All-Ireland Senior Football Championship 1965

The 1965 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was played from May to September, 1965. The decider was a repeat of the 1964 All-Ireland Final, between Galway and Kerry. There was no change in the outcome as Galway defeated Kerry again by 0-12 to 0-09 It was Galways second title in succession, on their way to "Three In A Row".

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship

Semi-Finals

All-Ireland Final

For the first time since the 1941 All-Ireland Final, the same two counties contested the decider in successive years. However, it was far from the magical spectacle that fans expected, given the high-scoring performance that both sides gave in the 1964 final. Destructive football and indiscriminate jersey-pulling, leading to three players being sent-off, marred a game that never delivered as much as it had promised. 13 of the 21 scores came from frees, both Bernie O'Callaghan and Cyril Dunne called upon many times to edge their county ahead. It was essentially "Survival of the Fittest", but even in this unpromising setting, there were some performances of real merit. Pat Donnnellan, who had outplayed Denis O'Sullivan early on, stepped into the breach at a stage when O'Callaghan had reduced Kerry's arrears to a minimum. The Kerry resurgence had been fueled by a vintage period for Mick O'Connell, but when the Galway mentors switched Donnellan onto the Valentia man, midfield control - slight though it was - swung back to the reigning champions. With 15 minutes remaining, Seamus Leydon had Galway's twelfth point but Kerry didn't have the ability to profit from this period of stagnation, and their only return for some enthusiastic, but poorly oragnised attacks, was the pointed free's from O'Connell and O'Callaghan. The margin of three points hardly flattered Galway but the Tribesmen had too much on the day for Kerry and duly picked their second All-Ireland title in a row.

See also