The All-Ireland final between Galway and Kerry at Croke Park looks set to be a fascinating affair.
Here are some numbers from both camps ahead of their big Sam Maguire clash.
23
Sunday's All-Ireland final will be the 23rd championship meeting between Kerry and Galway. The current record sees Kerry with 12 victories, Galway with seven while there have been three drawn encounters.
The Kingdom won the first meeting in the 1913 All-Ireland semi-final, 1-08 to 0-01, before going on claim the title with victory over Wexford. Kingdom captain Dick Fitzgerald would score the goal in that win over Galway in Maryborough, renamed Portlaoise some seven years later.
Galway’s first championship win over Kerry came six years later as they won an All-Ireland semi-final replay and reached the final for the first time, where they’d lose out to Kildare.
The Connacht side have also won the last meeting between the pair, a 2018 Super Eight game at Croke Park. Galway won 1-13 to 1-10, Patrick Sweeney and David Clifford the goal scorers, and the Kingdom would ultimately finish third in the group behind Galway and Monaghan to miss out on a semi-final berth.
6
Jack O’Connor is preparing for his sixth All-Ireland final in his third term in charge of the Kerry footballers.
After Páidí Ó Sé’s departure after the 2003 All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Tyrone, O’Connor, a former selector under Ó Sé, took on the manager’s gig and qualified for three finals in succession.
The first and last of those would prove fruitful as they hit a combined 5-35 in a pair of final wins over Mayo with Tyrone defeating them in the 2005 showpiece.
O’Connor returned to the job again in 2009 after Pat O’Shea’s departure and, just like the first time around, Sam Maguire arrived in year one as Munster rivals Cork were defeated. O’Connor would guide Kerry back to the final in 2011, where Stephen Cluxton’s famous free would kick-start a Dublin period of dominance.
On Sunday against Galway, O’Connor will be hoping for more year one glory after coming back for a third bite of the cherry.
15
Galway have had 15 different scorers across their five championship games to date. Shane Walsh leads the way with 1-27 [his penalty shoot-out goal against Armagh doesn’t count] and he is third in the scoring charts behind Derry’s Shane McGuigan [2-28] and Dublin’s Dean Rock [1-30].
Walsh is also one of only two Galway players to score in all five games this season, Johnny Heaney the other.
388
The distance in kilometres between Owen Gallagher’s home club of Glenavy in Antrim and his newer one Moycullen in Galway.
It’s been quite the journey for Gallagher, who was brought into the Saffron panel by Liam Bradley and then given a second inter-county debut in Connacht as Pádraic Joyce called him into the Galway squad for this season. Coincidentally, Gallagher faced Joyce in his last-ever game for the Tribesmen as Antrim shocked their more vaunted opponents in a 2012 qualifier at Casement Park.
A number of years ago Gallagher moved to Galway to study medicine after a few seasons of making the long journey to Antrim, he transferred to Moycullen and helped them win their first-ever senior title in 2020.
Although he didn’t feature in the All-Ireland semi-final win over Derry, Gallagher did come off the bench in the wins over Leitrim and Armagh, scoring a goal in the former.
16
Despite playing a game less than Galway, Kerry have had 16 different scorers across their four championship games this season.
Sean O’Shea’s 1-23 earns him the top scorer award with David Clifford, who missed the Munster final win over Limerick, next best on 1-13.
O’Shea is the only player to have scored in all four games with the Clifford brothers, David and Paudie, Paul Geaney and Tom O’Sullivan finding their range in three games.
23
Both Kerry and Galway have won championship games by a massive 23 points this season, the widest winning margin alongside Dublin’s hammering of Wexford in Leinster.
Galway managed the feat when they put 4-20 past Leitrim in the Connacht semi-final while Kerry were in scintillating scoring form as they won the Munster title with a 1-28 to 0-08 final defeat of Limerick.
1
Kerry goalkeeper Shane Ryan has only conceded one goal en-route to the final, the Rathmore man being beaten by Cormac Costello’s super second-half strike for Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Ryan will be hoping to follow Niall Morgan’s lead who conceded one goal for Tyrone on their path to the final last year – against Donegal in Ulster – before keeping a clean sheet in the final as the Red Hands captured Sam Maguire.
Follow the All-Ireland Football Championship final on Sunday, Galway v Kerry, from 2pm via our live blogs on rte.ie/sport or on the RTÉ News app. Watch live coverage on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player with live radio commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
Watch Up for the Match this Saturday from 9.45pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player
