Scandals and mini-controversies that blow up earlier in the year are a lot like great performances that occur earlier in the year. As in they are all forgotten about by September.
By the time the last drop of wine has been drunk at the All-Ireland winners banquet you can remember what they were all about.
At this stage in 2016, all anyone can talk about is the black card and soon, if the last day is anything to go, the discussion will move onto Dublin's intimidating environmental and financial advantages over the rest of the field.
They mean the world to everyone at the time but the year is over they're forgotten about. Here are five almost forgotten ones that stand out for us.
1. The Great Christy Ring scoreboard cock-up
For the second time this decade, citizens of the world united in coming down on top of Meath and demanding they do the right thing.
As a county, Meath's ferocious ability to stare down this kind of moral pressure hasn't diminished in the past six years. Indeed, they were even less sympathetic to the pleas of their opponents than they were when it was the success-starved Louth footballers getting the shitty end of the stick.
They were not going to be agreeing to a replay simply on the grounds that they had accumulated the same score in a match as their opponents.
On the field in the Christy Ring Cup Final, Meath drew 2-17 to 1-20 with Antrim. However, the scoreboard insisted that Meath had in fact scored 2-18.
The scoreboard error was noticed while the game was in progress. On the 63rd minute, Antrim's Niall McKenna pointed to put Antrim four ahead. The scoreboard instead gave the point to Meath. After a while, there was a realisation that some mistake had been made and the score was added to Antrim's tally. But the relevant score was not subtracted from Meath's tally.
Now the score is wrong on scoreboard... Should be 1-16, 1-20 pic.twitter.com/qkvRE4ZE53
— Fergal Lynch (@truefergallynch) June 4, 2016
At the end of the game, referee John O'Brien told officials he was happy the scoreline of 2-18 to 1-20, indicating that he was working off the scoreboard figures. He subsequently realised his mistake and alluded to it in his report.
The Antrim hurling backroom team is evidently not very well stocked with number-crunchers and so, after the final whistle, their players simply congratulated the Meath lads on their 'win' and thereafter played the role of one-point losers to tee, moping around on the pitch while the presentation went ahead.
When the word spread that an embarrassing error had been made, the Meath lads set their face against offering a replay. They were delighted to have won the Christy Ring, they repeated over and over, as if it were a mantra. And sure, half their fellas were due to fly to the States and everything, they protested. They couldn't agree to a do-over.
Alas, unlike in other controversies, the CCCC intervened and ordered a replay. The circumstances of this particular controversy allowed them to do so.
When Hawkeye made a mistake in the 2013 minor hurling semi-final between Limerick and Galway - denying Limerick a clear point and eventually resulting in 20 minutes of extra-time from which Galway emerged the handy victors - the result was allowed stand. Limerick's protests were waved away and Galway progressed to the All-Ireland final.
The 2013 Hawkeye cock-up was essentially deemed akin to an umpiring error and so didn't call for a replay. Whereas in the Meath-Antrim game, the scoreline had simply been calculated wrongly by the scoreboard. The GAA's position was therefore that the game was a draw, regardless of whether Meath lads ran up the steps to collect the trophy.
The replay was originally scheduled for Pairc Esler, though was moved to Croker. Meath won an incredible game after extra time by 4-21 to 5-17. Still, there was some misgivings that they had to do it all over again.
The presenter of Balls.ie's Hard Shoulder podcast and 2010 Leinster champion, Anthony Moyles, continues to insist that Meath in fact won two Christy Ring Cup titles this year.
Whenever we try to point out that there was a grave scoreboard error, he simply waves us away, as if to say that he is uninterested in irrelevant details.
The Meath triumph is especially impressive since it comes only a year after former Sam Maguire winner Gerry McEntee outlined his plan for hurling in the county, one which involved "burning all the hurleys" in Meath.
2. The riproaring Ger Loughnane versus gutless Galway barney
Ger Loughnane appears to have never quite forgiven the Galway hurlers for besmirching his managerial reputation by winning nothing under him in his two years there in the late noughties.
The wags might legitimately point out that Ger is not unique among managers in winning nothing while in charge of Galway.
But during Ger's time there, not only did they win nothing, but they didn't even threaten to not win nothing (if you follow).
His two years there yielded wins over Laois and Antrim, and a couple of very grim defeats against Clare (2007) and Cork (2008) both of whom were presumed (and, in fact were) to be in disarray when Galway ran into them. The ten-point loss to Kilkenny in the 2007 quarter-final was later re-cast as the glorious highlight of his reign.
Galway's latest Leinster final defeat to Kilkenny was hardly shameful but it was depressingly similar to the previous year's All-Ireland final. After which, they decided to sling their manager out on his ear.
Ger torched the Galway players in his Star column.
For whatever reason, criticism of the Galway hurlers has always been especially spikey and rough. The abundance of underage success must play a part in this. We can forgive teams for being plain shite but we can't forgive them for being lousers who are wasting their talent and frittering away All-Irelands.
Ger has played a leading role in that. Galway, he wrote, had confirmed for once, and for all, that they had no guts whatsoever.
After the stance they took against Anthony Cunningham, this was the day when Galway had to stand up and be counted.
Otherwise, they'd rightly be regarded as a laughing stock. This defeat showed they are made of absolutely nothing. You can forget about this Galway team - they have no guts whatsoever!
Galway are always looking for a crutch. There's always someone or something to blame. The manager, the trainer, the physio, the length of the grass on the training pitch, the weather...
Not only that but he lampooned Galway's impressive new manager Micheal O'Donoghue as 'Fr. Trendy' style character. He was "an amiable curate coming into a new parish." Galway would benefit, Loughnane suggested, if only O'Donoghue would throw more shapes on the line.
Meanwhile, over in Clare, they were tearing their hair out.
Davy, stressed out enough as it was, needed this kind of talk like he needed a hole in the head. He was at pains to make clear that he and his Clare team didn't agree with Ger's views.
"I just don't know why he does stuff like that," Davy said frustratedly.
It was too late. Despite being so poorly endowed in guts department, Galway went onto knock Ger Loughnane's county out of the championship. Clare were soundly beaten by six points and in retrospect it could have been more.
It was to be Davy's last game in charge.
3. Psycho Walsh and his talent for emojis
Way back when in the earliest days of 2016, Laois began their O'Byrne Cup campaign with a one-point win over UCD in Ratheniska.
The team that day featured heavy representation from the Emo and Ballylinan clubs, a detail which Colm Parkinson connected back to the fact that the incoming selectors were from said clubs.
4 Emo lads and 3 Ballylinan lads on the Laois team. New selectors this year from these clubs. Gas
— Colm Parkinson (@Woolberto) January 3, 2016
One of the three Ballylinan lads on the team didn't take kindly to Colm's insinuation. Gary Walsh, aka @PsychoWalsh, said that he was placing an embargo on Parkinson even mentioning the parish of Ballylinan in a tweet ever again. He said there would be consequences if this was broken.
@Woolberto for ur own health & safety don't mention Ballylinan in a tweet ever again cheers ?
— Gary Walsh (@GaryWalshLaois) January 3, 2016
It was instantly entered the GAA twitter hall of fame. What makes the tweet really stand out is the way in which nonchalance and menace live together so effortlessly. Rarely have we seen an ambulance emoji deployed to such chilling effect. A couple of days later, Brian O'Driscoll paid tribute.
@Woolberto for your own health and safety don't mention Faz in a tweet ever again cheers ?
— Brian O'Driscoll (@BrianODriscoll) January 6, 2016
Laois GAA's social media manager is not a censorious type and so, somewhat surprisingly, the tweet remained up in the days following. There was no quick deletion, no claim afterwards that Russian hackers had broken into his account in an attempt to make both he and Ballylinan look bad. The tweet remains up to this day.
We know Colm and Mick Lillis have had their differences but we are sure Mick wouldn't regard it as a good thing to see Colm in an ambulance.
That Walsh had already chosen for his twitterhandle the moniker @PyschoWalsh (the name he is still known by in this office) didn't reassure outside observers that the ambulance threat was an idle one.
Presumably after some advice from his PR people (or whoever he consults in place of PR people) Walsh has since changed his twitter handle to the rather more family friendly @GaryWalshLaois
4. The passion of McGeeney: Kieran McGeeney, Joe Brolly and Armagh's tumultuous year
It feels a long time ago but the personality and managerial style of Kieran McGeeney was the talk of the town in early summer.
This was chiefly attributable to Joe Brolly and his megaphone.
McGeeney was painted by Brolly as the bete noire of modern football, a tyrant manager determined to stop at nothing in his quest to suck all the joy out of the game.
According to Brolly, the Crossmaglen players couldn't be doing with McGeeney's allegedly cold and rigid template and this was why most opted out of the senior team.
This view was not quite endorsed by Crossmaglen midfielder Johnny Hanratty who told Balls that four of the high-profile Cross players had opted out because of family and work commitments and, in the case of Jamie Clarke, emigration. It wasn't because they'd any problem with McGeeney.
Though, it's also true to note that Crossmaglen player Johnny Murtagh tweeted this after the Cavan defeat.
Very poor show from @Armagh_GAA @JoeBrolly1993 is spot on!! Need a good manager in.
— johnny murtagh (@johnnymurta) May 29, 2016
So, who knows what to think?
While Kieran's friends and former colleagues in Kildare lined up to fuck Brolly out of it, labeling him a bully and the like, McGeeney himself adopted a stoical stance. His interview following Armagh's eventual exit in Portlaoise was almost masochistic in tone.
The whole business reached its zenith when the Armagh county board premiered the 'right of reply (to Joe Brolly)' slot on the Sunday Game, a slot which we initially thought might take off.
Armagh's Paul McArdle wanted to reply to Brolly's ferocious takedown of McGeeney on the day of the Cavan match.
Ger Canning was holding the microphone and the exchange was ostensibly billed as an interview but McArdle's comments were delivered in the style of a formal statement.
In fairness, Ger Canning cross examined him to within an inch of his life
— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) June 5, 2016
Armagh's season seemed to have come to a grim end after a loss to Laois in the qualifiers. But it wouldn't be a GAA year without a substitution cock-up leading to a replay. Laois felt they needed a seventh sub in their three point win the first day.
The match was declared void. They returned to the same venue a fortnight later. Again, Laois emerged the winners and Armagh were out. It was something of a blessing their exit happened more or less away from the glare of the media spotlight. Joe Brolly had moved onto other targets.
5. Monaghan people pathetically blaming short turnaround for inevitable Longford defeat
Notwithstanding respected geneticist Ray Mac Giolla Bhrid's contention that Longford's failure to win four of the past six All-Irelands is attributable to genetic inferiority (he also made the same claim of Carlow, which we find rather more understandable), there are, we believe, still reasons for the children of that poor, benighted county to stand proud.
The midlanders may have drawn the short straw in the genetic lottery but there was no stopping them on that blindingly sunny Saturday evening in Clones.
These genetic mistakes have built up quite a reputation in the qualifiers. Since 2009, they have won eight successive Round 1 qualifiers.
Now, we know many might regard this as a dubious boast at best. That they have put themselves in a position to rack up such a run indicates they must be doing something wrong.
But it has become legendary in its own way. Michael Foley dubbed Kerry 'the Kings of September' in his book of the same title and we shall now confer on Longford the title of the 'Kings of Late June/early July'. A rather more convoluted title for a book, we'll grant you.
Lamentably, the Irish Times failed to respect Longford's qualifier reputation and predicted an easy win for the hosts. Longford, they said, would be buried under a hail of points and early goals.
After Longford inevitably extended their hex over the province of Ulster - that's Derry (x3), Monaghan (x2), Down (x2), and Cavan all beaten in the qualifiers - we were treated to all this unseemly hand-wringing about six-day turnarounds and the like.
We thought they'd been done away with, folk complained. How did the six-day turnaround return to our lives?
Many cited the example of Monaghan's loss to Longford as the most dramatic example of two matches in less than a week can inhibit a team. Pathetic stuff.
