From Derry ending a long wait for Ulster supremacy to Kerry lifting Sam for the first time in eight years, 2022 delivered gripping storylines at every turn for GAA fans.
And while the club season doesn’t conclude until later this month, county teams this week ramp up preparations for the National League with the start of competitions like the Dr McKenna Cup in Ulster and the McGrath Cup in Munster, where Kerry will play for the first time since winning their 38th All-Ireland Football title in July.
The new year also brings significant structural change to the football championship and a plethora of new eras with several counties beginning life under new management.
It is shaping up to be an interesting year. Let’s take a look at what lies ahead.
Glen and Dunloy chasing All-Ireland success
Before the inter-county season begins in earnest on 28 January, new All-Ireland Club champions will be crowned in football and hurling.
This weekend, the provincial champions contest the All-Ireland Club Football semi-finals in a mouth-watering double-header at Croke Park as Dublin kingpins Kilmacud Crokes – last year’s beaten finalists – face Kerry’s Kerins O’Rahillys before first-time Ulster champions Glen take on Moycullen of Galway.
Having dethroned Kilcoo in Ulster, Glen are two wins away from lifting the Andy Merrigan Cup at headquarters, an outcome which would cap an astonishing year for the Maghera club’s county contingent of Conor Glass, Emmett Bradley, Connlan Bradley and Ethan Doherty.
If Glen reach the football decider, they will tog out at Croke Park on the same day as Dunloy, who go against Ballyhale Shamrocks in the hurling showpiece.
With eight titles the Kilkenny giants are the competition’s most decorated club, and with players like TJ Reid will be considered overwhelming favourites to extinguish the hurt of last year’s defeat by Ballygunner.
But toppling St Thomas’ in the semi-final will have only deepened Dunloy’s belief that they can cause a seismic upset as they look to clinch their first All-Ireland crown in what will be their fifth final.
More National League fun and games
For many, 2022 – and more specifically the enthralling climax to the Division One football campaign – reinforced the view that the National League is the inter-county game’s best competition.
And given the make-up of the four footballing divisions, this year promises to deliver another beguiling cocktail of chaos and controversy.
Kerry, Munster’s sole representative in Division One, will defend their title in a top tier containing four teams from Ulster (Armagh, Donegal, Monaghan and Tyrone) and three from Connacht (Galway, Mayo and Roscommon).
Who’s missing? Yes, Dublin who, after ceding their All-Ireland title to Tyrone in 2021, saw their 13-year run in Division One ended by expert escapologists Monaghan on an unforgettable day in Clones.
Dublin will seek an immediate return to the top table with promotion from a division that also features Ulster champions Derry, who failed to move up the ladder last year, and a Louth side targeting a third successive promotion under Mickey Harte.
And while the league usually delivers drama in spades, the scramble for places in the new-look All-Ireland series – which we’ll come to later – should only heighten the drama.
Like in Division One, there will be four Ulster teams in Division Three. Down, who crashed out of the second tier following a winless campaign, are now managed by Kilcoo stalwart Conor Laverty while Antrim have a new leader in former Meath boss Andy McEntee.
Fermanagh will look to improve on last year’s fifth-place finish while Cavan, determined to continue their rise back up the ladder after clinching the 2022 Division Four title, face a rematch with Westmeath, the team who bested them in the inaugural Tailteann Cup final.
In the National Hurling League, Waterford are the defending champions while Antrim – who have retained the services of manager Darren Gleeson and talisman Neil McManus – will look to turn creditable performances into points after losing all five games last season before surviving the drop with a play-off win over Offaly.
Among Antrim’s opponents in Group One B are Kilkenny, now managed by Derek Lyng with 11-time All-Ireland winner Brian Cody having ended his 24-year stint last summer. Fellow One B participants Tipperary (Liam Cahill), Waterford (Davy Fitzgerald), Laois (Willie Maher) and Dublin (Micheál Donoghue) are also under new management.
Can anyone stop Meath?
In the All-Ireland Ladies’ Championship, Meath have been boosted by Viki Wall’s confirmation that she will feature in the Royals’ three-in-a-row bid despite moving to Australian Rules side North Melbourne.
Meath will also defend their National League title after beating Donegal in last year’s final, while All-Ireland runners-up Kerry will join them in Division One following promotion in 2022.
In Ulster, Armagh remain the team to beat after completing a hat-trick last year with a hugely dramatic final win over Donegal.
Armagh are now led by Shane McCormack following Ronan Murphy’s departure and the new boss will have the twin ambition of prolonging the Orchard County’s provincial dominance while earning promotion to Division One having lost last year’s Division Two decider to Kerry.
Under new management
As mentioned earlier, Down and Antrim are two Ulster counties heading into 2023 under new management.
While Laverty is charged with breathing new life into the Mourne County following a miserable 2022, McEntee – an All-Ireland Club winning manager with Ballyboden St Enda’s – hopes to build on the work done by his Antrim predecessor Enda McGinley, who led the Saffrons out of Division Four in 2021.
They are two of four managerial changes in Ulster with Vinny Corey succeeding Seamus McEnaney as Monaghan boss and Paddy Carr taking the reins in Donegal.
But whereas Corey will be able to call upon Clontibret club-mate Conor McManus’ vast experience, Carr has a Michael Murphy-shaped hole to fill after the 2012 All-Ireland winner’s inter-county retirement as Donegal set out to move on from the pain of another Ulster final defeat.
Elsewhere, Kevin McStay has swapped the co-commentator’s microphone for the Bainisteoir bib in taking over as Mayo boss, while Armagh legend Oisin McConville begins his inter-county managerial journey with Wicklow.
Championship changes
All of the aforementioned managers will hope to have a crack at a reconfigured road to Sam with the All-Ireland series having been overhauled following a vote at last year’s Congress.
The 2023 championship will feature a round-robin stage, comprised of four groups of four from the eight provincial finalists and the seven next-best counties based on their league ranking.
2022 Tailteann Cup winners Westmeath will complete the 16, but if they qualify among one of the other categories, an eighth team will be chosen based on their league finish.
The group winners will qualify for the All-Ireland quarter-finals while the second and third-placed teams will contest a preliminary quarter-final stage.
The second-tier Tailteann Cup will also feature a round-robin stage with four groups of four, with a key change guaranteeing teams in both tiers at least three championship matches (one home, one away and one at a neutral venue).
Kerry played just three matches in the All-Ireland series to lift Sam in 2022. Assuming they get there, they may need to come through as many as seven to go back-to-back if they don’t finish top of their group.
