The 1985 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final was the 98th All-Ireland Final and the deciding match of the 1985 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, an inter-county Gaelic football tournament for the top teams in Ireland.
The final was contested by Dublin and Kerry. 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. The teams would not meet in an All-Ireland SFC final again until 2011.
Pre-match On the morning of the game, Kerry manager Mick O'Dwyer and his players featured in an advertisement for Bendix washing machines, with the line "Only Bendix could whitewash this lot".
Match This year's final was played on 22 September.
Summary Kerry led by nine points at half-time, and two Joe McNally goals in the second half was not enough to stop them.High Ball magazine, issue #6, 1998.
Jack O'Shea picked the ball up with wonderful skill in front of referee Paddy Kavanagh, who proceeded to marvel at the Kerryman's abilities.
It was the fourth of five All-Ireland SFC titles won by Kerry in the 1980s.
Details
Kerry 1 C. Nelligan 2 P. Ó Sé (c) 3 S. Walsh 4 M. Spillane 5 T. Doyle 6 T. Spillane 7 G. Lynch 8 J. O'Shea 9 A. O'Donovan 10 T. O'Dowd 11 D. Moran 12 P. Spillane 13 M. Sheehy 14 E. Liston 15 G. Power
Sub used 17 J. Kennedy for G. Power
Subs not used 16 J. Higgins 18 G. O'Sullivan 19 J. Mulvihill 20 S. Liston 21 D. Hanafin 22 D. O'Donoghue 23 J. Keane 24 L. Kearns
Manager M. O'Dwyer
Dublin 1 J. O'Leary 2 M. Kennedy 3 G. Hargan 4 R. Hazley 5 P. Canavan 6 N. McCaffrey 7 D. Synnott 8 J. Ronayne 9 B. Mullins (c) 10 B. Rock 11 T. Conroy 12 C. Redmond 13 J. Kearns 14 J. McNally 15 K. Duff
Subs used T. Carr for C. Redmond P. J. Buckley for B. Mullins
Manager K. Heffernan
References