The 2015 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was the 129th edition of the GAA's premier inter-county Gaelic football since its establishment in 1887. 33 teams took part − 31 counties of Ireland (excluding Kilkenny), London and New York.
Dublin dethroned defending champions Kerry in the final, winning by 0–12 to 0–9.
Teams A total of 33 teams contested the championship – 31 teams from Ireland plus London and New York. As in previous years, Kilkenny footballers did not field a team. New York does not participate in the qualifiers.
Format Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster organise four provincial championships on a knock-out basis. All the teams beaten in the provincial matches (except New York) enter the All-Ireland Qualifiers in rounds 1, 2 and 4. The qualifier matches are knock-out and eventually result in four teams who play in the All-Ireland Quarter-Finals against the four provincial winners. From the quarter-finals onwards the competition is entirely knock-out.
Stadia and locations Team Location Stadium Stadium capacity Antrim Belfast Casement Park Armagh Armagh Athletic Grounds Carlow Carlow Dr Cullen Park Cavan Cavan Kingspan Breffni Park Clare Ennis Cusack Park Cork Cork Páirc Uí Chaoimh Derry Derry Celtic Park Donegal Ballybofey MacCumhaill Park Down Newry Páirc Esler Dublin Dublin Parnell Park Fermanagh Enniskillen Brewster Park Galway GalwayTuam Pearse StadiumSt Jarlath's Park Kerry Killarney Fitzgerald Stadium Kildare Newbridge St Conleth's Park Laois Portlaoise O'Moore Park Leitrim Carrick-on-Shannon Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada Limerick Limerick Gaelic Grounds London Ruislip Emerald GAA Grounds Longford Longford Pearse Park Louth Drogheda Drogheda Park Mayo Castlebar MacHale Park Meath Navan Páirc Tailteann Monaghan Clones St Tiernach's Park New York Kingsbridge Gaelic Park Offaly Tullamore O'Connor Park Roscommon Roscommon Dr Hyde Park Sligo Sligo Markievicz Park Tipperary Thurles Semple Stadium Tyrone Omagh Healy Park Waterford Waterford Walsh Park Westmeath Mullingar Cusack Park Wexford Wexford Wexford Park Wicklow Aughrim Aughrim County Ground
Fixtures and results Connacht Senior Football Championship
Leinster Senior Football Championship
Munster Senior Football Championship
Ulster Senior Football Championship
All-Ireland Series Qualifiers A and B teams An A and B system for the qualifying draws was introduced in 2014 and continued in 2015. The teams were designated as A or B depending on which half of their provincial championships they were initially drawn to play in. Typically the provincial draws were not seeded, resulting in random A and B team designations.
In all qualifier rounds A teams played A teams and B teams played B teams. Usually the A teams completed their provincial games before the B teams, which allowed the A qualifier games to be scheduled a week before the B qualifier games.
Round 1 The first round consisted of all teams that failed to reach their provincial semi-finals, with the exception of New York. 16 teams in total took part.
In round 1 four A teams played four A teams and four B teams played four B teams. The eight round 1 winners played the eight beaten provincial semi-finalists in round 2 of the qualifiers.
The following teams took part in this round:
London
Leitrim
Carlow
Offaly
Laois
Longford
Louth
Wexford
Wicklow
Waterford
Limerick
Antrim
Cavan
Armagh
Down
Tyrone
Round 2 In the second round of the qualifiers the eight winning teams from Round 1A and Round 1B played the eight beaten provincial semi-finalists. The round 2 draw was unrestricted − if two teams had played each other in a provincial match they could be drawn to meet again. The eight winners of these matches played each other in Round 3.
Antrim
Cavan
Longford
Offaly
Clare
Kildare
Fermanagh
Roscommon
Armagh
Louth
Wexford
Tyrone
Derry
Galway
Tipperary
Meath
Round 3 In the third round of the qualifiers winning teams from round 2A played against winning teams from round 2A and winning teams from round 2B played against winning teams from round 2B. Round 3 rules did not allow two teams that had played each other in a provincial match to meet again. The four winners of these matches played the four beaten provincial finalists in Round 4.
Kildare
Longford
Roscommon
Fermanagh
Derry
Tipperary
Tyrone
Galway
Round 4 In the fourth round of the qualifiers, the four winning teams of Round 3A and Round 3B played the four provincial beaten finalists. Round 4 rules did not allow two teams that had played each other in a provincial match to meet again if such a pairing could be avoided. The four winners of these matches played the provincial winners in the All-Ireland Quarter-Finals.
Kildare
Fermanagh
Westmeath
Cork
Tyrone
Galway
Sligo
Donegal
All-Ireland knockout (D) = Draw (R) = Replay
Quarter-finals The four provincial champions played the winners from Round 4 of the qualifiers. If one of the provincial champions had already met one of the qualifiers in an earlier match then those two teams could not be drawn together.
Semi-finals There was no draw for the semi-finals"GAA Football All Ireland Senior Championship 2015 Round 1A" . GAA.ie. as the fixtures were pre-determined on a three yearly rotation. This rotation ensured that a province's champions played the champions of all the other provinces once every three years in the semi-finals if they each won their quarter-finals. If a qualifier team defeated a provincial winner in a quarter-final, the qualifier team took that provincial winner's place in the semi-final.
Final
Referees' Panel 2015 Province Referee County Ciaran Branagan Down Barry Cassidy Derry David Coldrick Meath Maurice Deegan Laois Marty Duffy Sligo David Gough Meath Rory Hickey Clare Pádraig Hughes Armagh Seán Hurson Tyrone Fergal Kelly Longford Eddie Kinsella Laois Conor Lane Cork Paddy Neilan Roscommon Anthony Nolan Wicklow Cormac Reilly Meath Joe McQuillan Cavan Pádraig O'Sullivan Kerry Derek O'Mahoney Tipperary
Statistics All scores correct as of September 20, 2015
Scoring First goal of the championship: Shane Walsh for Galway against New York (3 May 2015) Widest winning margin: 27 points Dublin 4–25 – 0–10 Longford (Leinster quarter-final) Kerry 7–16 – 0–10 Kildare (All-Ireland quarter-final) Most goals in a match: 8 Mayo 6–25 – 2–11 Sligo (Connacht final) Most points in a match: 38 Dublin 2-23 – 2-15 Fermanagh (All-Ireland quarter-final) Most goals by one team in a match: 7 Kerry 7–16 – 0–10 Kildare (All-Ireland quarter-final) Highest aggregate score: 60 Mayo 6–25 – 2–11 Sligo (Connacht final) Lowest aggregate score: 21 Monaghan 0–11 – 0–10 Donegal (Ulster final) Dublin 0–12 – 0–9 Kerry (All-Ireland final) Most goals scored by a losing team: 3 Meath 2–19 – 3–12 Wicklow (Leinster quarter-final)
Top scorers Overall Rank Player CountyTally Total Matches Average1Cillian O'Connor Mayo3–344358.602Seán Quigley Fermanagh2–364267.503Bernard Brogan Dublin6–213975.574Eoghan O'Flaherty Kildare2–313775.295Brian Kavanagh Longford1–293256.406John Heslin Westmeath1–262947.25Conor McManus Monaghan1–262947.25Dean Rock Dublin2–232974.149Donie Kingston Laois2–222847.0010Darren McCurry Tyrone1–242773.8611Tomás Corrigan Fermanagh2–182464.00Colm O'Neill Cork2–182446.0013Connor McAliskey Tyrone0–232373.29Michael Murphy Donegal0–232363.8315Diarmuid Connolly Dublin4–102273.1416Gary Sice Galway1–182163.5017Donncha O'Connor Cork2–142045.0018Ciarán Lyng Wexford0–191936.33
Single game Rank Player CountyTally Total Opposition1Seán Quigley Fermanagh0–1414 Antrim2Aidan O'Shea Mayo3-0413 Sligo3Cillian O'Connor Mayo1-0912 DublinAndrew Tormey Meath1-0912 WicklowJohn Heslin Westmeath1-0912 Meath6Seán Quigley Fermanagh1-0811 Dublin7Tomás Corrigan Fermanagh1-0710 CorkCillian O'Connor Mayo1-0710 SligoEoghan O'Flaherty Kildare1-0710 OffalyGearóid McKiernan Cavan1-0710 LondonAdrian Marren Sligo1-0710 RoscommonJamie Clarke Armagh2-0410 Wicklow13John Heslin Westmeath0-099 LouthCillian O'Connor Mayo0-099 GalwayCillian O'Connor Mayo1-069 DublinConor McManus Monaghan1-069 FermanaghBernard Brogan Dublin1-069 LongfordBernard Brogan Dublin1-069 FermanaghColm O'Neill Cork1-069 KerryDean Rock Dublin1-069 LongfordBernard Brogan Dublin2-039 KildareDiarmuid Connolly Dublin2-039 KildareColm Cooper Kerry2-039 KildareKieran Martin Westmeath2-039 Meath
Discipline First red card of the championship: Neil Gallagher for Donegal against Tyrone (17 May 2015)
Miscellaneous Tipperary and Waterford meet in the Munster championship for the first time since 2003. Westmeath recorded their first ever championship win over Meath in the Leinster semi-final. Tyrone met Limerick and Tipperary for the first time in championship history, with Tyrone coming out on top of both games. Under the old system, an All-Ireland semi-final would have featured Kerry vs Monaghan.
Broadcasting rights RTÉ, the national broadcaster in Ireland provided live television coverage of the championship. In the second year of a deal running from 2014 until 2016, a number of matches were also broadcast by Sky Sports, with Sky having exclusive rights to some games.
Australia's terrestrial Seven Network announced it would not broadcast Gaelic games following its coverage of the 2014 Championship.
As in the 2014 season, the GAA and RTÉ provided a streaming service called GAAGO intended to stream championship games worldwide. The subscription-based service was available to fans everywhere in the world outside of the island of Ireland, including all the games broadcast in Ireland exclusively by Sky Sports. All televised games from the football and hurling championships, as broadcast by both RTÉ and Sky were available to watch on GAAGO.
Live television rights The following matches were broadcast live on television in Ireland. Round RTÉ Sky Sports Connacht ChampionshipMayo vs Galway Mayo vs Sligo Sligo vs Roscommon Munster Championship Kerry vs Cork Kerry vs Cork (replay) Leinster ChampionshipDublin vs Longford Westmeath vs Meath Dublin vs Kildare Dublin vs Westmeath Laois vs Kildare Ulster ChampionshipDonegal vs Tyrone Cavan vs Monaghan Derry vs Down Armagh vs Donegal Monaghan vs Donegal Derry vs Donegal Qualifiers Cavan vs Roscommon Tipperary vs Tyrone Galway vs Derry Westmeath vs Fermanagh Cork vs Kildare Sligo vs Tyrone Donegal vs Galway Quarter-finals Kerry v Kildare Dublin v Fermanagh Monaghan v Tyrone Mayo v Donegal Semi-finals Kerry v Tyrone Dublin v Mayo Kerry v Tyrone Dublin v Mayo FinalKerry v DublinKerry v Dublin
Awards The Sunday Game Team of the Year The Sunday Game team of the year was picked on 20 September, the night of the final. Dublin's Jack McCaffrey was named as The Sunday Game player of the year.
Brendan Kealy (Kerry) Shane Enright (Kerry) Rory O'Carroll (Dublin) Philly McMahon (Dublin) Lee Keegan (Mayo) Cian O’Sullivan (Dublin) Jack McCaffrey (Dublin) Anthony Maher (Kerry) Brian Fenton (Dublin) Mattie Donnelly (Tyrone) Ciarán Kilkenny (Dublin) Donnchadh Walsh (Kerry) Conor McManus (Monaghan) Aidan O'Shea (Mayo) Bernard Brogan (Dublin)
All Star Team of the Year The All Star football team was announced on 6 November. Dublin's Jack McCaffrey was named as the All Stars Footballer of the Year with Diarmuid O'Connor of Mayo being named as the All Stars Young Footballer of the Year.
Brendan Kealy (Kerry) Shane Enright (Kerry) Rory O'Carroll (Dublin) Philly McMahon (Dublin) Lee Keegan (Mayo) Cian O'Sullivan (Dublin) Jack McCaffrey (Dublin) Brian Fenton (Dublin) Anthony Maher (Kerry) Mattie Donnelly (Tyrone) Ciarán Kilkenny (Dublin) Donnchadh Walsh (Kerry) Conor McManus (Monaghan) Aidan O'Shea (Mayo) Bernard Brogan (Dublin)
See also 2016 All-Ireland Minor Football Championship 2016 All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship
References