All-Ireland Series Sam Maguire 2026

[AustinPowers]

Always thought that unless Kerry beat about this stage they won't be beat. This is the making or breaking of them. I think it's the perfect time for Armagh to get them. Though as is said here whether armagh beat them another thing.

If we'd a full compliment I'd be fairly confident, but then again with a full compliment we'd have beat Louth. Still worryingly light around the middle and lose defensively.

If Armagh give  Clifford the space they gave  to Louth yesterday, Kerry will win   very easily.

[imtommygunn]

Kerry nowhere near a full compliment either though.

[DaleCooper]

5 day rest for Armagh. Very tough assignment but Kerry are not unbeatable in Killarney

[Dunneroyal]

Monaghan v Westmeath
Dublin v Donegal
Mayo v Meath
Kerry v Armagh

Teams named 1st are at home

Watched the draw. No problem with the pairings.
But who got home advantage was a disgrace. Surely could have done it a better way than the guy in the middle knowing which one. I called each of them as I watched which tube was which.

In fairness to him, he did look out the window when drawing it but yes, it could have been done better. 

He did try. With the looking away. But it was nonsensical

[Dunneroyal]

Mayo are Sh!te

They better not try and start any fights they can't win!

Love it. Was in the hill watching it
Years ago. Thought they'd start a fight with a bunch of kids. Ended loosing both the fight and the match.

[naka]

Kerry nowhere near a full compliment either though.

Looking at Kerry team against Kildare
Apart from Sean o Shea who is an obvious loss
It looked mighty strong
Not too many missing

[Armagh18]

Kerry nowhere near a full compliment either though.

Missing O'Shea, Shane Ryan, White (who came on) and O'Sullivan. They don't look that far away.

[Main Street]

GAA+ had a schedule out at the start of the championship that only allowed for showing 3 games this weekend.

RTE are showing hurling Saturday/Sunday and there's two Tailteann cup games - wouldn't rule out Monaghan v Westmeath not being shown anywhere

FWIW, RTE are scheduled to show one round 3 game  next weekend, though would that be one of three  scheduled games on GAA+  or the game that GAA+  is neglecting?

Didn't know that - could be Tailteann Cup neglected in that case, RTE to show one Round 3 game and GAA+ to show the rest potentially

Official word from the horse's mouth (rte)

Dublin v Donegal has been fixed for Croke Park on Sunday with a 1.15pm throw-in.

It will be available to watch live on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.

The remaining games will be broadcast on GAA+.

[Captain Obvious]

5 day rest for Armagh. Very tough assignment but Kerry are not unbeatable in Killarney

Will be harder bet now that Kerry have 12 of their first choice 15 available for selection. Putting the match on Saturday instead of Sunday shows HQ are desperate to have Kerry in All-Ireland Quarter-final.

Can't see Armagh go from losing to Louth to beating Kerry in Killarney in less than a week.

Four winners in Round 3 for me Donegal,Mayo,Monaghan and Kerry

[Main Street]

It keeps getting better and better, our cup  overflows
Not only do Monaghan get yet another home tie but it's scheduled for Sunday, maximum rest and recovery for our boys, not that they were too overstretched last saturday.  All we need now is for Westmeath  to not turn up, because according to the select  (self appointed) brain's trust of game analysis on this thread,  it's not that Monaghan play well and control a section of a game but rather it's the other team who go missing or don't turn up.

[Blowitupref]

[AustinPowers]

Is there a special offer to buy all three  games  on gaa+ this weekend?

[Rossfan]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2026/06/15/roscommon-crash-out-with-a-whimper-once-again-five-things-we-learned-from-the-gaa-weekend/

It has become a drearily familiar scene with the Rossies. Early-summer success frittered away once the temperature increases in the All-Ireland series. They've won four Connacht titles since 2010 – each time, they've exited the championship at the earliest possible stage of the competition thereafter.

Roscommon almost never knock anyone out of the championship these days. They finished above Cavan in the group stage two years ago and beat Tyrone the following weekend – but those two wins in eight days in June 2024 represent 50 per cent of their knock-out wins over the past decade. They finished above Sligo in the group stage in 2023 and beat Armagh in a qualifier in 2018. And that's it.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2026/06/15/roscommon-crash-out-with-a-whimper-once-again-five-things-we-learned-from-the-gaa-weekend/

It has become a drearily familiar scene with the Rossies. Early-summer success frittered away once the temperature increases in the All-Ireland series. They've won four Connacht titles since 2010 – each time, they've exited the championship at the earliest possible stage of the competition thereafter.

Roscommon almost never knock anyone out of the championship these days. They finished above Cavan in the group stage two years ago and beat Tyrone the following weekend – but those two wins in eight days in June 2024 represent 50 per cent of their knock-out wins over the past decade. They finished above Sligo in the group stage in 2023 and beat Armagh in a qualifier in 2018. And that's it.

Would expect better from you Seafóidín, unlike that rhubarb p***k on the Sunday game.
We never lost to 12 men.

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2026/06/15/people-are-asking-if-this-is-the-best-football-championship-ever-lets-not-go-there/

I can't say if it's the best football championship ever. But I'm certain about the two-pointer
Comparing eras is nigh-on impossible, but what can't be doubted is the brilliant impact of the two-pointer
Seán Moran's picture
Seán Moran
Mon Jun 15 2026 - 14:52
•
5 MIN READ

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Sam Mulroy celebrates Louth's winning goal with teammate James Maguire at the end of Sunday's All-Ireland SFC round 2A match against Armagh at Páirc Grattan, Louth. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
Sam Mulroy celebrates Louth's winning goal with teammate James Maguire at the end of Sunday's All-Ireland SFC round 2A match against Armagh at Páirc Grattan, Louth. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
The 2004 Munster hurling final had just ended. Fourteen-man Waterford had beaten Cork in an epic contest and the late Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh stuck his head into the press box to ask a question: "Was it the best ever?"

Typical of his enthusiasm for events and contests, the implicit judgment was uncontrived but instant. When you think about these things, who knows? There had been more than 100 Munster finals by that stage, all of which nobody alive 22 years ago could have seen.

I am impressed by the certitude with which some can pronounce on the competing merits of teams and players from different eras, even if they have had the chance to watch them in person.

For instance, at the turn of the century, a correspondent from Wicklow – originally Kerry – wrote to dispute a reference to Mick O'Dwyer's team of the 1970s and 80s being the best of all time. He had seen both and believed Kerry's four-in-a-row players from 1929-32 were superior.

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Inside Gaelic Games: The weekly GAA newsletter from The Irish Times
Inside Gaelic Games: The weekly GAA newsletter from The Irish Times
Dublin's clash with Donegal to take place at Croke Park with early Sunday throw-in
Dublin's clash with Donegal to take place at Croke Park with early Sunday throw-in
GAA draw: Dublin to face Donegal in early Sunday throw-in at Croke Park as fixture details confirmed
GAA draw: Dublin to face Donegal in early Sunday throw-in at Croke Park as fixture details confirmed
Roscommon crash out with a whimper once again: Five things we learned from the GAA weekend
Roscommon crash out with a whimper once again: Five things we learned from the GAA weekend
A sincere belief and one grounded in personal experience, but did it take into account context and the prevailing competition? At the other end of the scale is the modern tendency to elevate contemporary performers, often without consideration for advances in sports science, preparation and equipment.

So, when the conversation broke out on Sunday about whether we are living through the greatest football championship in history, I was reticent. For a start, what are the metrics? Are breakthrough successes a cause for celebration – an acknowledgment that perseverance is being rewarded – or a sign that standards at the top have slipped?

Learn more

Then again, elite excellence doesn't really define great championships. Even if two teams peak in roughly the same era, the number of genuinely memorable matches tends to be limited. Take Dublin and Kerry. Everyone talks about the 1977 All-Ireland semi-final as one of the greatest ever, but it was also the only genuinely gripping match between the counties in that era.

How resonant was it for the country at large? I remember rhapsodising about the late and unexpected renewal of the rivalry in 2023 when a friend from neither county said his local conversations were with people unable to get that worked up about the 32nd championship meeting of the counties.

Dingle's Dylan Geaney kicks a two-pointer in the All-Ireland Senior Club Championship final against St Brigid's at Croke Park in January. Photograph: Dan Clohessy/Inpho
Dingle's Dylan Geaney kicks a two-pointer in the All-Ireland Senior Club Championship final against St Brigid's at Croke Park in January. Photograph: Dan Clohessy/Inpho
Framed another way, is this championship one of the most open and unpredictable? Undoubtedly.

It is impossible to decouple what has happened in the past two years from the work of the Football Review Committee (FRC) and its profound reshaping of the game.

When the two-pointer was being trialled and during the laboratory stage of last year's National League, the concern was that it would stretch the distance between teams of contrasting skill levels – a fear of thrashings that ultimately did for the idea of a four-point goal.

Yet the impact has, counterintuitively, been to assist the tightening of matches. In the past, a team slipping six, seven, eight points behind knew that this erosion of their chances on the scoreboard had no remedy because goals could be prevented by mass defending. And if that was the only route back into contention, it was easily blocked.


Two-pointers are different. They can defuse the impact of a goal. In the club final earlier this year, the air went out of St Brigid's tyres after they had scored what looked like a consequential goal, because Dingle went straight back up the field and Dylan Geaney kicked a two-pointer.

Teams now trailing in matches keep the faith a lot more tenaciously because they know there is way of recovering. What's more, it's an outlet for skilful kickers of the ball, so even if a county is under pressure from an apparently superior collective, it takes one accomplished marksman to keep them in touch.

Look at Cork on Saturday and the way Steven Sherlock – whose kicking exploits with St Finbarr's was the talk of the club championship – kept them afloat in a first half when they were under intense pressure from Donegal. He landed two two-pointers to keep the Rebels in touch at half-time in Ballybofey.

Their surge for the line was fuelled by the spectacular two-pointers shot by Luke Fahy and Tommy Walsh in the last five minutes.

Rory Beggan is Monaghan's goalkeeper and point-kicker supreme. Photograph: Tom O'Hanlon/Inpho
Rory Beggan is Monaghan's goalkeeper and point-kicker supreme. Photograph: Tom O'Hanlon/Inpho
Monaghan have also been beneficiaries, with Rory Beggan's preternatural kicking skills assisting them through to the last 12 of the championship.

That empowering of an individual talent can help any team lucky enough to have one available. Previously they could be double-teamed and stifled. Now, a two-point free is a potent survival tool, as is the ability to work an opening on the cusp of the arc.


Westmeath outscored Dublin on two-pointers in the Leinster final and did the same against Galway on Sunday, as their impressive rally whittled away the deficit but couldn't quite close it.

Louth are an exemplar. Sam Mulroy wasn't having his best game in last year's Leinster final, but from somewhere he dredged up the conviction to rifle over a two-point free, which turned the match against Meath for the last time.

At the same time, it's not simply an underdogs' charter. Kerry hardly bothered with two-pointers in last year's league, but by the time they got to Croke Park the talents of David Clifford and Seán O'Shea helped turn the county into brand leaders of the enhanced score.

Good footballers and good conditions on a good pitch – who'd have thought?

There have been results that would have been deemed impossible in the pre-FRC days. A year ago, Meath tanking Kerry by nine looked to be the last rites for Jack O'Connor's team, but they recovered.

There was further sensation at the weekend, nowhere more so than in Inniskeen where Ulster champions and All-Ireland frontrunners Armagh bit the dust in the face of the oldest act of deliverance – a chaotic goal just as time runs out.


The four provinces are represented in the quarter-finals but not by the provincial champions. And of the four already qualified, only Galway played Division One football this spring.

Best championship ever? Who cares? Just enjoy it.

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2026/06/15/roscommon-crash-out-with-a-whimper-once-again-five-things-we-learned-from-the-gaa-weekend/

It has become a drearily familiar scene with the Rossies. Early-summer success frittered away once the temperature increases in the All-Ireland series. They've won four Connacht titles since 2010 – each time, they've exited the championship at the earliest possible stage of the competition thereafter.

Roscommon almost never knock anyone out of the championship these days. They finished above Cavan in the group stage two years ago and beat Tyrone the following weekend – but those two wins in eight days in June 2024 represent 50 per cent of their knock-out wins over the past decade. They finished above Sligo in the group stage in 2023 and beat Armagh in a qualifier in 2018. And that's it.

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2026/06/15/roscommon-crash-out-with-a-whimper-once-again-five-things-we-learned-from-the-gaa-weekend/

It has become a drearily familiar scene with the Rossies. Early-summer success frittered away once the temperature increases in the All-Ireland series. They've won four Connacht titles since 2010 – each time, they've exited the championship at the earliest possible stage of the competition thereafter.

Roscommon almost never knock anyone out of the championship these days. They finished above Cavan in the group stage two years ago and beat Tyrone the following weekend – but those two wins in eight days in June 2024 represent 50 per cent of their knock-out wins over the past decade. They finished above Sligo in the group stage in 2023 and beat Armagh in a qualifier in 2018. And that's it.

Would expect better from you Seafóidín, unlike that rhubarb p***k on the Sunday game.
We never lost to 12 men.

I was disappointed to see that result. I always like to see the neighbours doing well, even when ye beat us.