10. Lance Armstrong's interview with Oprah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8keHmtBn4k
The first two minutes of Lance Armstrong's interview with Oprah Winfrey were the best. It was probably the most truthful the American had ever been, answering straight yes or no questions about his use of PEDs in cycling.
It just confirmed what everyone already knew, but it was great to hear him say it.
The rest of the interview was faux repentance with Armstrong simply sounding sorry that he had been caught rather than genuinely contrite.
PJ Browne
9. Connacht win in the Lion's Den
Until December 8th, it had been nearly five years since Toulouse last lost at Stade Ernest Wallon in the Heineken Cup. Connacht repeated Glasgow's feat in a heroic win that seemed to have every rugby fan, casual and hardcore, behind it.
Connacht held the French side scoreless until the 38th minute when Jean-Pascal Barraque went over the whitewash and a situation we'd seen before with the westerners seemed highly likely to repeat itself.
That wasn't to be though. They stormed into a 16-7 lead in the second half through a Dan Parks penalty and then a Kieran Marmion try in the corner. Toulouse hit back again with fifteen minutes to go through a Dusatoir try.
But this was to be Connacht's day as they showed some incredible resilience to hold out for a famous victory against one of the giants of European rugby.
PJ Browne
8. Shane O'Donnell's All-Ireland final hat-trick
The first meeting between Clare and Cork in the 2013 is a game that no one will forget. The replay is a game that Shane O'Donnell will never forget.
Only finding out that he was starting the game is place of Darach Honan just hours before throw-in, O'Donnell would score be the decisive presence.
He scored 3-3 in the game, completing his hat-trick of goals after just eighteen minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KLE3T8VIjE
PJ Browne
7. Dublin vs Kerry All-Ireland Football Semi-Final
When a rotund Dub is shaking his fist in your face around five o'clock on a September evening in Croke Park, you know it's a bad day to be wearing green and gold.
Just minutes earlier, Declan O'Sullivan had kicked a chance wide, an imminently scoreable one for a player of his class, which would have given Kerry the lead with the clock ticking towards seventy. From the resulting goal kick Michael Darragh Macauley clawed the ball onto Kevin McManamon with metres of clear Croke Park turf in front of him. Both those in Dublin and Kerry jerseys' thoughts immediately shot to two years previously when the same player had brought Dublin back into the All-Ireland final with a goal at the same end of the stadium.
A despairing hand from Brendan Kealy couldn't stop the ball repeating the script. Dublin rubbed salt into the wound in added time but it was over already.
Game of the season. A great day for the Dubs, a great game for the neutral. But who gives a shit about that and them when you've got to walk Jones Road shaking your head at having seen your team given the performance of their season but still lost by seven points?
PJ Browne
6. Alex Ferguson retires
It had to happen at some point, but it was still a surprise.
After thirteen Premier League titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups and two Champions Leagues, Alex Ferguson retired as manager of Man Utd on May 8th.
And of course Paddy Crerand was in denial until nearly the last minute.
PJ Browne
5. Warren Gatland drops Brian O'Driscoll
July 3rd, 2013 - the day Warren Gatland briefly became more hated than Oliver Cromwell and Thierry Henry combined.
News broke in the early hours of the morning of Gatland's team selection for the final Lions test against Australia. The Kiwi had chosen Jonathan Davies at outside centre ahead of Brian O'Driscoll. Not many people agreed with the decision, least of all Irish rugby fans.
Many viewed Paul O'Connell and Brian O'Driscoll as the real leaders of the team and neither would feature in the decisive test, through injury and the whim of Gatland, respectively.
The Lions won the test easily which some viewed as being justification for Gatland's selection, though in truth the win had more to do with the power of the front row than the performance of the backline.
PJ Browne
4. The first 78 minutes against All Blacks
Has there ever been a sporting event that brought with it such a roller-coaster of emotions? Perhaps the Irish football team's second leg against France but aside from nothing in my life time comes even close.
Don't get me wrong, there have been many matches with more on the line, and of course many other heartbreaking defeats but none after coming in with such low expectations. It was an odd experience really. We sat down to watch it, more out of obligation than expectation. Next thing you know Ireland have a try. You instinctively celebrate but then settle back into the march towards the inevitable; except Ireland go and score again, and score again.
Even still, at half-time we reflect on a great performance but one which will probably not prove enough in the end. Sure enough New Zealand pull a try back after the restart and the immediate thought is 'They'll lose it now, wait till you see.' Then we pass the 50 minute mark and then the hour approaches. The Irish team venture out of their own 22, the crowd start to belt out The Fields of Athenry and you ecstatically surrender all apprehension. They're not even on the backfoot any more – they're dominant. They're going to pull it off, they're going to bloody well do it!...
Mark Farrelly
3. Domhnall O'Donovan's equaliser and Marty's "Holy Moses" commentary
Clare had been the better team for the bulk of the drawn All-Ireland hurling final. But Cork's ability to get goals at vital moments had kept them in the game and somehow, Cork lead as the game ticked towards the close of injury time. The game looked over when Pa Kelly's ill-advised sortie up the pitch ended up with him being shunted over the line for a Cork line-ball. Time was up. Clare held their composure with Patrick O'Connor and Nicky O'Connell working the ball out to Domhnall O'Donovan. the only Clare player who failed to score against Laois. He heaved the ball over the ball in front of an enraptured Croke Park for a sensational equalising score, nearly matched for brilliance by Marty Morrissey's exclamation of "Holy Moses" as it went through the posts.
Conor Neville
2. Hearing that Roy Keane was going to be Ireland assistant manager
I seem to have been ill-placed for every big event in Irish sport this year. There I sat in Frank Ryan's, pint one hand, Twitter in the other, as Dan McDonnell broke a seemingly outlandish story that Martin O'Neill was set to be appointed Ireland manager with Roy Keane as his assistant. I immediately handed my pint back to the barman and told him it had been spiked with some sort of hallucinogen.
I'll show my hand here; I'm a big fan of Keane's and welcomed the appointment. I know there a lot of people who will never forgive him for 2002 but it's funny how even they were glued to the new of Monkeano's imminent arrival. You can say what you want about Keane but there's no doubt he's compelling and that's a trait the Irish national team have certainly lacked over the last few years.
Mark Farrelly
1. "CROTTY IN THE CORNER"
Time magazine awards the Person of the Year award to people who have had the biggest impact for better or for worse. For better or for worse, Ryan Crotty's try in the final minute of the Ireland-New Zealand game is our most memorable sporting moment of 2013. We can still hear the anguished lull when he slid past Conor Murray's despairing last ditch tackle and fell to the ground over the end-line.
For most of the second half, we feared the inevitable backlash to Ireland's astonishing, jet-fueled first quarter. However, we arrived at the final minute of the eighty with the scoreboard still spelling victory. And possession and territory were in our favour. Everytime Ireland recycled possession in the last minute you could hear the crowd ratcheting up the noise that bit further. Then the whistle blew. A penalty to New Zealand. And the game was about to head off in another direction....
With Beauden Barrett barreling through tackles, the Kiwis malevolently worked the ball across the pitch, getting closer and closer to the line. Horribly, it dawned on everybody that a score was on. Even as Crotty went over the line to touch down, we thought, this is too awful, this is too hard to take, that it can't actually be happening. Then there was the plaintive spectacle of the crowd was begging the video referee to see the forward pass.
Conor Neville
