Davy Fitzgerald
IF 2013 WAS hurling’s Hollywood summer, Davy Fitzgerald and Clare were its leading men — but they soon came to realise that for every Dances with Wolves, there’s a Waterworld just around the corner.
Davy is under contract until 2017 but after an early championship exit, the pressure is on to deliver. There’s no doubting that this is the county’s most talented crop of players since the mid- to late-1990s, and that will only improve as more of their magnificent U21 class graduate.
Davy’s ban on dual players has raised a few eyebrows and the proof will be in the pudding in 2015. Recent comments from Ger Loughnane, who anointed this team “the most talented players we have ever had,” only add to the anticipation.
Ireland’s centre partnership
Ever since we grudgingly accepted that Brian O’Driscoll is subject to the same ageing processes as the rest of us mere mortals and would be unable to play on forever, thoughts turned to the void that he would leave in Ireland’s midfield for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
Joe Schmidt is in no rush to nail down a starting centre partnership, though Robbie Henshaw certainly seized his opportunity in the November Series wins against South Africa and Australia.
Whoever gets the nod at 12 and 13 this autumn can expect plenty of attention, for better or for worse.
Conor McGregor
He only has four UFC fights under his belt but fast-talking McGregor has already become one of the promotion’s most marketable names. Three first-round KOs and a thousand zingy one-liners have certainly helped endear him to the top brass who seem set to fast-track him to a featherweight title shot.
McGregor has made plenty of noise about filling football stadiums in Ireland and it seems that plan has already progressed from wishful pipe dream to strong possibility.
The Dubliner returns to the Octagon on 18 January when he headlines a Boston card against Dennis Siver. Win that and his next assignment could well be a showdown with the champion, Brazil’s Jose Aldo.
MON/Keano
When Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane took the Ireland management job in late 2013, their goal was clear: qualify for the expanded 24-team European Championships in France in 2016.
Four games in, Ireland’s campaign is still very much in the balance. An unexpected point in Germany was negated by defeat in Scotland but both teams still have to come to Dublin as do Group D leaders Poland.
Third place would guarantee a play-off at least. Anything less would certainly leave the management’s jobs hanging in the balance.
Jim Gavin
The more you achieve, the more people come to expect from you. Just ask Jim Gavin who is facing into the third of his three years as Dublin manager in 2015.
Only the wildest fantasists indulged the whispered dreams of five-in-a-row that started to do the rounds last summer, a bubble that burst when the champions were dethroned by Donegal.
The facts remain the same though. This is Dublin’s strongest panel in a generation, backed up by top management and resources that are the envy of every other county.
Anything less than a second All-Ireland is likely to be seen as a failure.
Rory McIlroy
If 2013 was a nightmare for Rory McIlroy, the evidence of the last 12 months showed that it was little more than a blip. Still a few months shy of his 26th birthday, McIlroy drew a line under golf’s Tiger Years and ushered in the Rory Era.
The immediate focus will be on Augusta in April where he bids to become only the sixth man to complete a career Grand Slam in the Masters era.
Do that, and all of the talk will turn to the US Open and the possibility of a “Rory Slam” which would see him hold all four Majors at the same time — matching Tiger’s historic achievement in 2000/01.
His off-course legal wrangles, and the relentless focus on his personal life, will always be there as background distractions but as long as he keeps racking up the wins on the course, Rory’s legacy will continue to grow.
Stuart Lancaster
A World Cup on home soil? If that doesn’t bring a hell of a lot of pressure, what does?
Stuart Lancaster is fortunate that the RFU did an “Eddie O’Sullivan” and offered him a massive contract extension last year but after narrow defeats to New Zealand and South Africa in November, the first rumblings of disquiet made themselves heard. Is Lancaster really the man to lead this team through the next two World Cups?
Pool A isn’t an easy one. Simply put, three into two doesn’t go, and one of Australia, Wales and England will be heading home by the second week of October.
Rory Gallagher
For years it was said that the hardest job in football was replacing Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager, and then David Moyes came along and proved that it was true.
Could the same be said in the GAA world about Jim McGuinness and the Donegal football job? Rory Gallagher is about to find out.
Succeeding McGuinness, the man who led the county to three Ulster titles and a first All-Ireland in 20 years, is an unenviable task. Gallagher’s biggest advantage is that he knows this group of players as well as anyone having served in McGuinness’s backroom for three years.
Could he turn out to be more Paisley than Moyes?
