Pitch imperfect

Was Keane a traitor who abandoned his country in its hour of need? Or did McCarthy back his captain into a corner?
There were no winners in this sad episode for Irish sport. After the World Cup, Keane said that he might consider playing for Ireland again if McCarthy was not the manager. That statement, coupled with Ireland’s dreadful start in the subsequent the European Championship qualifiers, sealed McCarthy’s fate and he stepped down in November.
Surprisingly, the Boys in Green did very well without the inspirational Keane in Japan and Korea. The other Keane, Robbie, stepped into the fray with some magic touches. But while Ireland had the luck against Romania in the famous penalty shootout in Genoa in 1990, the luck ran out against the Spaniards in Korea.
Then, of course, came the books, all four of them, where fans got details of a heavy consumption of alcohol among the Irish squad. Back home, meanwhile, GAA players, too, proved they were not all Pioneers, as in the abstention variety, especially the Roscommon ones, some of whom like to play pool in the nude late at night.
Still, the most successful among the amateur players of the GAA probably know how to prepare better than their professional countrymen. Armagh headed off to Canaries early in the year to get ready for the championship campaign and the players gave up booze. It apparently worked as Kieran McGeeney became the first man from the Orchard County to lift the Sam McGuire Cup when Armagh beat Kerry in the final in September. And Armagh manager Joe Kernan was voted manager of the year.
Alcohol abuse is a growing problem in Ireland, especially among young people, and it was good to hear that the Mayo women’s Gaelic football team, who won the All-Ireland, also gave up the booze for the duration of the championship campaign.
It was a great year all around for the Northern counties, with Tyrone also taking their first-ever national title, beating beat Cavan in the National Football League Final in April. And history was made on a horrible wet Sunday in October when a crowd of 71,552 turned up at Croke Park to see the second test in the International Rules against Australia, the biggest crowd ever to witness an Irish team on home soil.
In hurling, the news centered on Kilkenny star D.J. Carey. The Gowran man, who had been injured, made a surprise return to the Kilkenny team after their Leinster final win over Wexford. His performances in the semifinal victory over Tipperary and in the final against Clare earned Carey his ninth All-Star award. Kilkenny also won the National League title, beating Cork in the final.
At the end of the year, regrettably, we had an off the field hurling story that surpassed anything seen on the field of play when the entire Cork senior hurling panel said they were going on strike until their demands were met. They were later supported by their football colleagues, but, thankfully, after talks with the County Board, the parties have now resolved their difficulties.
Horse racing threw up several brilliant individual performances in 2002. Rock of Gibraltar, trained by Aidan O’Brien and ridden by Michael Kinane, made history by breaking Mill Reef’s 30-year-old record by winning seven Group 1 races. Earlier in the year, O’Brien’s High Chaparral won the Budweiser Irish Derby and the young trainer also saddled the second and third horses in the same race at the Curragh. O’Brien also became the first man to train Irish, English and French Guineas winners in the same year.
Also, Dermot Weld took Media Puzzle all the way to Australia to win the Melbourne Cup.
Jockey Tony McCoy continued to set records for riding. In April, he broke Sir Gordon Richards record for winners in a season when he rode his 270th winner. And in August, McCoy broke Richard Dunwoody’s record when he rode his 1,700th career winner. Pat Eddery equaled Lester Piggot’s domestic career total of 4,493 winners at Ascot in June. And Killarney-born Jim Culloty became the first jockey in 26 years to win both the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Aintree Grand National in the same year. But it was the end of the line for the great Istabraq, who was pulled up at Cheltenham.
Ireland’s rugby team got a new coach in Eddie O’Sullivan, who replaced Warren Gatland. Ireland beat Scotland, Wales and Italy in the Six Nations Championship but went down heavily to England and France, who became the first country to win the Six Nations Grand Slam. But the autumn brought better news with a great victory over reigning World Champions Australia at Lansdowne Road and qualification for the World Cup. The Irish ruggers can now look ahead to the upcoming Six Nations competition in confident mood with six consecutive victories under their belt.
It was also a memorable year for our top golfers. Padraig Harrington blew up on the last hole in the British Open, but the Dubliner made up for that slip when he picked up $1 million by holding off a late challenge from Tiger Woods to win The Target World Classic at the Sherwood Country Club in Southern California earlier this month. Harrington’s usual partner, Paul McGinley, sunk the winning putt for Europe in their Ryder Cup win over the U.S. at The Belfry in September.
Elsewhere, Ireland just missed out on a medal at the Winter Olympics when Galway-born Clifton Wrottesley finished fourth in the men’s skeleton race at Salt Lake City.
Sonia O’Sullivan set an Irish record for the half marathon while winning the Great Northern Race in Newcastle. Earlier, the Cobh-born runner had set a world record of 51 minutes for a 10-mile road race at Portsmouth.
Sam Lynch retained his world title when he took gold in the lightweight sculls at the World Rowing Championships in Seville. And Dermot Lennon won gold at the World Equestrian Games in Jerez.
But it was a year to forget for the Irish women’d hockey team, who just avoided the wooden spoon in the Hockey World Cup in Australia, by winning their last game.
Mary Harney, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s partner in government, put an end to his “Bertie Bowl” dream. And the joint bid with Scotland to host Euro 2008 was a flop, but I suppose that was no great surprise.
No doubt about the most historic game played during 2002. It was a Gaelic football match at Lucan in West Dublin between the gardai and the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
During the year, we lost Mick Dunne, one of the finest journalists in GAA history, and the soccer commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme, who wasn’t Irish, though any Irish person with an interest in soccer will always remember his famous description of Geoff Hurst’s third goal for England in the 1966 World Cup Final: “Some people are on the pitch. They think it’s all over — it is now.”