The 2025 All Ireland Senior Football Championship (Sam Maguire Cup)

Poor ending to the championship after a really good group stage.

Out of the 7 QF and on matches, only 1 had the game in the balance until the end, the Galway/Meath match.

And even going back a step further, only the Down/Galway match was in the balance to the end.

The sight of Gavin White coming through with his pace would frighten most defenders. Donegal had a lot of fires to put out in fairness.

You reckon you can play up to the age of 34 now? Such is the pace and physical commitment required at the top level now that I think once you reach 30 you are going to struggle. Now certain professions suit being a footballer at the top level, which allow you to train and look after your body like a professional athlete.

Playing in certain positions helps as you may have to cover less ground but overall, it's now for the most part a young mans game and even more so since the new rules were introduced.

I think certain players will have more longevity over others depending on positions and staying injury free etc. I certainly think there is some more years in many of the Kerry team but 6 years is a stretch.

And the first thing to start to fail you is your pace.

Some will play til 34, some won't.

Some will be impact subs. Some will retire.

Injuries begin to pile up after 30 also. Some people are lucky and stay injury free.

When the more defensive teams like Donegal get the message and push out another 10 yards to stop the 2 pointers goal chances will be created too. The advantage is finally back in the forwards hands.

Dublin and Galway have more then the rest combined. Every year by default these 2 must be favourites. Putting teams like Donegal and Galway as favourites is just playing into the Kerry Mafia and to a slightly lesser extent the Dublin mafia's advantage. It's time we stop being absolutely idiots getting propped up by posts from dubs and Kerry men not seeing anyway back to Sam 😂

NEVER AGAIN!

he definitely wasn’t school, mick barely got on the ball and was in plenty of bother

Kerry's experience and decision making under pressure was underplayed before the final I think.

Lots of this Kerry team were winning AI minor finals back as far as 2014 to 2018. 11 years ago.

Also they've won Club AIs also with Rathmore, Dr Crokes, Beaufort, Na Gaeil, Fossa.

Also they've won schools AIs with Dingle and Killarney.

The amount of big games and AI finals these guys have played in by now.

Also last week Jim McGuiness was a tactical genius with an unstoppable machine and this week he's tactically naive.

I'd expect him to go back to the drawing board and improve his system. Still plenty of good players in Donegal panel.

I still think Donegal were too wedded to their system, rather than playing the game as they see it.

I don’t agree, it’s very difficult to dispossess a player legally in Gaelic football..It’s one of the biggest problems in the game …

Donegal lost yesterdays game because of poor tactics. They basically didn’t engage Kerry until they reached the arc….as we saw that’s way too late.

Load of bollox, Donegal players were spancelled by a rigid so called ‘system’.

Kerry ripped into them and Donegal never copped on .

Go out and play the game , don’t be stupid ….express yourself and use your skills.

Expecting a win with a system which invites the opposition into your territory without hindrance is laughable.

Promoting this kind of rubbish is ruining good teams expressing themselves and is grist for the mill for these psuedo gurus in charge.

Its kinda embarrassing for rest of country that Kerry are 30 All Irelands ahead of 3rd place.

Kerry are not the kings of football they are the God of football.

Dublin respectable, and also have super record in finals won 31, lost only 13.

Rest just trying get the scraps.

At the time of the final on the 30th July 2023, the Clifford's had buried their young mother in early May 2023.

They continued to playing and indeed played the Munster final between her death and burial.

That either of them togged out for the final given the public nature of their grieving especially for young men was an achievement; expecting him to peak and overcome a great Dublin team enjoying the last of the summer wine was too much to expect.

The two of them are hitting their peak now and given the right management structure they will likely backbone a few more All Ireland's for Kerry.

The GAA should have a policy of bias funding to everyone other then Dublin and Kerry. The sport would be so much better off. So many years we have 5 or 6 contenders but it nearly always ends with Kerry or Dublin winning.

I'm from Kerry and I can't explain the obsession.

We've been obsessed from the very beginning.

People say the old game of Caid was very popular in West Kerry before the GAA came along.

Soccer, Hurling and Rugby were never big in Kerry so I guess there was a void.

Although apparently cricket was popular.

Long may it continue.

It really has a positive effect on everyone.

I think Donegal played it poorly. All their runs and interchanges were inside the arc rather than outside it so when the player on the run received it they were already in the arc and wasn't worth taking a swing at it but they did sometimes and went wide anyways.