| Event | 1971 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Date | 26 September 1971 | ||||||
| Venue | Croke Park, Dublin | ||||||
| Referee | P. Kelly (Dublin) | ||||||
| Attendance | 70,789 | ||||||
| Weather | Rain | ||||||
The 1971 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final was the 84th All-Ireland Final and the deciding match of the 1971 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, an inter-county Gaelic football tournament for the top teams in Ireland.
Galway were appearing in their first final since the three-in-a-row side of the 1960s. [1] Offaly, who had never won an All-Ireland title, had last contested a final in 1969.
Galway were favourites. However, a shock [2] Murt Connor goal gave Offaly their first title. [3] However, with the duration of certain championship matches increasing from 60 to 80 minutes during the 1970s before being settled at 70 minutes after five seasons of this in 1975, [4] this is the only All-Ireland final whose score at 60 minutes was different (a draw) to the actual outcome. [5]
This was the first All-Ireland final attended by Martin Breheny. The weather on the day was later described by Breheny as consisting of a "steady drizzle" in the first half, followed by a "deluge of monsoon proportions" during the second half. [2]
It would be a further 21 years before another team (Donegal) won their first All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. [2]
Final | Offaly | 1–14 – 2–8 | Galway | Croke Park, Dublin Attendance: 70,789 Referee: P. Kelly (Dublin) |
| T McTague 0–6, M Connor 1–2, S Evans 0–2, K Kilmurray 0–2, B Clavin 0–1, J Cooney 0-1 | S Leydon 2–3, F Canavan 0–3, L Sammon 0–2 |
        Offaly |   Galway |
 | This section needs editing to comply with Wikipedia's Manual of Style. In particular, it has problems with the teams not being laid out as, for instance, at 2024 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final#Details, with full names visible, substitutes in numerical order and 'subon'/'suboff' templates included.(January 2025) |
Offaly =
Galway =
Séamus Darby is an Irish former Gaelic footballer.
Michael O'Dwyer is an Irish retired Gaelic football manager and former player. He most famously managed the senior Kerry county team between 1974 and 1989, during which time he became the county's longest-serving manager and most successful in terms of major titles won. O'Dwyer is regarded as one of the greatest managers in the history of the game. He is one of only three men to manage five different counties. Martin Breheny has described him as "the ultimate symbol of the outside manager".
John Connolly is an Irish retired hurler who played as a full-forward for the Galway senior team.
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Then came the three in a row team who in 1964 beat Kerry by 0 – 15 to 0 – 10; in 1965 it was Galway 0 – 12 to Kerry 0 – 9, and in 1966 Galway 1 – 10 to Meath's 0 – 7. Offaly beat us in 1971 by 1 – 14 to 2 – 8, and in 1973, Cork beat us by 3 – 17 to 2 – 13.
Another issue touched on by John O'Keeffe in his interview was the strange decision to extend senior championship provincial finals, All-Ireland semi-finals and finals to 80 minutes – which was an extra third on the previous duration of an hour. Curiously, it made little difference to the outcome of matches. Of the five finals plus 1972 replay played over 80 minutes – the length of a match was settled at 70 minutes from 1975 onwards – only the 1971 Offaly-Galway result would have been affected. Had it been played over an hour, it would have ended in a draw instead of Offaly's first All-Ireland triumph.
