The Toughest journey begins with one step.
And throughout 2015 we have seen players and teams face some of their most difficult moments on their journey to success.
At club and county level fans, players and even those behind the scenes experienced some of the most memorable occasions in their entire lives.
We’ve picked our seven favourite videos from the last 12 months from the AIB club championships as well as the All-Ireland football series that made the year #TheToughest.
1. The Toughest Trade
Take two of the best known GAA players in the country, Jackie Tyrell and Aaron Kernan, and see how they perform in a professional environment.
But also take two professionals, baseball player Brian Schneider and footballer David Bentley, and let them experience ‘The Toughest Trade‘ of life as ordinary club footballer and hurler.
We’d love to see this become an annual TV show but for now enjoy the experience of Jackie Tyrell driving around Miami in a convertible.
2. The Toughest Road Back
2015 was a mixed year for Colm Cooper as the Kingdom legend did his best to recover from a serious knee injury picked up in the spring of 2014. The corner-forward went though the pain barrier to try and regain his place with Dr Crokes and then Kerry.
‘The Toughest Road Back’ followed the ‘Gooch’ as he battled the mental and physical scars left by his cruciate knee ligament injury.
3. The Toughest House.
Of all the houses in all the towns, six hurlers came together in London. Six club county hurling championship medals; four with Kilburn Gaels, one with Ballyhale Shamrocks and one with Cratloe.
One passion: their clubs.
You never leave your parish and your club, even when you’re hundreds of miles away.
4. Breaffy Official Suppliers of Aidan O’Shea to Mayo GAA.
Mayo’s de facto full-forward tore defences apart all summer and we got a glimpse into the formation of a footballing hero in this focus on the Breaffy’s man’s youth.
Part of a series that also featured James O’Donoghue and Paul Flynn, no-one will forget the image of a younger O’Shea terrorising defences.
5. The Toughest Challenge.
Loyalty to your county is one thing. But loyalty to your club is on a totally different scale as one Dublin fan proved on All-Ireland final day.
One stanch Dublin supporter gave up his All-Ireland ticket to cheer for Kerry in a pub packed with unsuspecting locals with one golden pay off: €5,000 for his club if he could hide his true colours.
6. The Toughest Accuracy challenge
To be the best club side in Munster you need deadly accurate forwards. So who would emerge the winner in a test of hand-eye co-ordination when Ballygnnner’s Pauric Mahoney came up against Na Piarsaigh’s Shane Dowling?
NB: Watch out for the pane smashing shot towards the end.
7. #TheToughest AIB Leinster Club Final – Oulart the Ballagh
The Wexford champions had lost six Leinster finals before 2015. six devastating losses that meant the club were known among some opponents as ‘Oulart the Bottlers’.
But not this year. 2015 would be different. The players swore it. The fans swore it. The management swore it.
And it was.
