With a deftness of foot that would embarrass any player in the Irish League, sport here in the North has managed to accompany every small step forward during 1998 with two considerable strides in the opposite direction.

It has been a year when preoccupation with structures and regulations has been allowed to obstruct the positive aspects of sporting endeavour and achievement. For every act of personal or collective achievement - Tony McCoy's peerless horsemanship, the coming of age of Tyrone's minors, Ulster's ridiculing of rugby's pecking order - there has been an unseemly piece of procedural wrangling or organisational ineptitude.

Instead of standing proud and tall and parading its pre-eminent status to those outside its ranks, the GAA has allowed itself to be portrayed by unsympathetic commentators as atavistic and recalcitrant. Instead of concentrating on the fundamentals of the game's dreadful public image, the Irish Football Association has chosen to embark on the grand folly of a 12-team Premiership that few have asked for and even fewer want.

Instead of working on grass-roots structures, the Northern Ireland Sports Council has invested much of its energy in lobbying for an indoor athletics facility in a new Millennium project at Belfast docks. Where the thousands of spectators required to fill it will come from remains to be seen.

But enough churlishness. This column is in festive and celebratory mood. To show it can indulge in pointless, navel-gazing award ceremonies just as effectively as any other media organ in these parts, we have decided to launch the inaugural Out of the North New Year's Honours List.

Each winner will receive a nominal cash award to be donated to the charity or needy group of his or her choice. In the interests of fair play the Irish League has not yet been granted charitable status but if it continues to decline at the current rate, that could soon change. Furthermore, participants at last summer's Commonwealth Games have not been considered because of continuing doubts about the event's sporting merits. So without further ado:

Man Of The Year: Tony McCoy, no contest. If there is a sportsman or woman from this part of the island dominating their chosen field as A P McCoy is, he or she must be hiding their light under an extremely large bushel. The Toomebridge man is now spoken of in reverential tones as "the greatest steeplechase jockey" and the continued ascendancy of this star seems assured.

One anecdote tells everything you need to know about his single-minded pursuit of excellence. Standing just a couple of inches under six feet, McCoy is very tall for a jockey and is in perpetual conflict with the scales to make the low weights necessary for the chase for winners. A full meal is a rare luxury and more often than not he lives on a diet of orange juice and saunas.

Anyway, one day McCoy was in the back of a car with friends. Somebody in the front opened a bag of crisps and as they were being passed around, there was surprise when the champion jockey asked for one. He stuck his hand into the back, pulled out a single crisp, licked off all the flavouring and threw what remained out the window. Sheer, bloody-minded dedication.

In a year of many memorable moments, the epic ride that McCoy gave the reluctant Pridwell to beat the peerless Champion Hurdler Istabraq at Aintree will live long in the memory.

Woman Of The Year: Teresa Duffy's achievements may have been overshadowed somewhat by the emergence of Catherina McKiernan as a world-class marathon runner and the renaissance of Sonia O'Sullivan, but 1998 was a year when the Belfast woman arrived as a top-class international competitor in her own right.

Her November victory in the Dublin marathon may have lacked the dramatic impact of McKiernan's graduation to the longer distance, but it was a considerable achievement given that training was fitted in around a full-time job. The hope for 1999 is that the powers-that-be will act to give her the financial security to devote herself more fully to preparation and training. There could still be more improvement to come.

Team Of The Year: On Sunday September 27th, a collective journey that had taken the minor footballers of Tyrone through success and bitter disappointment, through bereavements on and off the pitch, ended with an All-Ireland title. Led by the towering presence of Cormac McAnallen, the players and mentors carried themselves with dignity and resolve through trials and tribulations that would have broken lesser mortals.

It was an All Ireland won in memory of Paul McGirr, the young player who had died during the 1997 championship, but it was also a triumph that looked confidently towards the future.

The North Expects: In a disappointing year for emerging talent, Belfast boxer Damaen Kelly has gone about his work quietly and efficiently. An outstanding amateur, Kelly has been learning his professional trade assiduously and proved his he is ready to move to the next level by winning a Commonwealth flyweight title earlier this month. A British title contest is fixed for early next year and his manager Frank Maloney says he can be as good as Barry McGuigan. One to watch.

Media Award: Brian Mullins. Isn't it just typical? It is only now that he has gone that we are starting to miss him. Most GAA people regard the media as a necessary evil - the former Derry manager just regarded it as an evil. But he did make our world a more interesting place.

The actor Spencer Tracy was once asked why he was typecast into "always doing Spencer Tracy", to which he replied: "Who the hell am I supposed to do - Jimmy Cagney?" Brian Mullins was just doing the same, just being himself. Come back soon. All is forgiven.

Misguided Optimism Award: This goes to the members of the Northern Ireland football squad who were wheeled out to meet the media after an inept draw with Moldova in a European Championship qualifier. "We still have an outside chance of making the European finals," they chorused. "In which sport?" we chirped back.

Father Of The Year: Ulster rugby forward Andy Ward. In years to come, Zak Ward will listen wide-eyed as his daddy tells him all about the December night he was born. Forty eight minutes of back-breaking work, all that pushing, grit and determination. And then there was Wendy Ward's labour.

Humanitarian Of The Year: In a year when Darren Clarke broke into the elite top 20 of world golf, he could have been forgiven for having his mind on other things. But his heartfelt reaction to the Omagh bomb and his cajoling of some of the game's world greats to take part in a charity day to raise money for the victims' fund proved that he has lost none of his sense of perspective. Maybe in hindsight he should share that man of the year award with Tony McCoy.