THE LAST POINT: Separating the apples and the oranges

2025 is fast approaching so you know what that means! Anyone with even the remotest interest in sport gets dragged into the annual apples and oranges contest that causes more than a few arguments. It is not that we’re discussing the merits of fruit but rather it is the ranking of the sporting achievements of 2024.

The topic sprung to mind as the Leitrim Sports Partnership seek nominations for the Sports Star of the Year awards, a sure sign we’re coming to an end of the year and it won’t be long before the national media, websites and even ourselves in the Observer will start looking back, compiling lists of the highs and lows of the sporting year.

Once the nominations are in, a committee will sit down in January and  try to make sense of it all. Even a cursory perusal of the sporting achievements of Leitrim people this year leaves you wondering how exactly you pick one performance over another. How do you compare individuals and teams? Or even more contentiously, how do you parse the performances of individuals within successful teams? Or what about an individual who produces something truly epic in an effort that didn't lead to glory? 

Is it all about the medals or is there something else that comes into it? Is there something to said about being a trailblazer in an unheralded sport over the cosseted superstar on a team in one of the major sports?

Rhasidat Adeleke didn’t win an Olympic medal in Paris but there is absolutely no doubt that what the Tallaght woman achieved in 2024 means she is rightly in the conversation about Ireland’s greatest of the past year, alongside Paul O’Donovan & Fintan McCarthy, Daniel Wiffen, Rhys McClenaghan and Kellie Harrington.

THE LAST POINT: A CONSTRAST IN EMOTIONS IN 24 HOURS

Adeleke didn’t bring home some tin from the French capital but the legions of young people, no matter their sport, that she inspired speaks to a different sort of impact and the record turnout of the Irish National Championships in Santry before Paris speaks volumes to her impact, so powerful that she joins that exclusive club of Irish sporting heroes that is only referred to by her first name.

Utter the names Sonia, Rory, Catherina, Roy, Brian, Katie, Padraig, Kellie or Rhys and everyone immediately knows who you are talking about and it is not just for what they won but the manner in which they did it or even the heartbreak they endured on their way to finally tasting glory.

Fourth place for Rhasidat left her devastated but you’ve got to think she has time on her side to conquer the world and Sonia O’Sullivan’s global domination of women’s middle distance running in the mid-90s was sparked by a fourth place in Barcelona 1992.

But if you’re like me and medals are the currency, there are five outstanding candidates - I almost wrote four because we instantly think of Paul O’Donovan with the back to back gold medals and an individual world title but we forget that both Olympic golds came with Fintan McCarthy in the boat.

Does that drop him down below Rhys, Kellie and Daniel in terms of achievement? Does the fact that Daniel Wiffen claimed two medals, gold and bronze, elevate him above his fellow gold medalists or does the ground-breaking nature of Rhys McClenaghan’s pommel horse gold get him the nod as Ireland’s Sports Person of the Year? And we haven’t even mentioned the legendary Kellie Harrington who defended her Women’s Lightweight boxing title in Paris!

To use an old Leaving Cert exam analogy, how do you compare and contrast what they’ve all achieved? Women’s boxing just doesn’t have the same depth and history as men’s boxing, that’s hardly news, but gymnastics, rowing or swimming are nowhere near as widespread around the world as say athletics, in the same way that Soccer has a much deeper depth than rugby at its highest level.

Facilities and coaching come into it - far easier to go running in the remote hills of Kenya and become the best in the world than to find a swimming pool or gymnastics centre while tradition and history plays a part too. Table tennis and badminton are dominated by Asian competitors because there is a history there, the same way gymnastics is big in the former Eastern Block countries, the US and Japan.

It gives you some idea of how difficult it can be to come to a consensus as to what is the outstanding sporting performance of 2024! To illustrate the point, I’ll reduce the argument solely to  Leitrim and ask how do you pick out one single outstanding figure from the TG4 LGFA All-Ireland Intermediate Championship winning Leitrim team?

Charlene Tyrell and Michelle Guckian were nominated for the TG4 LFGA Intermediate Player of the Year with Michelle getting the nod to great acclaim last Saturday - I don’t know who I’d have picked between those two great Leitrim servants but I couldn’t believe that Ailbhe Clancy and Muireann Devaney weren’t nominated for the award but that's just me.

Actually, scratch that, I still can't believe Muireann didn’t get picked on the Team of the Intermediate Championship, the same for Kasey Bruen, the Leitrim duo losing out I think purely because there was a quota for the various counties, a maximum of seven spots on the team for the All-Ireland champions and that to me was purely bizarre.

But much of that comes down to  the judging criteria on each award - Ailbhe Clancy picked up the Leitrim LGFA County Player of the Year award for 2024, quite a tribute considering the year Leitrim had but listening to Jonny Garrity explain the selection at the awards, it was clear that Ailbhe’s impact behind the scenes on her teammates, her leadership and personality contributed to the decision. We don’t get to see what Garrity and his management team see at each training session but to them, Ailbhe was worthy of special recognition and I wouldn’t argue with that.

Yet for all the brilliance of Ailbhe, Charlene and Michelle, did anyone have a bigger impact than Muireann? The dual sports star returned to the Leitrim set-up in 2024 and had an instant impact, an added dimension to Leitrim’s play - Guckian & Clancy had  more freedom and Devaney was simply irrepressible in the big moments in Parnell Park, Croke Park and Kiltoom throughout the year.

THE LAST POINT: CELEBRATION, REGRET AND HOPE IN ONE WEEKEND

Again, that’s only a personal opinion - Devaney’s return might have been the factor that tilted a series of close games in Leitrim’s favour, the grain of sand that tipped the scales, but what about Elise Bruen & Laura O’Dowd, two players whose lung bursting runs  no opposition was able to handle or the saves of Michelle Monaghan in goal, absolutely huge in close games  - I suppose the point is that you could pick half a dozen members of that team to celebrate and you wouldn't be wrong.

That’s just the Ladies team - what about Andy Moran’s Senior Men? Promotion from Division 4, an appearance in Croke Park and qualifying for the Tailteann Cup preliminary quarter finals while the U20s had a rare, rare championship win over Mayo last March and that’s before we get near any of the club teams that bestrode the Men’s and Ladies club championships in 2024.

So you get the idea - picking one winner above everyone else is difficult but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Even earning a nomination for the Leitrim Sports Star Awards  in a badge of honour so I hope when the Leitrim Sports Partnership are looking for nominations, make sure you give all our sporting heroes the consideration they deserve and, in this election season, make sure your voice is heard and vote!