers ever will plot a year-long course through the most prestigious competitions in the world.
Then there are the indigenous passions, hurling and football maintaining their unique and irresistible hold on the nation. The people featured here have already proven themselves to varying extents in their chosen disciplines, but they strive for more.
Every year is envisaged as potentially a great one, but the truth is every year is a great one, be that for a handful of individuals thriving away from the headlines, or one of the prominent national teams giving joy to the nation.
Thrill in their stories.
FOOTBALL
Colm Cooper
CONTRARY to reports, Philly McMahon was not the most irritating opponent Colm Cooper faced in 2015.
Doubt was a more troublesome foe. Having made his Championship debut back in 2002, the declarations that his best days are behind him will only gather strength, too.
It need not be so. Cooper, 33 next June, suffered more than most from Kerry’s dismal display against Dublin last September.
He looked a man out of time, a specialist attacker not suited to the modern game where the transition from attack to defence obliges artists to become artisans.
Éamonn Fitzmaurice can get the best out of an all-time great by exempting him from those duties and placing him much closer to goal, in the manner Dublin use Bernard Brogan. Kerry still need Cooper, and not simply because James O’Donoghue will not play football until next summer after shoulder surgery.
They need the instincts that helped play in Paul Geaney for the decisive goal in the Munster final replay, and the creativity that dazzled in the hammering of Kildare and also at times in the first half of the All-Ireland final.
To ensure that they reach another September, they need Cooper restored to his best position, twisting the blood of bamboozled defenders.
GOLF
Shane Lowry
THIS year holds extraordinary promise for the man ranked 21st in the world. Lowry’s victory at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational last August pushed him into the pack chasing the game’s outstanding trio of Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Jason Day, and a consistent showing in the majors through 2016 will establish him there.
There are other lures for Lowry. The Ryder Cup takes place next September and October, and quite apart from its prestigious reputation, it would also appeal to the team player in Lowry, a devoted fan of Leinster rugby and Offaly GAA.
The month before the Ryder Cup starts, golf returns as an Olympic sport. Persuasive arguments have long been made against a sport played by millionaires being accommodated at the Olympics, but the argument is now settled and the prospect of a Rory McIlroy-Lowry pairing, the likely Ireland team, would hold great appeal.
However, it is not in Rio or at the Ryder Cup that Lowry’s golfing reputation will face most scrutiny. How he performs in the majors will stress-test his overall credentials.
His 2015 highlight in that regard was a ninthplace finish at the US Open, but he missed cuts at the Masters, the Open and the USPGA. There are young players emerging on tour as fully-formed contenders and the game of golf has never looked fresher.
Despite not turning 29 until April, Lowry is surrounded by younger men in a very great hurry and he will be determined to keep up.
MODERN PENTATHLON
Natalya Coyle
NATALYA COYLE was one of the surprise Irish successes in London four years ago, finishing ninth in the modern pentathlon. She was the last Irish athlete in action at the 2012 Olympics and, in truth, her achievement was underplayed by a travelling media – this reporter included – after she excelled on the final day of the Games.
Coyle was 21 at the time, a relative novice in the event, of which more anon, but she put in an outstanding performance.
Modern pentathlon involves five disciplines: fencing, a 200metre swim, show-jumping, and a combined event involving a 3.2km crosscountry run and pistol-shooting. Its roots are fascinating, with the sport originally designed to replicate conditions in which a 19th-century cavalry officer might find himself were he trapped behind enemy lines.
He (they were always he in the 19th century) needed to be able to use a sword to defend himself in close combat; he had to be able to handle a pistol; he should know how to swim to escape his enemies; he needed to be able to ride a strange horse he might find in the enemy’s camp; and he should be able to out-run all-comers.
That accounts for the structure of the modern sport, up to and including the requirement to ride an unfamiliar horse in competition. It is one of those idiosyncratic pursuits that can command bemused and fleeting attention every four years, but the dedication of Coyle should ensure more concentrated Irish attention at the looming Games.
SOCCER
Jeff Hendrick
BY the time the Euros begin, Hendrick could be a Premier League player. By June, it is certain that, fitness allowing, the 23-year-old will also be known as one of the more important parts of Martin O’Neill’s plans for the campaign in France.
Ireland’s task is imposing, but the memories of feeble failure rising off the ruins of Euro 2012 at least give O’Neill and his players a context: once they are bolder and braver than the efforts four years ago, few will have cause for grousing.
Hendrick will be central to Ireland’s tournament designs. The midfielder is a first pick for Derby manager Paul Clement but he was also one of the beneficiaries of the change in tactical emphasis introduced by O’Neill during Ireland’s qualification effort.
Eschewing his traditional preference for wingers, the manager put more emphasis on strengthening Ireland in the middle of the pitch, and Hendrick thrived accordingly. He had appeared as a substitute when producing one of the classier moments of Ireland’s campaign, crossing cleverly for John O’Shea to equalise against Germany in October 2014.
His status has changed since then. With the manager suggesting a high-energy, pressing game might have to be tempered in the heat of a French summer, the ability of Hendrick to pass and retain possession will be vital.
He is a skilful feature in a team that will be obliged to rely on more traditional Irish virtues of heft and hope.
BOXING
Katie Taylor
UNDERPLAYING an Olympic gold medal is never likely in our country. Six athletes have been triumphant at the summer Games, including Michelle Smith whose subsequent disgrace coloured her achievement in many eyes.
For reasons of history, population and social attitude, Olympic success is rare, but it is not this which made Katie Taylor’s achievement in London exceptional. It was the way she won while a country blithely assumed gold was a certainty that added to the magnitude of her feat.
The same process will begin again shortly, as we all presume that Taylor has only to board a flight to South America to collect the medal, but fresh obstacles will emerge.
She is 29 now, theoretically at her peak but also a target for young rivals. One of them will be American and under the tutelage of a coach that knows her well. Billy Walsh will not be far away from discussions about Taylor given he will be in charge of the USA women’s boxing team in Rio.
If Walsh is one familiar face missing from her corner, it is unclear if another will be there. Her father and long-time trainer Pete announced in November he was taking a break, citing the stress of watching his child fight, but suggested he would be back later this year. His daughter will by then be anticipated as a certainty for national celebration.
RUGBY
Sean O’Brien
FORGET the results of Ireland’s World Cup post-mortem. Pay no further heed to the contention that Ireland play a style of rugby unbecoming of a team with ambitions of beating the best in the world. Even if it is true, it doesn’t matter. The Six Nations is practically upon us and there will be no experimentation by Joe Schmidt. Ireland must depend upon the strengths that have made them consecutive winners of the title, and that requires judicious use of the boot of Johnny Sexton, disciplined set-piece play and ferocity at the breakdown.
Sean O’Brien is important to the last two aims, but he must serve an even greater function for Schmidt: O’Brien must assume the leadership role left vacant by the departure of Paul O’Connell. Even if he is not named as captain, he must become as prominent as one.
When he is fit and fully functioning, he is a phenomenon, a rallying point not only for team-mates but also for supporters, many of whom have no truck with the intricacies of the game but expect to see effort and delight in power plays.
He was terrific in Leinster’s big win against Munster last week, but his extensive injury record remains a concern. A hale and hearty O’Brien is a world-class addition to the Ireland side, though, and as the team rely on tried and tested European tactics over the coming weeks, he will be absolutely vital to their championship defence.
HURLING
Podge Collins
DÓNAL ÓG CUSACK was not the most important name added to Clare’s hurling plans for 2016. That was Podge Collins.
He was outstanding in the 2013 Championship-winning season, a skilful ball player who wrung the most out of possession in Clare’s quicktempo game. Fitzgerald miscalculated badly when implying Collins’ dual commitments affected his hurling performances in the 2014 campaign.
One consequence was Collins committing to football for 2015, but a cruciate ligament injury ended his season in May. Nobody won in a messy and avoidable controversy.
Clare can win again, though, and Collins’ return is more significant than the arrival of Cusack. The latter could show himself to be an effective inter-county coach over the course of this year, but what can be said with certainty now is that Collins has proven himself to Clare already.
The manager uses the service of a PR consultant, but the desire for control has not stopped Clare serving as the setting for attention-grabbing dramas.
The addition of Cusack to the management team is not going to soften the scrutiny, either, but none of it matters as long as the county are winning.
That became an alien sensation for them following their All-Ireland victory. They managed one Championship win last season, in a qualifier against Offaly, and in 2014 they won none at all. They play in Division 1B of the League this spring after winning just one match last season, but Championship is what matters. Victory matters. To Clare, a returning Collins matters.