1975 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final

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1975 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final
1975 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final.jpg
Event 1975 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
Kerry Dublin
Colours of Kerry.svg Colours of Dublin.svg
2–12
(18)		0–11
(11)
Date28 September 1975
Venue Croke Park, Dublin
Referee John Moloney (Tipperary)
Attendance66,346
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The 1975 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final was the 88th All-Ireland Final and the deciding match of the 1975 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, an inter-county Gaelic football tournament for the top teams in Ireland.

Contents

This was one of six All-Ireland SFC finals contested by both Dublin and Kerry between 1974 and 1986, a period when one of either team always contested the decider. [1]

Pre-match

On the train to Dublin, Kerry manager Mick O'Dwyer and his players spoke to journalists. Jim Farrelly quoted O'Dwyer in the Sunday Independent as advocating a marriage ban for his players. "Marriage puts players back in their game". [2] Kerry player Jimmy Deenihan was photographed during the train trip alongside his sister Patricia and said to Farrelly: "Four of us [Kerry players] are PE teachers. Saying 'no' to girls and drink and high Kerry social life has been hard!". [2]

Match

Summary

The Kerry captain was Mickey "Ned" O'Sullivan. [1]

John Egan and substitute Ger O'Driscoll scored goals for a surprise win. [3]

Yet it was no surprise. The train trip (above) revealed the inaccuracy of the callow reputation in which Kerry often indulged. And ahead of the game Dublin were 4/5, Kerry 5/4 in the betting odds. [2]

This was the second of four All-Ireland SFC titles won by Kerry in the 1970s. [4] [5]

Séamus McCarthy, aged 21 and later a Tipperary footballer, and his 50-year-old father Eddie McCarthy, became the first father-and-son pair to umpire at an All-Ireland final, doing so at the Hill 16 end of Croke Park. [6]

Details

28 September 1975
Final		 Kerry 2–12 – 0–11 Dublin Croke Park, Dublin
Attendance: 66,346
Referee: John Moloney (Tipperary)
M Sheehy 0–4, G O'Driscoll 1–0, J Egan 1–0, P Spillane 0–3, B Lynch 0–3, D Moran 0–2J Keaveney 0–6, P Gogarty 0–2, B Doyle 0–1, B Pocock 0–1, B Mullins 0–1

Kerry

Sub used
17 Ger O'Driscoll for M. O'Sullivan
Subs not used
16 John Bunyan
18 John Long
19 Batt O'Shea
20 Donie O'Sullivan
21 Jackie Walsh
Manager
Mick O'Dwyer

Dublin

Subs used
17 Bobby Doyle for B. Brogan
18 Pat O'Neill for J. McCarthy
19 Brendan Pocock for P. Reilly
Subs not used
16 Les Deegan
19 Stephen Rooney
20 Kevin Synnott
21 Jim Brogan
22 Fran Ryder
23 Liam Egan
24 Martin Noctorr
Manager
Kevin Heffernan

Legacy

According to Dermot Crowe, writing 50 years later in the Sunday Independent: "It can be argued with some validity that the '75 final was one of the most important Gaelic football games of all time, because of what it started and the impact it had on so many lives, far beyond Kerry and Dublin". [1]

The players involved in the game organised a golden jubilee reunion in 2025. [1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Crowe, Dermot (30 March 2025). "Marching on together". Sunday Independent . From 1974 to 1986, every final had Kerry or Dublin in it and in six of those they were the final pairing. They shared every All-Ireland going in that time save for Offaly's famous heist of 1982.
  2. 1 2 3 Hogan, Vincent (31 August 2019). "Kingdom's appetite for mischief can still spook the finest Dublin has to offer". Irish Independent . Independent News & Media . Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  3. ↑ High Ball magazine, issue #6, 1998.
  4. ↑ "Kerry on honour roll". Irish Independent . Independent News & Media. 14 September 2009. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
  5. ↑ "Flashback: 1975 All Ireland SFC Final - Kerry v Dublin". GAA.ie. 30 March 2020. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  6. ↑ "Day has arrived for Tipperary to surrender to the living moment". Sunday Independent . 22 November 2020.
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