Another year is coming to a close and Irish sport is in a good place.
Our rugby team beat the All Blacks, Australia and South Africa, our footballers toppled Austria and look on-course for World Cup qualification, Katie Taylor looks like a pro boxing champ already and we claimed silver medals in rowing and sailing at Rio 2016.
There’s a lad called Conor McGregor making waves in MMA too…
SportsJOE has covered a whole host of sporting triumphs and tragedies this year and everything in between. Looking back on the past 12 months, here are our 10 biggest stories.
10. Olivier Giroud’s praise for Ireland at Euro 2016
The Arsenal striker was asked about France’s hopes of winning the tournament after their 2-1 knock-out win over Ireland. All he could do was pay tribute to the tenacity and class of the Irish team. Fair play. Over 84,000 page views for this heartening story, you can read here.
9. Rob Hennelly rises above his All-Ireland heartache
Selected at late notice to start in an All-Ireland final replay, Hennelly had a game he probably wishes he could forget. His support of a young Cork goalkeeper after a similarly tough day at the office said an awful lot about his character. The story here had more than 86,000 page views.
8. Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor: The early days
At the beginning of the year, this was an amusing side-show. Now the idea of McGregor vs. Mayweather is not so far-fetched, especially after the Dubliner got his California boxing licence. More than 88,500 of you were eager to see ‘Money’s’ retort to ‘The Notorious’, which you can check out here.
7. Michael Conlan blasts Rio 2016 judges
To this day, no-one who watched Michael Conlan dominate Vladimir Nikitin for three rounds can tell you how the Irishman was not awarded the bout. Conlan certainly had his ideas and let the ringside judges know the score. 89,000+ visited the story here to see how it all played out.
6. George Lockhart gives you a diet tip you can keep
The former marine is Conor McGregor’s go-to nutrionist and he helped him get in fighting shape for UFC 202 and 205 wins over Nate Diaz and Eddie Alvarez. In this story, here, some 89,000 of you were keen to get Lockhart’s advice on how to kick sugar cravings.
5. Ronan O’Gara captures devastation of Anthony Foley’s passing
October was a sombre, reflective month for rugby fans following the tragic passing of Munster head coach Anthony Foley. Of all the tributes, thoughts and ‘Axel’ memories shared, former teammate Ronan O’Gara summed it up best here. The 99,000 page view the story got reflect the high regard in which both men are held.
4. Tommy Walsh is an absolute gent
When Michael Duignan’s wife passed away, Walsh went out of his way to make a small but significant gesture to his grieving son. Duignan never forget the Kilkenny hurler’s immense kindness. This touching tale had over 103,000 page views.
3. Danny Baker loses his **** as England are dumped out of Euro 2016
As much as we may protest it, Irish sports fans often revel in English sides building themselves up only to spectacularly fail. That happened to Roy Hodgson’s men at Euro 2016 and over 107,000 of you checked out this story of BBC pundit Danny Baker savaging the hapless footballers.
2. Jamie Vardy and that blue bandage of his
As Leicester City charged for an unlikely Premier League title, so many of you wanted to know about why Vardy wore his bandage. We had you covered, here, and over 142,000 came along to get the full explanation.
1. Words of advice as Conor McGregor avenges first ever UFC loss
When Conor McGregor had to dig his very deepest – in the fourth round against Nate Diaz at UFC 202 – the Californian was engaging in some immense trash-talk. John Kavanagh revealed what Diaz’ words were here and more than 147,000 came along to check them out.
As for SportsJOE’s most shared story of 2016… Conor McGregor, James McClean, Conor Murray.
Line. Them. Up.
Here’s to 2017.
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