1984 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final

The 1984 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final was the 97th All-Ireland Final and the deciding match of the 1984 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, an inter-county Gaelic football tournament for the top teams in Ireland.

1984 All-Ireland
Senior Football Championship final

Event	1984 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
Kerry Dublin 0–14 (14) 1–6 (9)
Date	23 September 1984
Venue	Croke Park, Dublin
Referee	Paddy Collins (Westmeath)
Attendance	68,365
← 1983 1985 →

This was one of six All-Ireland SFC finals contested by both Dublin and Kerry between 1974 and 1986, a period when one of either team always contested the decider.^[1]

Pre-game

Dublin were considered hot favourites to defeat Kerry. Kerry had lost to Offaly on their last appearance at this stage in 1982 and had not made it past Cork in the 1983 final of the Munster Senior Football Championship.^[2]

Match

Summary

Tom Spillane and Ger Lynch — assigned to mark Tommy Conroy and Barney Rock — began their efforts during the national anthem, which they sang with aplomb.^[3] Spillane, quoted in the book Princes of Pigskin, said of this tactic later: "There was no belting but the plot was to sing the National Anthem as loud as we could into their ears to put the fear of God into them. Neither of us were great singers but they must have thought we were wired to the moon".^[3]

Kerry controlled the game and won by five points, only two Dublin forwards scoring.^[4] Dublin were well beaten (0–14 to 1–6). Kerry claimed great motivation for their victory came from a piece in the RTÉ Guide in which the team were referred to as "a cowardly blend of experienced players, has-beens and a few newcomers."^[2]

It was the third of five All-Ireland football titles won by Kerry in the 1980s.^[5]

Details

23 September 1984

Final

Kerry	0–14 – 1–6	Dublin
J Kennedy 0–5, P Spillane 0–4, E Liston 0–3, J O'Shea 0–1, D Moran 0–1		B Rock 1–5, T Conroy 0–1

Croke Park, Dublin

Attendance: 68,365

Referee: Paddy Collins (Westmeath)

Kerry

Dublin

Kerry

• 1 C. Nelligan
• 2 P. Ó Sé
• 3 S. Walsh
• 4 M. Spillane
• 5 T. Doyle
• 6 T. Spillane
• 7 G. Lynch
• 8 J. O'Shea
• 9 A. O'Donovan (c)
• 10 John Kennedy
• 11 D. Moran
• 12 P. Spillane
• 13 G. Power
• 14 E. Liston
• 15 J. Egan

Sub used

18 T. O'Dowd for J. Egan

Subs not used

16 M. Sheehy

19 D. O'Donoghue

20 J. Higgins

21 D. Hartnett

22 G. O'Sullivan

23 W. O'Connor

24 V. O'Connor

25 T. Lynch

26 M. Keating

Manager

M. O'Dwyer

Dublin

• 1 J. O'Leary
• 2 M. Holden
• 3 G. Hargan
• 4 M. Kennedy
• 5 P. Canavan
• 6 T. Drumm (c)
• 7 P.J. Buckley
• 8 J. Ronayne
• 9 B. Mullins
• 10 B. Rock
• 11 T. Conroy
• 12 K. Duff
• 13 J. Kearns
• 14 A. O'Toole
• 15 J. McNally

Subs used

M. O'Callaghan for J. McNally

C. Sutton for J. Tonayne

Manager

K. Heffernan