When and where is it on?
This weekend is the culmination of the 2023 women’s football intercounty season, with Dublin and Kerry meeting in the 50th senior final in LGFA history. It’s somehow the first time these two Gaelic football powerhouses will meet in a Brendan Martin Cup decider, and it throws-in at 4pm in Croke Park.
This is preceded by the intermediate final between Clare and Kildare (1.45pm) and the junior final between Down and Limerick (11.45am).
How can I watch it?
The games will all be live on TG4, with coverage starting from 11.35am, following a show on the LGFA’s most recent All Star trip to Austin, Texas. All of TG4′s coverage will also be available to audiences globally on the TG4 Player.
Paths to the final
Kerry come in as league champions, they were also two-point winners over the Dubs in the All-Ireland group stages, and are looking to go one step further than last year when they lost the final to Meath. They’ve already knocked out the three-in-a-row chasing Royals on the way to this final.
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Dublin won four in a row before Meath’s emergence, but this is a much younger team made up of a number of new players chasing their first medal. They come in as underdogs, but if their last two wins over Donegal and Cork – who beat and drew with Kerry this summer – are anything to go by they are certainly not to be written off. Plus Kerry will be without their injured captain, Síofra O’Shea.
DUBLIN
Leinster championship
Meath 0-7 Dublin 1-6
Dublin 3-14 Laois 0-3
Leinster final: Dublin 2-9 Meath 0-9
All-Ireland group stages
Cavan 1-8 Dublin 5-15
Quarter-final: Donegal 0-6 Dublin 3-12
Semi-final: Dublin 2-19 Cork 0-13
KERRY
Munster championship
Waterford 0-8 Kerry 2-8
Cork 2-14 Kerry 2-14
Munster final: Cork 5-14 Kerry 2-17
All-Ireland group stages
Quarter-final: Kerry 2-8 Meath 0-10
Semi-final: Kerry 1-16 Mayo 1-11
A Kerry football famine
Kerry’s last All-Ireland senior final win came back in 1993, when they overcame Laois, albeit a win on Sunday will not only end a 30-year wait, but it’ll put the Kingdom out in front on the roll of honour. They are currently joined on 11 by Cork.
This will be their 14th appearance in the decider, with them losing last year’s final to Meath, and before that the 2012 final against Cork. Kerry won their first senior title in 1976 and five years later went on to win a famous nine titles in a row.
[ Meath have all the answers as they secure back-to-back All-Ireland titlesOpens in new window ]
Return of Ahearne
“If you had asked me last October would we be in the final I didn’t think so with so many changes to our panel,” explained Dublin manager Mick Bohan after his team overcame Cork in the semi-final. His team lost a number of their star players ahead of the 2023 season, with a new-look team coming together quicker than expected.
But to help that transition, came a returning star in four-in-a-row captain Sinéad Aherne, who was convinced to rejoin the set-up for what’s been her 20th season in blue.
She came on in the team’s quarter-final and semi-final wins to score 1-1, but like the returning Stephen Cluxton for the men’s team, Bohan explains: “Sinéad Aherne was the big one, to try and bring her back in. She’s just been an unbelievable presence around the group for as long as I’ve been here. The coaches were doing a magnificent job but there’s nothing like it coming from within the group, of passing on the lessons learned.”
[ Mick Bohan comfortable with ‘underdogs’ tag as Dublin prepare for final testOpens in new window ]
Weather?
According to Met Eireann’s predictions we can expect light rain showers for the finals at Croke Park, with temperatures ranging from 17 to 19 degrees, and winds of 24km/h.
Who’s on the whistle?
Galway’s Shane Curley will take charge of the senior decider, while the intermediate final will be refereed by Sligo’s Gus Chapman, and the junior final by Dublin’s Angela Gallagher.
From the Glinsk club in Galway, this will be Curley’s first senior final, having taken charge of the 2021 intermediate decider
Any tickets?
Tickets for Sunday’s games are priced at €30 for adults and €15 for students, OAPs and Under-18s. Group rates are available only from the LGFA office, with 10 adult tickets costing €100 or 12 Under-18s costing €60.
Tickets are available at usual GAA outlets or online with Ticketmaster.
A crowd of 46,400 attended last year’s final, the first to have full capacity allowance since 2019 when a record 56,114 were in GAA HQ.
Team news
KERRY: C Butler; É Lynch, K Cronin, C Murphy; A O’Connell, E Costello, C Lynch; L Scanlon, L Galvin; N Carmody, N Ní Chonchúir, A Galvin; H O’Donoghue, D O’Leary, L Ní Mhuircheartaigh
DUBLIN: A Shiels; N Crowley, L Caffrey, A Kane; L Magee, M Byrne, N Donlon; J Dunne, E O’Dowd; C O’Connor, O Nolan, K Sullivan; H Tyrrell, C Rowe, J Egan.
