All-Ireland Series Sam Maguire 2026

[From the Bunker]

Pat Spillane All-Ireland final stat.

Five players across the two teams did not kick the ball at all during the final.

For Mayo, captain Jack Coyne, David McBrien and Bob Tuohy all finished without registering a kick. McBrien still contributed to the scoreboard, punching over a point during the contest and laying on the ball for Darragh Beirne to finish to the net.
Kerry pair Mark O'Shea and Gavin White also went through the game without kicking the ball


Joe O'Connor and Dylan Casey recorded just two kicks apiece, with both registering one kick-pass and one point. Seán O'Brien kicked the ball four times, completing two kick-passes, turning over possession with another and sending a goal chance wide.

That left five Kerry players combining for only five kick-passes across the entire All-Ireland final.

You'd want to be careful with stats like those. They in the main mean nothing. You'll always have players who do loads of work off of the ball - stats rarely can quantify their contribution.
The game is good to watch and play at the moment. It's hard to believe it has been revived as a spectacle.

Spillane is into silly season now trying to fill columns. Usually he could fill this void with negativity but he has to scrape the bottom of the barrel for this....

[Blowitupref]

Pat Spillane All-Ireland final stat.

Five players across the two teams did not kick the ball at all during the final.

For Mayo, captain Jack Coyne, David McBrien and Bob Tuohy all finished without registering a kick. McBrien still contributed to the scoreboard, punching over a point during the contest and laying on the ball for Darragh Beirne to finish to the net.
Kerry pair Mark O'Shea and Gavin White also went through the game without kicking the ball


Joe O'Connor and Dylan Casey recorded just two kicks apiece, with both registering one kick-pass and one point. Seán O'Brien kicked the ball four times, completing two kick-passes, turning over possession with another and sending a goal chance wide.

That left five Kerry players combining for only five kick-passes across the entire All-Ireland final.

You'd want to be careful with stats like those. They in the main mean nothing. You'll always have players who do loads of work off of the ball - stats rarely can quantify their contribution.
The game is good to watch and play at the moment. It's hard to believe it has been revived as a spectacle.

Spillane is into silly season now trying to fill columns. Usually he could fill this void with negativity but he has to scrape the bottom of the barrel for this....

His point was with those stats is they may go a long way towards explaining why Mayo were so comfortable defensively. Kerry's attack lacked a meaningful kicking game.

Spillane described Kerry's build-up as slow and possession-based, arguing that an overreliance on lateral hand-passing played into Mayo's hands.

[marty34]

Pat, from what I can remember, always has a few stats ready, which he then shoe horns into his podcast. He'll squeeze then in mostly when it's completely off topic.

Just to get them in and to make him look as if he's 'clued in'.

[Captain Obvious]

Pat is right on this occasion, Kerry's style of play played into Mayo's hands. Poor auld Cian O'Neill appears to be the fall guy in the aftermath

For all the rule changes the game is still more hand than kick passing which is not what the FRC expected to see.

[Armagh18]

Pat is right on this occasion, Kerry's style of play played into Mayo's hands. Poor auld Cian O'Neill appears to be the fall guy in the aftermath

For all the rule changes the game is still more hand than kick passing which is not what the FRC expected to see.

I wonder was the lack of kick passing at least in part down to Mayo's press? Obviously much easier to play a simple handpass than try to pick a kick pass when you're under pressure?

[Armamike]

Yeah hard to get time to get the head up and kick it accurately when there's three guys bearing down on you.