WE WON’T TELL a lie, there have been winters in the past when GAA correspondents could have created more cliffhangers and drama than the entire industry of Alan Bennett wanabees.
Take a staple story, like the player retirement. Quite often broken by the local lad or lass on the local beat, involving a bit of a teasing out job before they could splash it, the story would then be aggregated across national media.
And once the plaudits were reported upon, along come the columnists. To tell us ‘what it all means’, of course. As Ernest once said, ‘Critics are men who sit and watch a battle from a high place and come down to shoot the survivors.’
A player retirement could easily be morphed into a question mark over the manager’s ability to retain their main players. Hey, somebody has to be blamed, right? Right?
You get the drift. Close-seasons flew by while we were having our fun. But this Gaelic football close-season was chock full of managerial beheadings and the usual intense naval-gazing about the sport, only this time coupled with actual action by Jim Gavin and his Football Review Committee.
So as we look at 2025 and a brand new sport, we look at the ten major questions that will occupy us.
*****
1. The New Normal
There’s no going back. The new rules will give us a very different game/product/sport. And what that might look like will take a while to emerge. It could be three years before the possibilities now are realised.
As nice and pretty as the Interprovincial games looked on a couple of mild winter nights, this will not be it. But we suspect that sweepers will certainly be used. A goal being worth three points will not be considered worth the risk, with teams recycling the ball outside the arc to hand to the specialist shooters in their preferred spots.
And there will be managers who moan and bitch. And you can be sure of it, most will detail their complaints like compliant nodding dogs.
2. Whither, the Dublin midfield?
Losing the greatest midfield player in the game would be unfortunate enough. To lose the best midfield partnership ever (with respect to Jack O’Shea and Sean Walsh) is nothing short of a disaster for Dublin and manager Dessie Farrell.
With James McCarthy and Brian Fenton gone, they have to figure out a way to retain their status as All-Ireland contenders while also finding a way around a game that now encourages, or forces, more long kickouts.
3. Michael Murphy, Donegal custodian?
Michael Murphy is back. And he’s fresh from the pre-Christmas training camp with Donegal in Abu Dhabi.
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Michael Murphy - out, then in. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
They might have tried their best not to let that cat out of the bag, but here’s another morsel from the camp. In recent weeks, they have been easing Murphy back into games. Not in the expected target-man role, but as a goalkeeper.
That may be to do with tender hamstrings, but either way, it’s something they have been toying with over the last couple of months.
4. Return of the glamour of challenge matches
The reasoning of the Gaelic Player’s Association that the pre-season competitions were scrapped due to player welfare concerns are downright hilarious for many, many reasons – not least because some of their members have been training away collectively since well before the permitted time frame.
But now we have a situation whereby counties are now advertising upcoming challenge matches to drum up a decent crowd paying in at the gate. A lot of the time, the opposition is local.
Local games in January. Doesn’t this all sound a bit familiar?
5. Youse wrote us off!
No team, going back as far as probably 2002, have been patronised quite as much as the present Armagh team after they won the All-Ireland.
The sports psych boffins would poo-poo the notion, but there’s still a currency in gathering up all the slights and disrespects visited upon champions, to use as motivation.
Those who run the Armagh senior team have had an ample bounty of sneery winter assessments to light a fire under the players.
6. Late fitness tests abound
In 2023, the GAA found themselves in a real pickle. Referees David Coldrick and Derek O’Mahoney were left off the referee’s panel as they failed fitness tests and were adjudged to not be up to the demands of the intercounty game.
Small problem. Coldrick was already down to referee the New York-Leitrim game in the Connacht championship. His flights and accommodation had already been paid. So they sent him on anyway!
Presseye / Donna McBride/INPHO
Presseye / Donna McBride/INPHO / Donna McBride/INPHO
Last season, things were even trickier. In mid-February, 16 National League matches were officiated by 12 referees who had failed fitness tests a month before.
With Gaelic football 2.0 on the way, higher fitness levels will be required. Let’s stick a pin in that one as we watch a few hamstrings ping in the early stages.
7. The last dance of all last dances
It would seem that no matter what happens in 2025, it is difficult to see Pádraic Joyce continuing as Galway manager into 2026.
But here’s the thing. The new rules could just suit Galway more than any other teams. They have limpet-like man markers in Liam Silke, Dylan McHugh and Sean Kelly, fantastic playmakers in John Daly and Kieran Molloy, a whole host of long-range shooting middle third players such as Paul Conroy, Cillian McDaid, Rob Finnerty and Matthew Tierney.
And they obviously have gifted finishers like Shane Walsh and Damien Comer who can fling over points from distance.
8. Can Derry return to contention?
It’s been a torrid time for those running the game in Derry. Going from two-time winners of Ulster, from the management of Rory Gallagher to being guided by Ciaran Meenagh, and then National League champions under Mickey Harte, there has seldom been a crash and burn job like their collapse in last year’s championship.
With a smart, experienced manager in Paddy Tally taking over, possessing a track record of being in winning set-ups, along with some expert back-up, their form in 2025 will be a source of fascination.
9. Games Intelligence Unit
It was as well Jim Gavin announced that the Football Review Committee would be using a ‘Games Intelligence Unit’, because it would have sounded absolutely mad coming out of the lips of anybody else.
Who will be in this crack team of GAA stats nerds is yet to be known, but let’s be careful about how they package the information. After all, they will be keen to make the figures sing and promote the message.
Sometimes it pays to be the man heading in the other direction though. Remember in June how the Sligo manager Tony McEntee described the FRC survey to be ‘manipulative?’
Let’s make sure we aren’t seduced by a dreamy highlights reel, with a funky soundtrack.
10. Thy Kingdom Coming?
The sight of Cillian Burke and Mark O’Connor in action for the Geelong Cats in sleeveless geansaís is the stuff of Kerry nightmares as they seem set to enter a period of regression.
While Jack O’Connor has freshened up the panel, the old sages of Kerry football consider only Eddie Healy of Listowel Emmets to be a worthwhile addition.
Cillian Burke. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
Overall, there is a bang of staleness to Kerry. For example, the goalkeeper and six defenders who started in the semi-final defeat to Armagh, was exactly the same as the seven to start the 2019 final.
Change is managed gradually. If not, then a team can look very old in a heartbeat. The question is if that point has already arrived for Kerry.
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The 10 major questions around Gaelic football in 2025
WE WON’T TELL a lie, there have been winters in the past when GAA correspondents could have created more cliffhangers and drama than the entire industry of Alan Bennett wanabees.
Take a staple story, like the player retirement. Quite often broken by the local lad or lass on the local beat, involving a bit of a teasing out job before they could splash it, the story would then be aggregated across national media.
And once the plaudits were reported upon, along come the columnists. To tell us ‘what it all means’, of course. As Ernest once said, ‘Critics are men who sit and watch a battle from a high place and come down to shoot the survivors.’
A player retirement could easily be morphed into a question mark over the manager’s ability to retain their main players. Hey, somebody has to be blamed, right? Right?
You get the drift. Close-seasons flew by while we were having our fun. But this Gaelic football close-season was chock full of managerial beheadings and the usual intense naval-gazing about the sport, only this time coupled with actual action by Jim Gavin and his Football Review Committee.
So as we look at 2025 and a brand new sport, we look at the ten major questions that will occupy us.
*****
1. The New Normal
There’s no going back. The new rules will give us a very different game/product/sport. And what that might look like will take a while to emerge. It could be three years before the possibilities now are realised.
As nice and pretty as the Interprovincial games looked on a couple of mild winter nights, this will not be it. But we suspect that sweepers will certainly be used. A goal being worth three points will not be considered worth the risk, with teams recycling the ball outside the arc to hand to the specialist shooters in their preferred spots.
And there will be managers who moan and bitch. And you can be sure of it, most will detail their complaints like compliant nodding dogs.
2. Whither, the Dublin midfield?
Losing the greatest midfield player in the game would be unfortunate enough. To lose the best midfield partnership ever (with respect to Jack O’Shea and Sean Walsh) is nothing short of a disaster for Dublin and manager Dessie Farrell.
With James McCarthy and Brian Fenton gone, they have to figure out a way to retain their status as All-Ireland contenders while also finding a way around a game that now encourages, or forces, more long kickouts.
3. Michael Murphy, Donegal custodian?
Michael Murphy is back. And he’s fresh from the pre-Christmas training camp with Donegal in Abu Dhabi.
They might have tried their best not to let that cat out of the bag, but here’s another morsel from the camp. In recent weeks, they have been easing Murphy back into games. Not in the expected target-man role, but as a goalkeeper.
That may be to do with tender hamstrings, but either way, it’s something they have been toying with over the last couple of months.
4. Return of the glamour of challenge matches
The reasoning of the Gaelic Player’s Association that the pre-season competitions were scrapped due to player welfare concerns are downright hilarious for many, many reasons – not least because some of their members have been training away collectively since well before the permitted time frame.
But now we have a situation whereby counties are now advertising upcoming challenge matches to drum up a decent crowd paying in at the gate. A lot of the time, the opposition is local.
Local games in January. Doesn’t this all sound a bit familiar?
5. Youse wrote us off!
No team, going back as far as probably 2002, have been patronised quite as much as the present Armagh team after they won the All-Ireland.
The sports psych boffins would poo-poo the notion, but there’s still a currency in gathering up all the slights and disrespects visited upon champions, to use as motivation.
Those who run the Armagh senior team have had an ample bounty of sneery winter assessments to light a fire under the players.
6. Late fitness tests abound
In 2023, the GAA found themselves in a real pickle. Referees David Coldrick and Derek O’Mahoney were left off the referee’s panel as they failed fitness tests and were adjudged to not be up to the demands of the intercounty game.
Small problem. Coldrick was already down to referee the New York-Leitrim game in the Connacht championship. His flights and accommodation had already been paid. So they sent him on anyway!
Last season, things were even trickier. In mid-February, 16 National League matches were officiated by 12 referees who had failed fitness tests a month before.
With Gaelic football 2.0 on the way, higher fitness levels will be required. Let’s stick a pin in that one as we watch a few hamstrings ping in the early stages.
7. The last dance of all last dances
It would seem that no matter what happens in 2025, it is difficult to see Pádraic Joyce continuing as Galway manager into 2026.
But here’s the thing. The new rules could just suit Galway more than any other teams. They have limpet-like man markers in Liam Silke, Dylan McHugh and Sean Kelly, fantastic playmakers in John Daly and Kieran Molloy, a whole host of long-range shooting middle third players such as Paul Conroy, Cillian McDaid, Rob Finnerty and Matthew Tierney.
And they obviously have gifted finishers like Shane Walsh and Damien Comer who can fling over points from distance.
8. Can Derry return to contention?
It’s been a torrid time for those running the game in Derry. Going from two-time winners of Ulster, from the management of Rory Gallagher to being guided by Ciaran Meenagh, and then National League champions under Mickey Harte, there has seldom been a crash and burn job like their collapse in last year’s championship.
With a smart, experienced manager in Paddy Tally taking over, possessing a track record of being in winning set-ups, along with some expert back-up, their form in 2025 will be a source of fascination.
9. Games Intelligence Unit
It was as well Jim Gavin announced that the Football Review Committee would be using a ‘Games Intelligence Unit’, because it would have sounded absolutely mad coming out of the lips of anybody else.
Who will be in this crack team of GAA stats nerds is yet to be known, but let’s be careful about how they package the information. After all, they will be keen to make the figures sing and promote the message.
Sometimes it pays to be the man heading in the other direction though. Remember in June how the Sligo manager Tony McEntee described the FRC survey to be ‘manipulative?’
Let’s make sure we aren’t seduced by a dreamy highlights reel, with a funky soundtrack.
10. Thy Kingdom Coming?
The sight of Cillian Burke and Mark O’Connor in action for the Geelong Cats in sleeveless geansaís is the stuff of Kerry nightmares as they seem set to enter a period of regression.
While Jack O’Connor has freshened up the panel, the old sages of Kerry football consider only Eddie Healy of Listowel Emmets to be a worthwhile addition.
Overall, there is a bang of staleness to Kerry. For example, the goalkeeper and six defenders who started in the semi-final defeat to Armagh, was exactly the same as the seven to start the 2019 final.
Change is managed gradually. If not, then a team can look very old in a heartbeat. The question is if that point has already arrived for Kerry.
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GAA Gaelic Football here we go Jim Gavin