Donegal v Kerry - 2025 All-Ireland Football Final

[AustinPowers]

What if Kerry end  up winning 5 or 6  in a. Row?

Will they look at the rules again?

These new rules could end up being the Dublin financial doping of  its day.

How is that true?  No team has the financial pulling power of Dublin.  Are you saying Kerry is the only team with the capacity to capitalise on the new rules?

What I'm getting at is , Kerry have been overturned by Cork, Dublin Tyrone Armagh etc in recent years.  You can't  deny These new rules are suiting Kerry because  they have  great forwards, the Clifford's in particular.

armagh stifled the  Clifford's last year.  Now it's a different game. You can't help but feel the new rules are set up well for Kerry over the next few years  , especially with a number of their players peaking.  So akin to Dublin's financing, it  did affect the championship, particularly Leinster. Nobody was interested in it. Even the AI race was  a foregone conclusion for the best  part of a decade.  

If kerry dominate , you could have another  disinterested public

[Spiderlegs]

Here's my position in a nutshell and should be read in conjunction with my previous posts:

New rules - I'm a big fan, keep them all. I'm excited by how teams adapt and develop around and towards them.

Kerry - best team in the championship at the business end when it mattered. Not by a considerable distance but certainly a distance.

Would Kerry have won it based on the previous rules? I very much doubt it.

Would Clifford have run wild and free in 2025 based on previous rules. I very much doubt it.

It took the rule changes to manufacture this season for Kerry. They didn't adapt to the rules... The rules suit "Kerry football"... The rest will now have to adapt.

And that is totally fine.

If anyone finds this controversial or thinks of it as shite talk then your a balloon and don't know what you're talking about.

[Truthsayer]

Here's my position in a nutshell and should be read in conjunction with my previous posts:

New rules - I'm a big fan, keep them all. I'm excited by how teams adapt and develop around and towards them.

Kerry - best team in the championship at the business end when it mattered. Not by a considerable distance but certainly a distance.

Would Kerry have won it based on the previous rules? I very much doubt it.

Would Clifford have run wild and free in 2025 based on previous rules. I very much doubt it.

It took the rule changes to manufacture this season for Kerry. They didn't adapt to the rules... The rules suit "Kerry football"... The rest will now have to adapt.

And that is totally fine.

If anyone finds this controversial or thinks of it as shite talk then your a balloon and don't know what you're talking about.

Good analysis apart from the last sentence that your opinion is the only valid one.
Agreed new rules are excellent and I believe have saved the game. And agree suit Kerry best as Clifford and other top forwards now has freedom to play without being surrounded by a whole defence. Unfortunately Kerry have the best footballers and this suits them well...

[SouthOfThe Bann]

Are Armagh the 2nd best team in the country on all evidence?

Had that Kerry team in trouble in second half and looked good all year.

Albeit for 15 minutes of madness in second half.

[Mario]

Are Armagh the 2nd best team in the country on all evidence?

Had that Kerry team in trouble in second half and looked good all year.

Albeit for 15 minutes of madness in second half.

They haven't beat Donegal since McGuinness came back

[Armagh18]

Are Armagh the 2nd best team in the country on all evidence?

Had that Kerry team in trouble in second half and looked good all year.

Albeit for 15 minutes of madness in second half.

They haven't beat Donegal since McGuinness came back

Ah not a lot between ourselves, Donegal and Tyrone, we got closest to Kerry out of the 3 of us though and would wonder if we'd have got on any better against Kerry if we'd got the chance to see them tank Donegal and Tyrone first. Next years a fresh slate for everyone, who knows what Jim will do in Donegal, Tyrone will get better under O'Rourke and with the talent coming through, we need some in to replace Donaghy's presence, and some new faces will be needed and to get the 2 O'Neills fit and firing along with McKay back, hopefully won't be far away.

[DaleCooper]

Kerry going for 40 next year.


Id imagine they'll be harder to stop in 2025.


Couple that with guys returning from injury and maybe even Oz lads spot a chance to be part of history.

[cjx]

Are Armagh the 2nd best team in the country on all evidence?

Had that Kerry team in trouble in second half and looked good all year.

Albeit for 15 minutes of madness in second half.

They haven't beat Donegal since McGuinness came back

Ah not a lot between ourselves, Donegal and Tyrone, we got closest to Kerry out of the 3 of us though and would wonder if we'd have got on any better against Kerry if we'd got the chance to see them tank Donegal and Tyrone first. Next years a fresh slate for everyone, who knows what Jim will do in Donegal, Tyrone will get better under O'Rourke and with the talent coming through, we need some in to replace Donaghy's presence, and some new faces will be needed and to get the 2 O'Neills fit and firing along with McKay back, hopefully won't be far away.

Closest to Kerry in what sense?

Tyrone beaten by 6 (including 4 gifts of Cavan Joe)

Armagh beaten by 8

And Gough handed Armagh victory against Tyrone in Clones.

[DaleCooper]

Kerry 1-20 Tyrone 0-17 [ 6 point win]

Kerry 0-32 Armagh 1-21 [8 point win]

Kerry 1-26 Donegal 0-19 [10 point win]

Tyrone got closet.

[Wildweasel74]

You want a Blue Peter badge for getting closest to Kerry.G Meath be running round saying we beat the All-Ireland champs under that criteria, even though Donegal creamed them for 20.

[RedHand88]

Until 7 months ago, every player in Ireland had grown up on a certain ruleset.

Kerry's and David Clifford's impressive 2025 Croke Park performances feel somewhat fraudulent to me as they needed lifetime rule changes to achieve them.

You are dead right, every player did - including the Kerry lads! Or did they get a sneak peek?! Surely FRC's Michael Murphy could have done the same.

I mean for God's sake, what were the FRC thinking?! County players had to learn to kick a point from 40 yards. Midfielders had to learn how to catch it over their heads. And don't get me started on the poor defenders who only had 7 months to learn how to defend one on one...

A blind man could see that Kerry/Clifford had been curtailed by a "System" allowed by the previous ruleset.
It's possible that they would have eventually found a way to overcome it. It's also possible that they wouldn't.
By the end of 2024 they hadn't.

Kerry had very little adapting to do for the new rules - they were designed with Kerry type football in Croke Park in mind after all.

Lol what does this even mean? Good football?

[EoinW]

Apologies for the double post this morning(my time).  PC hiccup.  I'll soon be going silent for the next six months.  Just hang in there and don't do anything drastic.

Interesting advice for the counties with mere mortals for players: learn to kick from 40m.

I do not get what is so great about making long kicks for a point.  Giving them double points doesn't make them twice as great.  If Clifford or O'Se kicked a 2 pointer that sailed out of Croke Park...that would be exciting.  The Irish Babe Ruths!

The counter suggestion was that Kerry should learn to break down a stacked defence.  In basketball and box lacrosse the idea would be to attack before that defence could be set up...known as the fast break.  I thought the "tap and go" rule was a nice idea to inject more pace in the game.  It would have been interesting if a great team like Kerry could have turned that one rule change into offensive dominance.  Alas we'll never know.

I also would have been curious to have seen them try a 1 v 1 rule.  The poor offences can't break down a 14 player defence.  Maybe only 13 players would have give the GAA the balance it wanted.  If it made no impression then they could have tried 2 v 2 for 2026.  Instead we got 3 v 3 and no defence at all!

I've no wish to be disrespectful towards those who support the new rules.  But you have to be aware of the traditionalists perspective.  The FRC didn't just do one or two changes to get more pace and offence into the game.  They tipped the whole table over. "if my favourite offensive players can't score at will then I'll change all the rules so they can't be stopped!"

It seems more like a Trump Tariff tantrum than any kind of measured action or negotiated compromise.

The message we're getting from RTE and posters here is: "we won, now get stuffed!"  We're suppose to be happy losers?  We've still got over 130 years of tradition on our side.

[DaleCooper]

If youre on a county panel and you cant kick a ball 45 metres should you be on a county panel?

[APM]

Yesterday's game was the all Ireland final and worth a thread of its own. Instead we are talking about the rules - Again. Same as in previous years. Only difference was that in the past it was the media boring us about the need for change and now it's a bundle of anoraks* and conspiracy theorists who think the rules were changed to give Clifford the chance to score at will. Could we please give it a rest before Martin Breheny lands in with a post about the curse of hand-passing.

*Sorry for the generalisation and exaggeration - not all headers - have to acknowledge some sensible posters on here have genuine issues with the new rules

[Spiderlegs]

Here's my position in a nutshell and should be read in conjunction with my previous posts:

New rules - I'm a big fan, keep them all. I'm excited by how teams adapt and develop around and towards them.

Kerry - best team in the championship at the business end when it mattered. Not by a considerable distance but certainly a distance.

Would Kerry have won it based on the previous rules? I very much doubt it.

Would Clifford have run wild and free in 2025 based on previous rules. I very much doubt it.

It took the rule changes to manufacture this season for Kerry. They didn't adapt to the rules... The rules suit "Kerry football"... The rest will now have to adapt.

And that is totally fine.

If anyone finds this controversial or thinks of it as shite talk then your a balloon and don't know what you're talking about.

Good analysis apart from the last sentence that your opinion is the only valid one.
Agreed new rules are excellent and I believe have saved the game. And agree suit Kerry best as Clifford and other top forwards now has freedom to play without being surrounded by a whole defence. Unfortunately Kerry have the best footballers and this suits them well...

Fair enough on the valid opinion bit. It was more in response to a number of posters "some shite talked, nonsense, bollix, give your head a wobble".