1975 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final

Pre-match

On the train to Dublin, Kerry manager Mick O'Dwyer and his players spoke to journalists. Jim Farrelly quoted O'Dwyer in the Sunday Independent as advocating a marriage ban for his players. "Marriage puts players back in their game". Kerry player Jimmy Deenihan was photographed during the train trip alongside his sister Patricia and said to Farrelly: "Four of us [Kerry players] are PE teachers. Saying 'no' to girls and drink and high Kerry social life has been hard!".

Match

This year's final was played on 28 September.

Summary

The Kerry captain was Mickey "Ned" O'Sullivan.

John Egan and substitute Ger O'Driscoll scored goals for a surprise win.

Yet it was no surprise. The train trip (above) revealed the inaccuracy of the callow reputation in which Kerry often indulged. And ahead of the game Dublin were 4/5, Kerry 5/4 in the betting odds.

This was the second of four All-Ireland SFC titles won by Kerry in the 1970s.

Séamus McCarthy, aged 21 and later a Tipperary footballer, and his 50-year-old father Eddie McCarthy, became the first father-and-son pair to umpire at an All-Ireland final, doing so at the Hill 16 end of Croke Park.

Details

Kerry

• 1 Paudie O'Mahony
• 2 Ger O'Keeffe
• 3 John O'Keeffe
• 4 Jimmy Deenihan
• 5 Páidí Ó Sé
• 6 Tim Kennelly
• 7 Ger Power
• 8 Paudie Lynch
• 9 Pat McCarthy
• 10 Brendan Lynch
• 11 Denis "Ogie" Moran
• 12 Mickey "Ned" O'Sullivan (c)
• 13 John Egan
• 14 Mikey Sheehy
• 15 Pat Spillane

;Sub used : 17 Ger O'Driscoll for M. O'Sullivan

;Subs not used : 16 John Bunyan : 18 John Long : 19 Batt O'Shea : 20 Donie O'Sullivan : 21 Jackie Walsh

;Manager : Mick O'Dwyer

Dublin

• 1 Paddy Cullen
• 2 Gay O'Driscoll
• 3 Seán Doherty (c)
• 4 Robbie Kelleher
• 5 Paddy Reilly
• 6 Alan Larkin
• 7 Georgie Wilson
• 8 Brian Mullins
• 9 Bernard Brogan Snr
• 10 Anton O'Toole
• 11 Tony Hanahoe
• 12 David Hickey
• 13 John McCarthy
• 14 Jimmy Keaveney
• 15 Paddy Gogarty

;Subs used : 17 Bobby Doyle for B. Brogan : 18 Pat O'Neill for J. McCarthy : 19 Brendan Pocock for P. Reilly

;Subs not used : 16 Les Deegan : 19 Stephen Rooney : 20 Kevin Synnott : 21 Jim Brogan : 22 Fran Ryder : 23 Liam Egan : 24 Martin Noctorr

;Manager : Kevin Heffernan

Legacy

According to Dermot Crowe, writing 50 years later in the Sunday Independent: "It can be argued with some validity that the '75 final was one of the most important Gaelic football games of all time, because of what it started and the impact it had on so many lives, far beyond Kerry and Dublin".

The players involved in the game organised a golden jubilee reunion in 2025.

References

References

1. (2021). "The Complete Handbook of GAELIC GAMES". DBA.
2. ''High Ball'' magazine, issue #6, 1998.
3. Hogan, Vincent. (31 August 2019). "Kingdom's appetite for mischief can still spook the finest Dublin has to offer". [[Independent News & Media]].
4. (14 September 2009). "Kerry on honour roll". [[Independent News & Media]].
5. (30 March 2020). "Flashback: 1975 All Ireland SFC Final - Kerry v Dublin". GAA.ie.
6. (22 November 2020). "Day has arrived for Tipperary to surrender to the living moment". [[Sunday Independent (Ireland).
7. Crowe, Dermot. (30 March 2025). "Marching on together". [[Sunday Independent (Ireland).