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.

[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.

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?

On numerous occasions they put themselves into trouble with short kick outs as tried to hand pass their way out of defence. It was like they didn't watch Mayo tactics v Louth in the build up to that final at all.

[joemamas]

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.

Hold off with the violin, he will most like jump to his seventh or eight gig in last decage or so

[Rossfan]

Cork hurlers mooted.

[blasmere]

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'.

Maurice Brosnan of the Examiner I think had a tweet up that says isn't it amazing that 2 years in a row Pat quotes what he put in his article on the AI Final.

[Blowitupref]

From John McIntyre Sports Editor in the Connacht Tribute

THERE was no blood on the walls after the Galway footballers and the team management carried out a season review in Loughgeorge last week. No blame games; no pointing of fingers; just an acceptance that what unfolded in the 2026 championship was simply not good enough.

Judging by the rumour mill over the past few weeks, you would have anticipated some friction, that there would have been a 'blow up' of sorts, but instead there were few raised voices as the county still comes to terms with another summer of under-achievement.
The vast majority of players were in attendance – 37-year-old Paul Conroy being a notable exception – while the management team also turned out in force with the exception of former Cavan goalkeeper and Raymond Galligan, who had been a surprise addition to the coaching staff last winter


With Performance Coach Darragh Sheridan conducting a survey inviting player feedback before the meeting, this was the basis for a debate largely conducted by selector/coach Dave Morris. Ultimately, players were more critical of themselves than the management for how things had panned out.

Losing their Connacht title to Roscommon at Hyde Park was hardly a fatal blow, but it did raise questions of how good this Galway team actually is. Heading into the concluding stages of their All-Ireland quarter-final against Dublin, all seemed well in the Tribesmen's world again when a John Maher goal left them eight points ahead with 13 minutes remaining.

But from there to the finish, it was a horror show for the men in maroon jerseys. Niall Scully took over, and Con O'Callaghan converted an admittedly harshly-awarded penalty as Dublin went on to outscore Galway by 1-8 to a single point in recording a 1-25 to 1-21 victory. It represented a staggering collapse.
Coming on the back of a shock quarter-final defeat by Meath 12 months previously, losing the All-Ireland finals of 2022 and '24, together with falling to Mayo in a preliminary quarter-final at Pearse Stadium in 2023, a clear pattern has emerged: Galway are being repeatedly found wanting in the matches that really count.

Winning a record-equalling four Connacht titles on the trot is fine and dandy, but provincial glory has become seriously devalued in the modern championship unless your team is a Roscommon, Westmeath or Louth for instance.
Galway's implosion against Dublin demoralised supporters, with the complete lack of leadership in those closing minutes nothing short of alarming.

It's not as if there is a lack of experience in their ranks. Eleven of the players who lined out against Kerry in the 2022 final started against the Dubs – Connor Gleeson, Jack Glynn, Dylan McHugh, Kieran Molloy John Daly, Matthew Tierney, Shane Walsh, Conroy, Rob Finnerty, Liam Silke, and Cillian McDaid – while Damien Comer and Finnian Ó Laoi were also involved in both matches. It would have been one more only for Sean Kelly being injured for this year's quarter-finals.
Maybe, that's the core of the problem. Bar Maher, Johnny McGrath, Cian Hernon, Cein D'Arcy and Matthew Thompson – an injured absentee for this year's championship – who else had broken through over the past five seasons? Galway have become reliant on largely the same players. Is there too much loyalty involved? On the other hand, it's partially understandable as the county hasn't won a provincial minor title since 2019 or an U-20 crown since 2020.

Back to Loughgeorge. Was there any white smoke at the end of the meeting? It appears unclear. Team manager Padraic Joyce did a lot of listening before seemingly not addressing whether he would see out the remaining two years of his latest term in charge. There were veiled player suggestions about employing a more dynamic tactical approach and restricting the lateral passing which has become an anathema to supporters.

But given players tend to be in self-preservation mode in such forums, none of them were ever going to stand up and demand change in personnel despite this management having lost the goodwill of most fans. Joyce can be single-minded and stubborn, but he is no fool. If support drifts away on the terraces, what next? The players won't be immune to the outside noise.
By all accounts, Joyce leads a professional management whose commitment is beyond reproach, but he's seven years in the job and the criticism is mounting. The killing thing is that Galway are not that far away – Dublin had the chances to beat Kerry in the semi-final a fortnight later – but Mayo coming from almost nowhere for a fairytale triumph makes the Galway situation look worse.
The new champions have set the template for the way the game is going to be played in the future. A high press; attacking at speed; and shooting for sport. Have this Galway squad got the legs to maintain such a tempo for 70 plus minutes? Given their age profile, it's doubtful.


What happens now? Joyce will be meeting GAA officials in due course and though he retains the strong support of the chairman, Paul Bellew, others may press for alterations to his backroom team. The expectation is that Joyce will stay on, but he won't want to be backed into a corner.

Unfortunately, while this uncertainty continues it has created a vacuum where all sorts of nonsense is being pedalled, notably that Joyce was supposed to have resigned three weeks ago; that he lost a player vote 37 to five when he wouldn't alter his coaching set up; and that ex-Dublin boss Jim Gavin is on his way west.
One way or another, Galway needs to sort out who is going to be their football manager for 2027 – and quickly!