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.

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.

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". 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!".

Match This year's final was played on 28 September.

Summary The Kerry captain was Mickey "Ned" O'Sullivan.

John Egan and substitute Ger O'Driscoll scored goals for a win.High Ball magazine, issue #6, 1998.

The train journey described above challenged the perception that Kerry had entered the match as inexperienced. Before the match, Dublin were the betting favorites at 4/5, while Kerry were listed at 5/4 odds.

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

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.

Details

Kerry 1 Paudie O'Mahony 2 Ger O'Keeffe 3 John O'Keeffe 4 Jimmy Deenihan 5 Páidí Ó Sé 6 Tim Kennelly 7 Ger Power 8 Paudie Lynch 9 Pat McCarthy 10 Brendan Lynch 11 Denis "Ogie" Moran 12 Mickey "Ned" O'Sullivan (c) 13 John Egan 14 Mikey Sheehy 15 Pat Spillane

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 1 Paddy Cullen 2 Gay O'Driscoll 3 Seán Doherty (c) 4 Robbie Kelleher 5 Paddy Reilly 6 Alan Larkin 7 Georgie Wilson 8 Brian Mullins 9 Bernard Brogan Snr 10 Anton O'Toole 11 Tony Hanahoe 12 David Hickey 13 John McCarthy 14 Jimmy Keaveney 15 Paddy Gogarty

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".

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

References