1973 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final

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1973 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final
1973 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final programme.jpg
Event 1973 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
Date23 September 1973
Venue Croke Park, Dublin
Referee John Moloney
Attendance73,308
1972
1974

The 1973 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final was a Gaelic football match played at Croke Park on 23 September 1973 to determine the winners of the 1973 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the 87th season of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, a tournament organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association for the champions of the four provinces of Ireland. The final was contested by Galway of Connacht and Cork of Munster, with Cork winning by 3–17 to 2–13.

Contents

Cork's All-Ireland victory was their first since 1945. The win gave them their fourth All-Ireland title over all and put them joint sixth on the all-time roll of honour along with Kildare and Tipperary. The game, which remains the highest scoring All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final in history, also marked the emergence of a nineteen-year-old Jimmy Barry-Murphy onto the national stage. Barry-Murphy finished the game with 2–1 (seven points).

Galway's All-Ireland defeat was their second as part of a hat-trick of All-Ireland defeats between 1971 and 1974.

Writers such as John D. Hickey and Martin Breheny have praised the manner in which the game was played.

Match

Summary

The game was expected to be an open affair and so it proved, with Cork taking the initiative early on. Dinny Long's centre was punched against the crossbar by Jimmy Barrett; however, 19-year-old Jimmy Barry-Murphy was alert to the rebound and pounced for a well-taken goal after just two minutes. With their confidence boosted, the Cork forwards settled quickly and scores came freely. At the other end of the field, Cork's John Coleman curbed the threat of Galway captain and centre-forward Liam Sammon. Cork led at the interval by 1–10 to 0–6.[ citation needed ]

The second half produced the unusually high tally of 4–14 with each side landing 2–7. Cork were slow to find the target after the interval; however, once Dinny Long scored a difficult free from under the Hogan Stand and Ray Cummins followed suit from the other side they appeared to be coasting to victory. A Galway revival saw them cut the margin to just three points when Tom Naughton scored a goal, but Cork's response was controlled and efficient. Ray Cummins steadied Cork with three points in quick succession before setting up Jimmy Barry-Murphy for the clinching goal. Johnny Hughes pulled one back for the men from the West; however, it was as close as they got and the Leesiders closed out the contest with their third goal, scored by Jimmy Barrett. [1]

The 1973 All-Ireland decider holds the record as the final which produced the highest cumulative score with 5–30 (i.e. 45 points). At the time, Cork's tally of 3–17 was the highest in a final; however, Dublin bettered this by one point four years later when they recorded 5–12 against Armagh. Galway's tally of 2–13 remains the highest by a losing finalist. [2]

Due to the similarity of the colour of their jerseys a change was necessary. This was done in a bid to aid television viewers who may have been watching in black and white. A coin toss decided that Cork would wear a reversal of their usual jerseys. To help prepare for the All-Ireland final, Cork trained in the jerseys of Tyrone, whom they had beaten in the All-Ireland semi-final. [3]

Details

Galway Colours of Galway.svg 2-13 - 3-17 Colours of Cork.svg Cork
M Hughes 0-7, T Naughton 1-0, J Hughes 1-0, M Burke 0-2, J Duggan 0-2, TJ Gilmore 0-1, L Sammon 0-1.R Cummins 0-8, J Barry-Murphy 2-1, J Barrett 1-2, D Long 0-3, E Kirby 0-1, D Coughlan 0-1, D Barron 0-1.
Croke Park, Dublin
Attendance: 73,308
Referee: John Moloney (Tipperary)
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Galway
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Cork
GK1 Gay Mitchell
RCB2 Joe Waldron
FB3 Jack Cosgrove
LCB4 Brendan Colleran
RWB5 Liam O'Neill
CB6 Tommy Joe Gilmore
LWB7 Johnny Hughes
M8 Willie Joyce
M9 Jimmy Duggan
RWF10 Maurice Burke
CF11 Liam Sammon (c)
LWF12 Michael Rooney
RCF13 Johnny Coughlan
FF14 Tom Naughton
LCF15 Morgan Hughes
Substitutes:
RCF Frank Canavan
RWF Colie McDonagh
Coach:
John "Tull" Dunne
GK1 Billy Morgan (c)
RCB2 Frank Cogan
FB3 Humphrey Kelleher Sub off.svg ?'
LCB4 Brian Murphy
RWB5 Kevin Jer O'Sullivan
CB6 John Coleman Sub off.svg ?'
LWB7 Con Hartnett
M8 Dinny Long
M9 Denis Coughlan
RWF10 Ned Kirby
CF11 Declan Barron
LWF12 Dave McCarthy Sub off.svg ?'
RCF13 Jimmy Barry-Murphy
FF14 Ray Cummins
LCF15 Jimmy Barrett
Substitutes:
FB16 Mick Scannell Sub on.svg ?'
17 Robert Wilmot
LWF18 Donal Hunt Sub on.svg ?'
CB19 Séamus Coughlan Sub on.svg ?'
20 Teddy O'Brien
21 Noel Murphy
Coach:
Donie O'Donovan

MATCH RULES

Post-match

It would be another quarter of a century before Galway won another All-Ireland, doing so in 1998. Before that they would appear in the finals of 1974 and 1983. Cork had to wait sixteen years to win another All-Ireland title, doing so in 1989.

John D. Hickey, writing afterwards in the Irish Independent , described it as "one of the most honest and most wholesome games I have seen". [4] In 2018, Martin Breheny listed this as the sixth greatest All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final, describing it as a game "played in a wonderful spirit, with open, attacking football the priority for both teams" and noting that it marked the emergence of a nineteen-year-old Jimmy Barry-Murphy onto the national stage; this was Barry-Murphy's only All-Ireland football title - the rest were in hurling. [4]

References

  1. "Gallant Galway meet a Better Team". Galway Advertiser . 27 September 1973. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  2. Breheny, Martin (17 September 2010). "1973: Barry-Murphy on the double". Irish Independent . Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  3. "When boys of '73 served up a treat". Irish Examiner . 21 August 2009. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  4. 1 2 Breheny, Martin. "Martin Breheny's Greatest All-Ireland Finals". Irish Independent . 1 September 2018, p. 10.