The 2011 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was the 125th edition of the GAA's premier inter-county Gaelic football tournament, played between 31 counties of Ireland (excluding Kilkenny who only take part in the hurling championship), London and New York. The draw for the 2011 championship took place on 7 October 2010. The 2011 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final took place at Croke Park on 18 September 2011, with Dublin winning their 23rd title.
Dublin and Donegal's All-Ireland semi-final in the 2011 championship was the lowest scoring in the era of 70-minute games (1975 onwards).
Format Four knockout (single elimination format) provincial championships were played. Kilkenny did not contest the football championship. London and New York competed in Connacht. The four provincial champions advanced to the All-Ireland quarter-finals. The sixteen teams eliminated before reaching a provincial semi-final competed in Round One of the Qualifiers (New York did not compete). The eight winners of Round One advanced to Round Two. Qualifiers, Round Two: The eight teams eliminated in provincial semi-finals each played one of the eight winners of Round One. Qualifiers, Round Three: The eight winners of Round Two played off to reduce the number to four. Qualifiers, Round Four: The four teams eliminated in provincial finals each played one of the four winners of Round Three. All-Ireland Quarter-finals: The four provincial champions each played one of the four winners of Round Four. The winners of the All-Ireland Quarter-finals then advanced to the semi-finals, and the winners of the semi-finals went on to the 2011 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final.
Fixtures and results
Munster Senior Football Championship
Leinster Senior Football Championship
Connacht Senior Football Championship
Ulster Senior Football Championship
All-Ireland qualifiers
Round 1 On 12 June 2011, the draw was made for the first round of the All Ireland Qualifiers. This draw contained all the teams who had been knocked out of their provincial competitions prior to the semi-final stage, apart from New York.
Round 2 On 26 June 2011, the draw for Round 2 took place in Castlebar. This consisted of the winners of round one and losers of provincial semi-finals. Home advantage was given to the team drawn first.
Round 3 On 10 July 2011, the draw for Rounds 3 and 4 took place. Round 3 consisted of the 8 winners of round two playing each other to reduce the number to 4. Round 4 consisted of losers of provincial finals playing the winners of Round 3. For Round 3, home advantage was given to the team drawn first, while Round 4 would be played at neutral venues.
Round 4
All-Ireland series
Quarter-finals The draw for the All-Ireland quarter-finals took place on 24 July 2011, and consisted of the provincial winners playing against the winners of round 4 of the qualifiers. Originally, all the matches were due to take place on the weekend of 30 July 2011, but due to a draw requiring a replay during the qualifiers, one match was scheduled for the following weekend. All matches were scheduled to be played in Croke Park, Dublin.
Semi-finals
Final
Statistics
Scoring
First goal of the championship: Kevin Higgins for Roscommon against New York (Connacht Quarter-final) Last goal of the championship: Kevin McManamon for Dublin against Kerry (All-Ireland Final) Widest winning margin: 18 points Cork 5–17 – 2–8 Waterford (Munster Semi-final) Most goals in a match: 7 Cork 5–17 – 2–8 Waterford (Munster semi-final) Meath 5–8 – 2–8 Louth (Qualifier round 1) Most points in a match: 39 Wexford 1–24 – 0–15 Westmeath (Leinster quarter-final) Most goals by one team in a match: 5 Cork 5–17 – 2–8 Waterford (Munster semi-final) Meath 5–8 – 2–8 Louth (Qualifier round 1) Highest aggregate score: 47 points Kerry 1–26 – 3–9 Limerick (Munster semi-final) Lowest aggregate score: 14 points Dublin 0–8 – 0–6 Donegal (All-Ireland semi-final) Most goals scored by a losing team: 3 Limerick 3–9 – 1–26 Kerry (Munster semi-final) Most points scored by a losing team: 17 Wexford 1–17 – 1–18 Limerick (Qualifier round 4)
Top scorers
Season NameTeamTallyTotalGamesAverage1Colm CooperKerry2–273365.52Ben BrosnanWexford0–323256.43Bernard BroganDublin0–292964.84John DoyleKildare2–212773.85Donncha O'ConnorCork4–142655.26Ciarán LyngWexford1–212454.86Cian WardMeath4–1224468Cillian O'ConnorMayo1–192254.48Daniel GouldingCork2–162245.58Martin ClarkeDown2–162254.48Donie ShineRoscommon1–192245.58Seán CavanaghTyrone2–162263.66
Single game NameTallyTotalCounty Opposition1Cian Ward4–315MeathvLouth2Darren Clarke1–811LouthvMeath3Colm Cooper1-0710KerryvMayo3Ciarán Lyng0–1010WexfordvWestmeath3Ian Ryan1–710LimerickvOffaly3Donncha O'Connor1–710CorkvDown3Shane Roche2–410WexfordvCarlow3Seánie Furlong2–410WicklowvArmagh9Sean McCormack0–99LongfordvCavan9Adrian Marren0–99SligovWicklow9Ciarán Lyng0–99WexfordvOffaly
Miscellaneous Donegal won a first Ulster title since 1992. Waterford won a first-ever qualifier match, beating London. First year since introduction of the Back door in 2001 that all Provincial champions reached the All Ireland semi-finals.
Awards Monthly MonthPlayerCountyMayBen BrosnanWexfordJuneAlan BroganDublinJulyKarl LaceyDonegalAugustColm CooperKerrySeptemberDarran O'SullivanKerry
All Stars Awards The 2011 All Stars Awards nominations were announced on 3 October 2011. On 21 October, the winners of the awards were announced at an event at the National Convention Centre in Dublin. Alan Brogan was named All Stars Footballer of the Year and Cillian O'Connor was named All Stars Young Footballer of the Year. PositionWinnersOther NomineesGoalkeepersStephen Cluxton (Dublin)Brendan Kealy (Kerry)Paul Durcan (Donegal)Full-backsMichael Foley (Kildare)Cian O'Sullivan (Dublin)Frank McGlynn (Donegal)Marc Ó Sé (Kerry)Rory O'Carroll (Dublin)Tom O'Sullivan (Kerry)Neil McGee (Donegal)Joe McMahon (Tyrone)Hugh McGrillen (Kildare)Half-backsKarl Lacey (Donegal)Donal Vaughan (Mayo)Trevor Mortimer (Mayo)Kevin Nolan (Dublin)Emmet Bolton (Kildare)Tomás Ó Sé (Kerry)Kevin Cassidy (Donegal)Killian Young (Kerry)Ger Brennan (Dublin)MidfieldersBryan Sheehan (Kerry)Alan O'Connor (Cork)Seán Cavanagh (Tyrone)Michael Darragh Macauley (Dublin)John Doyle (Kildare)Denis Bastick (Dublin)Half-forwardsAlan Brogan (Dublin)Ben Brosnan (Wexford)Declan O'Sullivan (Kerry)Darran O'Sullivan (Kerry)Alan Dillon (Mayo)Kevin McManamon (Dublin)Paul Flynn (Dublin)Paddy Kelly (Cork)Eamonn Callaghan (Kildare)Full-forwardsBernard Brogan (Dublin)Donnacha O'Connor (Cork)Michael Murphy (Donegal)Colm Cooper (Kerry)Colm McFadden (Donegal)Eoin Bradley (Derry)Andy Moran (Mayo)Diarmuid Connolly (Dublin)Cillian O'Connor (Mayo)
Media International television rights Country/Countries or Continent Broadcaster(s) Africa Setanta Africa Australia Setanta Sports Ireland RTÉ (including island of Ireland only web coverage on RTÉ website) Setanta Sports 1 (Northern Ireland only, for matches broadcast to the Republic by TV3) TV3 (Republic of Ireland only, including Republic of Ireland only web coverage on TV3 website) BBC Northern Ireland Great Britain Premier Sports USA/Caribbean Premium Sports PPV web coverage also available on Setanta-i website.
This Is Our Year
This Is Our Year is a 2011 book by journalist Declan Bogue. The book examines the 2011 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship from the perspectives of ten Gaelic footballers from Ulster. The book achieved notoriety after Donegal footballer Kevin Cassidy was dropped from the team squad by manager Jim McGuinness over his contributions. He released a statement in November 2011 saying it "appears my inter-county career is over".
See also 2011 All-Ireland Minor Football Championship 2011 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship
References