Caolán ConroyEvery Friday, Caolán Conroy provides his take on sporting developments across the UK and Ireland, and shares his predictions for match-ups ahead. This week he highlights five things Irish sports fans should be looking out for in 2018.
Gaelic Football Championship – Super 8s
Let’s face it, something had to change with the GAA Football championship and after much discussion we have ended up with the Super 8s. For those of you who don’t know, the early stages of the championship are set to be run off in the same way as previous years, with the traditional provincial championships and back door taking place up until the last eight. For the first time, all quarter finalists will then be placed into two groups of four, with the top two in each group qualifying for the semi-final.
With many fans and pundits worried about the increasing gulf in class between the bigger and smaller counties, it’s hard to imagine that this system will solve the problem. I can’t say I’m a fan of the new system. I think it is a positive thing that there is set to be more games but, surely, it’ll only mean more games for the top teams. For me, the fair thing would’ve been to have group stages at the start of the championship. With the new Super 8s system I believe the big counties will continue to get stronger due to having more game time, the gap between the less successful counties will continue to widen.
Having said that, if my county, Armagh, reached the quarter finals every year and had the opportunity of competing in the Super 8s, I’m not sure if I would be complaining then. It may not be the fairest of systems, but I suppose in sport the cream will always rise to the top.
UEFA league of nations
On January 24th the inaugural draw for the UEFA Nations League will take place. The new tournament structure is quite confusing. In essence, UEFA have introduced it to ensure competitive games for all 55 UEFA nations and to scrap pointless friendlies. From now on, teams will be divided into four leagues in accordance with UEFA rankings; there’ll be promotion and relegation, with the top team in each league going through to a final four within their league.
Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland are set to be in League B. The pots will include:
- Pot 1: Austria, Wales, Russia, Slovakia
- Pot 2: Sweden, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Pot 3: Northern Ireland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey
Teams will be split into four groups of three. The four group winners are promoted to League A, with the four sides that finish bottom relegated to League C for the next competition to be played in 2020.
The games are set to take place between September and November 2018, with top of the Group in each league facing each other in a final four competition taking place in June 2019.
I’m looking forward to the draw in a couple of weeks; hopefully both the Republic and Northern Ireland can get good draws. They might even draw each other, which would be a huge occasion. As a huge fan of international football (and there ain’t too many of us out there) I’m happy to see more competitive games and less meaningless friendlies.
Can Ireland reclaim the Six Nations before their tour of Australia?
Ireland kick off their Six Nations campaign away to France on the first weekend of February, before three home games against Italy, Wales and Scotland. Again, as chance would have it, the final game of the tournament is against England in Twickenham over St Patrick’s weekend. England are massive favourites to win the Six Nations Crown but should be pushed all the way by Ireland. If both teams can remain unbeaten until the final game – which as Ireland found out last year isn’t easy – then it promises to be a great and intriguing spectacle. I’ve already heard that tickets for the game are going for over £1,000, such is the demand.
Ireland will be confident going into the tournament after their impressive autumn test series and win over England in last year’s final game. I’ve seen some bookmakers have them at odds of close to 3/1, which I think is decent value.
This summer, the Irish team then embark on a three-test tour of Australia. It promises to be a fascinating series and it will be interesting to see what condition the Wallabies are in at the beginning of the season and the Irish players are in at the end of theirs. I don’t think any Irish team will have faced such a tough or gruelling tour in quite a while.
Will Irish Golfers recapture their form?
2017 was a disappointing year for the biggest names in Irish golf. Rory McIlroy dropped from 2nd place in the world rankings at the end of 2016 to 11th currently. Shane Lowry dropped from 43rd to 62nd, Padraig Harrington dropped 35 places to 150th and Graeme McDowell dropped over 100 places to 182. The only player who enjoyed a successful year was Paul Dunne who leaped 200 places in the world rankings to 75th.
Dunne won the British Masters in October in magnificent fashion and this capped off an impressive year for the 25-year-old. He also had a number of other top 10 finishes throughout the year which enabled him to bolt up the rankings. Like his compatriots, he’ll be looking to get off to the best possible start in 2018.
The first tournament of the year is this weekend but not all of the World’s best have returned to action as yet. McIlroy and McDowell in particular suffered frustrating seasons in 2017 and will be looking to put some good performances in before the first major of the year. This major is, of course, the US Masters which will take place in April; here, McIlroy will be hoping to complete a career grand slam by winning the last of the four major tournaments. However, if he continues to play the way he did last season then I fear he’ll continue to lose ground on many of the young bright players who have come through over the last couple of years.
Two Major Athletics Championships for local Athletes
This is an extremely important year for local athletes as many of them gear up for the Commonwealth Games in April and the European Athletics Championships in August. The Commonwealth Games are to be held in Australia’s Gold Coast. This week it was announced that Northern Ireland have selected a squad of 88 athletes to represent them Down Under.
As in 2014, the male and female boxers represent Northern Ireland’s best chance of success. In total, 13 boxers have been chosen in the squad, plenty of whom have experience of fighting and winning at Commonwealth Games and major events previously.
Many of those taking part in the Commonwealth Games will also be travelling to Berlin for the European championships. Peaking at two different tournaments in quick succession will be difficult, no doubt, but an exciting year in sport awaits.
