After a weekend of quarterfinal crackers at Croke Park and a Sunday evening draw at GAA headquarters in Dublin, the Final Four of the 2025 All-Ireland football championships is set. Meath will face Donegal, and Kerry will take on Tyrone.
More than 132,000 folks flocked to the mythically fab Croker for the four games over two days to see who would stay alive in the run for the Sam Maguire Cup, and who would be sent home Sam-less. In a topsy-turvy quarterfinal played at Croke Saturday afternoon, Donegal was down seven points to Monaghan at the half. But graybeard forward Michael Murphy, who was retired and working as a sports pundit for Irish TV for the last two years before un-retiring, and the rest of the surging Forgotten County squad blitzed their Ulster province rivals coming out of the break on the way to six-point win, 1-26 to 1-20.
Crazy comebacks are almost expected in the final rounds of the All Irelands. Meath launched one of its own at Croke in this afternoon’s match against favored Galway. With just 10 of the game’s 70 minutes to go, Galway was up by three after bang-bang goals by Cillian McDaid and Liam Silke. But the Royal County upstarts retook the lead by a single point with a goal by Jordan Morris at the 62-minute mark. Meath’s margin held up, in no small part because of a controversial and possibly game-saving foul call against Galway with less than a minute on the clock. First-year Meath manager Robbie Brennan appeared to advise his player to stall until just before the final hooter (yeah, the Irish call the horn a hooter!) and then kick the ball out of bounds to end the game, rather than go for an insurance score and risk having the ball remain in play, which could possibly have given Galway a final possession and new lease on life. Cowardly? Smart? You make the call. Final score: Meath 2-16, Galway 2-15. Galway's dead. Meath lives.
Kerry earned its spot in the semis early Sunday evening by thrashing defending All-Ireland champions Armagh, 1-21 to 0-32, in the weekend’s last quarterfinal.
Kerry was down by a point to the Armagh, the third Ulster squad in the quarters, at the half. But everything changed for the better for the Kingdom when Paudie Clifford entered the game after the break. Clifford has been seen as the heart and soul of a Kerry squad that has now qualified for the Final Four five years in a row. This despite always playing in the shadow of brother David Clifford, a Kerry forward generally acknowledged as not only the greatest player of his generation but also among the best footballers in the history of the centuries-old game; he’s likely a main reason "David" is back among the most popular Irish baby names. Paudie has fallen even further behind his sibling this season, much of which he’s spent on the sidelines with injuries. But Paudie’s return gave Kerry an obvious lift. Kerry immediately began dominating, and eventually outscored Armagh by 10 over the second period. David Clifford put up four points on the day, but could have scored more if his team needed.
The way they finished in the quarters likely means Kerry will head into the Final Four as the favorite to take home the Sam Maguire Cup. That’s a familiar spot: Kerry has won 38 All-Irelands since 1887.
For all the dramatic play, the big weekend’s most emotional game came with Dublin vs. Tyrone, the nightcap of Saturday’s doubleheader, and the real heart-tugging moments didn't happen during play.
The Dubs of the last decade will be remembered in Irish football circles as fondly and for as long as the 1927 Yankees are by baseball historians. They won six consecutive titles from 2015 to 2020–the only six-peat in the 138-year history of the national tournament. By the end of that amazing run the rest of the country was so sick of being bullied that rooting against Dublin became a national pastime for everybody outside the Irish capital.
But dynasties aren’t forever. All but a few of the players and coaches behind Dublin’s already legendary championship run have slowly disappeared from the panel and the sidelines in the last few years. Lots of oddsmakers had the Tyrone match as a pick ‘em game, but for the first time in memory Dublin was actually a sentimental favorite.
Alas, that wasn’t enough for Dublin to overcome the talent deficit with Tyrone. The red-and-white Ulster squad booted Dublin out of the championship.
The match, just as the punters predicted, was a toss-up from the opening throw-in. Tyrone scored after the halftime hooter to head into the break up by a single point. Con O'Callaghan, a former star Dublin forward in his 10th season with the senior squad, has had an injury plagued year and wasn’t expected to play; he didn’t even participate in pregame warmups. But the Dublin captain showed up on the sidelines in the second half and was put on the field in the 49th minute and within minutes launched a kick over the bar from a tight angle to the left to bring his team within a single point and send fans in Hill 16 into a tizzy.
But O’Callaghan’s reappearance didn’t do for Dublin what Paudie Clifford’s did for Kerry. No Dublin rally ensued. In fact, O’Callaghan wouldn’t score again. He and another grizzled and decorated Dublin veteran, 43-year-old goalie Stephen Cluxton, and all their mates seemingly forgot how to pass, catch or kick. Over the game’s last quarter, the squad that not so long ago was being deservedly called the best the game had ever seen suddenly looked as panicked and insecure as Dublin opponents did for so many years. Tyrone scored six straight points and shut out Dublin over the game’s final five minutes, briskly breaking what was a tight match wide open. The victory margin of seven points hardly reflects how competitive the evening was.
Minutes after the loss was official, an interviewer asked Dublin manager Dessie Farrell what was next for him and the squad, a typical question given that his team’s season was over. But Farrell, who has been part of Dublin football first as a player and then in various coaching positions for 40 years and had the top job for the last two Dublin championships, hardly gave a typical answer. He stunned everybody by announcing right there on the field that he was retiring. The normally steely taskmaster showed a vulnerable side he’d kept from the public throughout the dynastic run.
“It’s a long, long time. It’s been very much part and parcel of me life,” Farrell said. “I’ve had a ringside seat to some of the greatest warriors that ever played the sport. I’ve seen them grow from young boys to young men to older men if you’d like. That’s a journey I’m oh so grateful for.”
Dang, that was good TV. And what a weekend! Bring on the semis!
