The 1961 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final was the 74th All-Ireland Final and the deciding match of the 1961 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, an inter-county Gaelic football tournament for the top teams in Ireland. A crowd of 90,556 (a record at the old Croke Park) watched the match between Down and Offaly.
Match Summary The biggest crowd ever to attend Croke Park saw an explosive opening to the match - Offaly's Mick Casey and Peter Daly got goals to put them six points ahead with the match barely begun. Down recovered with three goals by half-time, and led by two points with minutes to go. Har Donnelly had a 21-yard free for Offaly, and took a point when a goal was really needed.High Ball magazine, issue #6, 1998.
This was Down's second appearance in an All-Ireland SFC final, and their second win from two. It was the second of three All-Ireland SFC titles won by Down in the 1960s, which made them joint "team of the decade" with Galway who also won three.
Details
Down 1 E. McKay 2 G. Lavery 3 L. Murphy 4 P. Rice 5 P. O'Hagan 6 D. McCartan 7 J. Smith 8 J. Carey 9 J. Lennon 10 S. O'Neill 11 J. McCartan 12 P. Doherty 13 T. Hadden 14 P. J. McElroy 15 B. Morgan
Subs used K. O'Neill for P. Rice P. Rice for G. Lavery
Manager B. Carr
Offaly 1 W. Nolan (c) 2 P. McCormack 3 G. Hughes 4 J. Egan 5 P. O'Reilly 6 M. Brady 7 C. Wrenn 8 S. Brereton 9 S. Ryan 10 T. Cullen 11 P. Daly 12 T. Greene 13 M. Casey 14 D. Hanlon 15 H. Donnelly
Subs used F. Weir for M. Casey S. Foran for S. Ryan F. Higgins for P. O'Reilly
Trainer P. O'Reilly
References