Special night for Tipperary football at the Annerville Awards ceremony

The presentation of the Annerville Awards by the United Sports Panel was a special night for Tipperary football.

An Outstanding Achievement Award for 2020 was presented to  the senior football team and a Knocknagow Award for 2020 was posthumously awarded to the Tipperary senior football team of 1920.

The Tipperary senior football team put 85 years of near misses, disappointments and false dawns behind the county on November 22 2020, when they won the Munster senior football championship title for the first time since 1935.
With the provincial final against Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh fixed just a day after the 100th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, and with the players wearing replicas of the original jerseys worn on that fateful day in 1920, the stars were perfectly aligned to produce one of the biggest shocks of the season and one of the sports stories of the year.
It was a success that was thoroughly deserved as Tipp led for most of the way, apart from a brief period in the first half when Cork were in front.
The Rebels managed to reduce the deficit to two points near the finish line but veteran Philip Austin kicked the insurance point, shortly before the final whistle sparked wild celebrations once the 0-17 to 0-14 victory was confirmed.
Tipperary’s road to glory started at a wet and windy Semple Stadium on November 1, when they beat Clare by 2-11 to 1-11.
The semi-final against Limerick at the TUS Gaelic Grounds a week later was an exciting affair that Tipperary just shaded by 1-15 to 2-11, thanks to that unforgettable sideline from captain Conor Sweeney that sailed between the posts to send the game to extra-time, and Brian Fox’s winning point in the dying moments of extra-time.
The campaign ended in disappointing fashion in the All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo. But by then Tipperary were in bonus territory, having rewritten the history books with a provincial success that has entered Irish sporting folklore.

The pandemic put paid to the presentation of the Annerville awards for 2020. However, in this year’s honours list the Tipperary United Sports Panel has stepped back in time to present a special Knocknagow Award for 2020 to posthumously honour the Tipperary senior football team that played on Bloody Sunday over 100 years ago on November 21 1920.
Little did the team that left Tipperary that fateful morning to play a challenge match against Dublin realise the terrible tragedy that was about to unfold at the famous sporting arena.
The match was only underway for a matter of minutes when British forces stormed Croke Park and shot dead 14 people, and injured many others, as an act of reprisal on what was the darkest day of the War of Independence.
The victims included 24-year-old Tipperary footballer Michael Hogan, from Grangemockler, after whom the Hogan Stand is named.
It was the greatest tragedy in the history of the GAA and association president Larry McCarthy has described it as “a horrendous day.”
Speaking when members of the sports panel presented the award to the GAA Museum at Croke Park at the end of March, Larry McCarthy also said that the GAA was deeply honoured to receive the award and its significance was “huge.”
The United Sports Panel hopes that the presentation of this award will help perpetuate the memory of the Tipperary football team that was caught up in the worst atrocity of the War of Independence.