IT’S time to blow the cobwebs away and look towards the infinite possibilities of another new year. Said with more gusto than it was written.
It’s never easy after Christmas. It always takes a while to get the adrenaline pumping again and to rid oneself of turkey, stuffing, ham, Quality Street, Ferrero Rocher, selection boxes, Bucks fizz, wine (red or white), Bailey’s, Guinness, darts at the Ally Pally, the umpteenth re-run of Only Fools and Horses, having no alarm clock and old movies.
At this stage, I know every line uttered by Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window and no matter how many times I watch Jack Lemmon in The Apartment I’m always blown away.
But these days must conclude at some point (what day is it, by the way?). Order must return to our lives. This blurred sense of existence must end.
We need routine. And we must renew our gym membership and promise ourselves the moon and the stars - at least until mid-January.
We need to get on the road again. We need sport more than we will ever appreciate.
There are brave souls in our sports department who are eager to break this meandering festive cycle and head for Tullamore and Portlaoise this weekend to chart the All-Ireland hopes and dreams of Ballinderry and Errigal Ciaran.
The old rules of Gaelic football will apply until All-Ireland club champions are declared later this month.
And just when players, coaches and managers needed the much-maligned pre-season competitions to try out and get used to the new football rules, they were cancelled, as the return to collective training date of December 7 was steadfastly observed by one and all.
Special Congress didn’t just agree to a couple of minor tweaks to Gaelic football; they instead opted for open-heart surgery.
Keeping three players up field has undoubtedly the greatest scope for transforming the game and will hopefully promote a shift in coaching practices too where individual flair players can flourish to a much greater extent.
Gaelic football’s future, with 14 or 15 players behind the ball, just wasn’t bright enough. Something had to give.
Rather than lamenting the radical changes and yearning for the old ways, the game’s coaching intelligentsia should be embracing the challenge of wanting to be ahead of the curve in 2025, spending every waking hour thinking and plotting.
Managers and coaches will be looking at their resources from a very different angle and envisaging new roles.
There is plenty to look forward to in 2025. On the face of it, Malachy O’Rourke has timed his run to the Tyrone hot-seat with perfection.
Niall Morgan, the Canavan brothers, Darren McCurry and a host of target men to choose from.
What’s not to love about the landscape in the O’Neill County in 2025? Derry may have fallen off the edge of a cliff last season, but Paddy Tally has acquired so much experience over the last few seasons that the only way is up for the Oak Leaf men.
Perhaps a bit removed from the fast lane of Gaelic football, Mickey Harte keeps clocking up the miles and will hope to work some of his old magic down in Offaly.
Boosted by last season’s Tailteann Cup win and about to embrace the challenge of Division Two football, the Down project under Conor Laverty will be something to keep a keen eye on.
Far from being vintage periods for Dublin and Kerry, the All-Ireland is wide open.
And how will the Armagh footballers handle the mantle of being All-Ireland champions with tickets at the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds being in short supply?
Antrim Gaels will be hoping Davy Fitzgerald can throw some star dust around the place – not just in Corrigan Park but at away grounds which has proved the Antrim hurlers’ Achilles heel in recent years.
In this perpetually squeezed GAA calendar where does the media fit in? Will paranoia trump meaningful access again?
Will it be more of the same - standing outside changing rooms in search of some well-worn soundbites?
Or will some players and coaches offer slightly more of themselves and promote the game better than it has been promoted in recent years?
We could do with a few Damien Duffs in the GAA. And what of Derry City?
How will New Lodge Road native Tiernan Lynch get on at the Brandywell?
All we really want are a couple of title races in 2025.
Who can catch Liverpool in the most over-rated league in the world?
And if Ruben Amorim had his time over again, would he really have chosen Old Trafford, a ramshackle of a place, or stayed at Sporting?
Will Kylian Mbappe get his mojo back at Real?
Locally, who’s going to stop Linfield running away with the Gibson Cup this year?
Will Jamie Mulgrew – Windsor’s warrior footballer - ever retire?
And can Heimir Hallgrimsson deliver World Cup qualification by the end of the year and get people talking again about the Republic of Ireland? It’s a tough ask.
As we prepare for a bright new dawn, we can never underestimate the power of sport in our lives.
It brings to us light, passion, entertainment, escapism, camaraderie and conversation.
At Solitude on Saturday, a healing process begins as Cliftonville open their defence of the Irish Cup against minnows Banbridge Rangers where they’ll remember with extreme fondness the late Michael Newberry, the club’s brave-hearted defender, who died suddenly earlier this week.
May sport continue to shine light on our paths as we travel into 2025...
