SUNDAY 30 MARCH
Division 1 final
Mayo v Kerry, Croke Park, 4pm
Division 3 final
Kildare v Offaly, Croke Park, 1.45pm
ONLINE
Live blogs each day on RTÉ Sport Online and RTÉ News app.
TV
Live coverage of both finals on TG4. Highlights and reaction to all the weekend's action on Allianz League Sunday, RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, 9.30pm.
RADIO
Live commentaries and updates on RTÉ Radio 1's Sunday Sport, and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta Spórt an Lae.
WEATHER
Largely dry with a mix of cloud and sunny spells with just a few light showers. Highest temperatures of 12 to 16 degrees in light to moderate westerly winds. For more, visit met.ie.
Division 1: Enjoying the spoils of bonus territory
So congested was the Division 1 table on 'Super Sunday', that it feels a bit like the final pairing was thrown up by random generator.
One commonality among the winning teams in Division 1 and 2 last weekend is that all were threatened by relegation at throw-in. All the teams that lost were safe to begin with - Derry being the exception in that they were already down.
The madcap nature of the final day is best epitomised by the detail that Colm Reape's 66th minute penalty save from Daire Ó Baoill simultaneously kept Mayo top of the table and out of the relegation zone.
Donegal had been perceived as the key element in creating last week's chaotic mish-mash of a finale. The Ulster champions had got off to a rapid start, winning four of their first five games before Jim McGuinness indicated - in not so many words - that a league final was a headache they could probably do without in the context of the current inter-county schedule.
After that, it was almost taken as a given they'd lose their final two matches, and while that did occur, they came perilously close to actually winning in Castlebar, with Hugh McFadden lamping a shot off the crossbar moments after Ó Baoill's penalty was stopped.
It's a big turnaround for Mayo, who, in a Division 1 without apparent whipping boys (though Derry finished up looking like that), were touted as relegation favourites at the outset, including by their own supporters.
After a heavy loss at home to Galway in Round 2, this consensus solidified. They dug out a narrow win in a dismal game over Tyrone - 0-12 to 0-10 is a very 2024 scoreline - but it was the second half showing in the draw in Armagh that gave the first sign they were acclimatising to the new rules.
While the game sequencing may have helped, they concluded with three wins on the trot over Kerry, Derry and Donegal. There were hints in the Kerry game that the kick-out rule suits their high-octane pressing game, with Mayo forwards preventing the visitors from moving it out short after Aidan O'Shea had begun dominating the middle.
The calendar remains an irritant. Two years ago, they won the league final against Galway and then were ambushed by Roscommon in the Connacht championship seven days later. This year, a potentially dangerous Sligo team await, though McStay is still intent on pursuing silverware this weekend.
"We topped the league on merit. We are not making any apologies for being in the league final. It's a great game to get in terms of our preparation for Sligo the following week.
"We’ll chase the title on Sunday and go for it."
At the same time, Kerry were beating the other early frontrunners Galway in Salthill. Jack O'Connor said this week that a league wasn't uppermost in their thoughts and that their target was securing a point to stay up. By half-time, word had filtered through that Tyrone were smashing Dublin in Omagh and it became clear that Kerry needed the win to make sure of survival.
They did in the end with a degree of comfort and swagger. Much has been made so far of their indifference to the two-point arc. They rustled up 3-24 in Galway without the need for one but their shooting efficiency was stunning, with just two wides kicked.
With Sean O'Shea injured in recent weeks, the Cliffords and the Geaneys have been carrying the attack. While David Clifford thrilled in the course of scoring a hat-trick against Tyrone in Pomeroy, the 34-year old Paul Geaney has arguably been their player of the league.
Employing a direct, kicking game in attack, they racked up 16 goals over the course of the league, the most of any team across the four divisions and double the amount that any other team managed in the top tier. O'Connor this week certainly sounded enamoured of the new rules - "I happen to be one of the lads that wasn't nitpicking... by and large, I think the FRC have done a remarkable job and they've breathed life back into the game."
Kerry are thought to be one of the teams that have more leeway to have a cut at a league final, though O'Connor, while delighted to get a run under the new rules in HQ, isn't inclined to hype the game too much.
"There's no big pressure on us," O'Connor told RTÉ Sport this week. "We see Sunday as a huge bonus, getting up to Croke Park. Having an extra game and shortening the gap to the Munster semi-final.
"It's one to look forward to, without a huge amount of pressure. It's not like we're going up for an All-Ireland quarter-final or a knockout game. It's almost like a bonus at the end of the league."
Contrasting recent history
After all that, it's a third Mayo-Kerry league final in the last seven years. The 2019 final, played in Peter Keane's first year as Kerry's manager and the first season of James Horan's second stint in charge of Mayo, witnessed a poignant and almost bittersweet triumph for the Connacht side.
Kerry, with David Clifford an emergent superstar, entered as favourites and hit two early goals but Mayo stuck with them throughout the second and third quarters. Andy Moran's 50th minute introduction sparked a late surge, with goals from Mattie Ruane, Diarmuid O'Connor and Ciaran Treacy powering Mayo to a four-point victory.
The Mayo greats of the 2010s, after so many agonising big day losses, finally won a national title in Croke Park and embarked on a lap of honour in front of their appreciative fans. Even then, there was a sense that generation was nearing the end and had missed their chance of ultimate glory in the era of the Gavin Supremacy.
The 2022 decider was a very different affair. Mayo were off the back of two further All-Ireland final losses, the 2021 defeat the most abject of them all.
O'Connor was back in charge of Kerry and in the process of winning his obligatory double in his first season. Kerry devoured Mayo by 18 points on the day, David Clifford running riot despite Padraig O'Hora's attempts at sledging. It was the precursor to another Kerry win in the fixture in a drab quarter-final the following June, and their first All-Ireland in eight years a month later.
Overall league history
Kerry - 23 titles (1st in roll of honour)
Mayo - 13 titles (3rd in roll of honour)
The only team to spend every year in Division 1 since the league re-organised into four merit-based divisions in 2008, Kerry are top of the all-time roll of honour, as they are in most competitions. Here, Jacko edges ahead of Micko, who only procured three league titles during the golden years.
O'Connor has four won altogether, all, as noted above, in the years he guided Kerry to the All-Ireland. They won three in a row at the start of the current decade, 2020 without the necessity of a league final, and 2021 being ultimately 'shared' with Dublin.
Mayo have 13 in total, nestling just one behind the Dubs in second spot. Nine of those were won by 1954, when they were the leading league team. Three have arrived this century, two coming with victories over bitterest rivals in Galway in the final. The most recent one was in '23, the previous one coming in '01, though it was the Tribesmen who ended that year with the game's biggest prize.
New trophy up for grabs
The 2025 league has a newly minted trophy on hand for the winners.
The romantically named 'Irish National Insurance Cup' is no more. Thousands of humble brokers and actuaries are turning in their graves at this sacrilege. Does history mean nothing, etc, etc.
In its place, thankfully, is the new 'Corn Mhíchíl Uí Mhuircheartaigh', named in honour of the legendary beloved commentator, who passed away last summer.
A fitting honour to one of the giants of broadcasting and Gaelic games.
Division 3: No Sam spot on line as Kildare and Offaly duke it out
Though it wasn't fully appreciated at the time, last year's Division 3 decider had big implications for the Sam Maguire placings, with Westmeath's victory over Down eventually earning them a spot in the top tier later that summer.
Not so, this year. Down, who wound up winning last year's Tailteann Cup, dropped into Division 3 a week ago, despite amassing six points in the second tier.
This means the Tailteann Cup winners are not already included among the top-14 ranked teams in the league - as was the case with Meath last year - taking away a spot from the two promoted Division 3 teams.
Add in the fact that Kerry and Cork are grouped on the same side in Munster, meaning that a team in the lower two tiers are bound to wind up in a provincial final and you have no Sam Maguire spot up for grabs for the winners this Sunday.
Given that league rankings are now built into the championship format, the refusal to insist that the provincial councils apply seeding in their championships continues to skew outcomes.
One of these league finalists was entirely expected, one of them very much unexpected.
Offaly finished last summer in a heap, the results suggesting they hadn't tried a leg in the Tailteann Cup. Rightly or wrongly, Mickey Harte's arrival as co-manager alongside Declan Kelly is perceived to have triggered a revival.
Last year's Division 1 winning manager - lot of water under the bridge since then - has secured his fifth promotion over the course of a long managerial career.
They began with a seven-point win over a previously fancied Sligo side, with Keith O'Neill landing 0-05 from play. Wins over Laois and Antrim made it three wins from three, though it was the victory over their opponents this weekend in the penultimate round that effectively sealed promotion and made everyone take notice.
Dylan Hyland struck 1-09 in total, 0-06 from play, while Under-20 All-Ireland winner Cormac Egan raided forward and notched 0-03 from play as they took down Kildare in Tullamore.
In anticipation of next year, the Mickey Harte derby stat is in wide circulation, with Tyrone, Derry and Louth all awaiting Offaly in 2026.
Brian Flanagan's side enter the Division 3 decider in a less cheerful frame of mind, though the primary job is at least complete.
That they were down there was considered an indictment, and after three weekends, it was assumed they'd top the table without much fuss.
But fuss arrived, Keelan Sexton's last-gasp goal condemning Kildare to defeat in Ennis. Jolt number two came in Tullamore and they entered last weekend still needing a win over Antrim to ensure a swift return to the top tier.
Promotion was claimed in the end, although the back-end of the league still wound up vindicating widespread prejudices around their alleged fragility.
"A loss for Kildare would be more damaging," Eamonn Fitzmaurice said on the RTÉ GAA podcast this week. "Mickey Harte will be gunning for getting to Croke Park, get the win, get up the steps, building on that momentum.
"I think a loss for Offaly and they can still frame it as really positive and look towards doing something in the Leinster championship, but for Kildare [a defeat] would just reinforce the fragile confidence that they have got.
"A loss would take away a lot of the good work and momentum from the league. They will be looking for a statement performance and it is set up for a really good game."
Follow the Allianz Football League finals on Saturday and Sunday on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Watch Allianz League Sunday from 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Listen to updates on RTÉ Radio 1
