Teams that ended All-Ireland winning streaks in the final of the championship.
5-in-a-row
Offaly (1982) defeated Kerry
4-in-a-row
Kerry (1924) defeated Dublin
3-in-a-row
Kildare (1905) defeated Kerry
Wexford (1915) defeated Kerry
Kerry (1929, 1978) defeated Kildare in 1929, Dublin in 1978
Meath (1949) defeated Cavan
Tyrone (2008) defeated Kerry
2-in-a-row
Dublin (1891, 1976, 2015, 2023) defeated Cork in 1891 and Kerry in 1976, 2015 and 2023)
Louth (1910) defeated Kerry
Kildare (1927) defeated Kerry
Galway (1938) defeated Kerry
Cavan (1947) defeated Kerry
Meath (1954) defeated Kerry
Down (1960) defeated Kerry
Kerry (1975, 1984) defeated Dublin in 1975 and 1984
Tyrone (2003, 2005) defeated Armagh in 2003 and Kerry in 2005
By semi-final appearances
As of 2 July 2023
Semi-final appearances (2001-)
By province
Most successful provinces
Cavan and Down are the Ulster teams with the most All-Ireland titles.
Dublin are the Leinster team with the most All-Ireland titles.
Galway are the Connacht team with the most All-Ireland titles.
Kerry are the Munster team with the most All-Ireland titles.
Provinces with highest number of different winning counties
The provinces providing the highest number of different winning counties are Leinster and Ulster, with six each. Dublin, Meath, Wexford, Kildare, Offaly and Louth from Leinster have won the title, while Cavan, Down, Tyrone, Donegal, Armagh and Derry are the successful Ulster sides. For Leinster's 12 counties, this represents a success rate of 50%, while Ulster's nine counties gives them a success rate of 67%. Four of Munster's six counties have won the title, giving an identical success rate to Ulster, while three of Connacht's five counties have been successful, a success rate of 60%.
Least successful counties
There are eight counties that have never been represented in a Senior All-Ireland Final. These are Carlow, Fermanagh, Leitrim, Sligo, Westmeath, Wicklow, Longford, and New York. Four of these counties have never competed in a semi-final: Waterford, Westmeath, Wicklow, and New York.
Kilkenny currently do not compete in the All-Ireland Championship, having won three Leinster Senior Football Championships in the past, with the county instead prominent in the sport of hurling but have won the Junior All Ireland in 2022. Carlow also compete in hurling and have won an All-Ireland Senior B Hurling Championship. Westmeath have enjoyed considerable success in hurling in recent years, winning a number of All-Ireland Senior B Hurling Championships and Christy Ring Cups, and their Gaelic football team won the 2004 Leinster Football Championship and the inaugural Tailteann Cup in 2022.
Fermanagh came their closest in 2004, reaching a semi-final replay having defeated 1999 Champions Meath, 2002 Munster Champions Cork, 2003 All-Ireland semi-finalists Donegal and 2002 Champions Armagh. Wicklow's most notable recent achievement was winning the 2012 NFL Division 4 final.
Levels
In the last few years, counties can be divided into four levels or tiers, based on results: Tier 1 counties are consistent participants in the latter stage of the All-Ireland. Tier 2 counties usually compete in the All-Ireland championship or the Tailteann Cup. Tier 3 counties are consistent participants in the Tailteann Cup. Tier 4 counties usually compete in the All-Ireland Junior Football Championship. There is a big gap between Tier 1, 2 and 3 counties and Tier 4 counties. Tier 4 counties also do not participate in the provincial championships.
7, London (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010)
Unbeaten sides
132 teams have won the All-Ireland SFC unbeaten out of a possible 136.
Beaten sides
The introduction of the qualifier system in 2001 has resulted in 4 'back-door' All-Ireland champions:
Galway (2001) were beaten by Roscommon in the Connacht semi-finals.
Tyrone (2005) were beaten by Armagh in the Ulster final.
Kerry (2006) were beaten by Cork in the Munster final.
Cork (2010) were beaten by Kerry in the Munster semi-finals.
On a number of occasions a team was defeated twice but have remained in the knockout championship:
Tyrone (2018) were beaten by Monaghan and Dublin but still qualified for the knockout stage.
Mayo (2019) were beaten by Roscommon and Kerry but still qualified for the knockout stage.
Tyrone (2019) were beaten by Donegal and Dublin but still qualified for the knockout stage.
Cork (2023) were beaten by Clare and Kerry but still qualified for the knockout stage.
Armagh (2023) were beaten by Derry and Tyrone but still qualified for the knockout stage.
Tyrone (2023) were beaten by Monaghan and Galway but still qualified for the knockout stage.
Roscommon (2023) were beaten by Galway and Kildare but still qualified for the knockout stage.
Kildare (2023) were beaten by Dublin twice but still qualified for the knockout stage.
Donegal (2023) were beaten by Down and Derry but still qualified for the knockout stage.
Monaghan (2023) were beaten by Derry and Donegal but still qualified for the knockout stage.
Final success rate
Only 1 county have appeared in the final, being victorious on all occasions:
Limerick (Limerick won the first ever All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final and its 100% success rate has only ever been threatened once - in 1896. It remained intact)
On the opposite end of the scale, six counties have appeared in the All-Ireland final, losing on each occasion:
Laois (1889, 1936)
Antrim (1911, 1912)
Waterford (1898)
Clare (1917)
Monaghan (1930)
London (1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1908). In each of London's first four appearances in the Final, they have been the beneficiaries of byes to that stage. From the 1900 Championship to the 1903 Championship, the GAA ran the competition between teams based in Ireland first, with the winners of the 'Home Final' going on to play London in the 'Grand Final'. In 1908 London qualified for the Final by winning the semi-final.
Consecutive participations
0, 000 (0000–0000)
00 have the record number of consecutive participations in the All-Ireland SFC, taking part in the 0 seasons.
Winning other trophies
Although not an officially recognised achievement, a number of teams have achieved the distinction of winning the All-Ireland, their provincial championship and the National Football League all in the same season.
Counties in an All-Ireland final without a provincial title
Bold = Champions
London (1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1908)
Kerry (2002, 2006, 2008, 2009)
Tyrone (2005, 2008, 2018)
Cork (2007, 2010)
Mayo (2016, 2017)
Limerick (1887)
Louth (1887)
Galway (2001)
Armagh (2003)
Down (2010)
Note: The 1887, 2008 and 2010 finals featured two teams that had not won their provincial championship that year (There were no provincial championships in 1887).
Longest undefeated run
The record for the longest unbeaten run stands at 45 games held by Dublin (2015–2021).
Miscellaneous
Best finish by a debuting team
Champions, Limerick (1887)
Best finish by a debuting team (after 1887)
TBD, 00 (0000)
Highest winning record in final (3 or more finals)
83%, Down (5 wins in 6 matches)
Lowest winning record in final (3 or more finals)
0%, London (0 wins in 5 matches)
Most played match
Cork vs Kerry
Disciplinary
In 1943, Joe Stafford of Cavan became the first player to be sent off in an All-Ireland Senior football final. Others to have been sent off since then include John Donnellan of Galway and the brothers Derry O'Shea and John 'Thorny' O'Shea of Kerry in 1965, Charlie Nelligan of Kerry in 1978, Páidí Ó Sé of Kerry in 1979, Brian Mullins, Kieran Duff, Ray Hazley of Dublin and Tomás Tierney of Galway in 1983, Gerry McEntee of Meath in the 1988 replay, Tony Davis of Cork in 1993, Charlie Redmond of Dublin in 1995, Liam McHale of Mayo and Colm Coyle of Meath in the 1996 replay, Nigel Nestor of Meath in 2001, Diarmaid Marsden of Armagh in 2003, Donal Vaughan of Mayo in 2017, John Small of Dublin in 2017 and again in 2018, Jonny Cooper of Dublin in the 2019 drawn game, and Matthew Ruane of Mayo in 2021.
Nine players have received black cards during All-Ireland finals: Johnny Buckley and Aidan O'Mahony, both of Kerry, in the 2014 and 2015 finals, respectively; James McCarthy of Dublin in the 2016 drawn game; Jonny Cooper of Dublin and Rob Hennelly and Lee Keegan of Mayo in the 2016 replay; Ciarán Kilkenny of Dublin in 2017; Kieran McGeary of Tyrone in 2018 and Robbie McDaid of Dublin in 2020.
Galway holds the record of losing a final to a team containing the fewest players, they were beaten by a Dublin team which had been reduced to just 12 players in the All-Ireland Final of 1983.
Fastest goals in Finals
Managers
Winning managers (2013–present)
Players
All-time top scorers
(Those who have accumulated over 166 points)
As of match played Saturday 25 May 2024
All-time appearances
As of match played 16 June 2024
Other records
Most wins
3 players have won nine All-Ireland medals:
Stephen Cluxton of Dublin: 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023
Michael Fitzsimons of Dublin: 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023
James McCarthy of Dublin: 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023
12 players have won eight All-Ireland medals:
Dean Rock of Dublin: 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023
Cillian O'Connor's four goals (accompanied by nine points) in the 2020 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-final at Croke Park broke the 5–3 record set by Johnny Joyce of Dublin in 1960 and matched with 3–9 by Rory Gallagher of Fermanagh in 2002 and O'Connor himself having scored 3-9 vs Limerick in 2018 for the highest individual scorer in any championship football match.
Team results table
This section represents in colour-coded tabular format the results of GAA county teams in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship since 2001.
Prior to 2001, counties played in separate provincial championships, with only four provincial champions coming together in the All-Ireland semi-finals, and it is difficult to directly compare results across counties. Since 2001, beaten teams from the provincial championships play together in the All-Ireland qualifier series.
However, it must be remembered that counties from the smaller provinces (Connacht with seven county teams and Munster with six) have a slight advantage over those from the larger provinces (Leinster with eleven county teams and Ulster with nine) — they may receive a bye to the provincial semi-final and thus enter the second round of the qualifiers without winning a game, while counties from the larger provinces have to defeat one or even two opponents to reach the provincial semi-final.
The old single knockout format was reintroduced in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022 a new competition was introduced, the Tailteann Cup, for teams that finished 17th–32nd in the National Football League and that did not reach their provincial final. These teams go straight into the Tailteann Cup and do not progress to the qualifiers.
These are the colour-codes used for 2020 and 2021. X stands for the first letter of the province, e.g. Lpr is Leinster preliminary round, Cf is Connacht final.
Xf — Provincial finalists (5th–8th place); Galway in 2020 are not counted as provincial finalists as they did not win any games prior
Xsf — teams that won two provincial games before being eliminated (9th place)
XsfXqf — teams that won one provincial game before being eliminated (8th–16th place)
XqrXqfXsfCf — teams that lost their only game (16th–31st place)
2018–19
S8 — All-Ireland "Super 8" quarter-final groups (5th–8th place)
Quarter-finals were played as single matches between 2001 and 2017.
QF — All-Ireland quarter-finals (5th–8th place)
In 2007 and 2008, teams from Division 4 of the National Football League did not get to play in the qualifiers, instead going straight into the Tommy Murphy Cup, a secondary competition. In those years, there were only three rounds of qualifiers.