Dublin 1-12 - 1-11 Kerry
Its been 16 very long and painful years in the making but Dublin have been crowned All Ireland Senior Football Champions for the first time since 1995. Incredibly Dublins hero is goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton, who struck a very long range free kick to give Dublin their 1 point lead, 30 seconds from time.
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This game was one of the most entertaining and exciting finals in recent memory with the sides drawing level 7 times before Cluxton kicked over the free to send fans on Hill 16 crazy.
Colm “The Gooch” Cooper gave Kerry a platform to play on with a remarkable goal right infront of the hill on 15 minutes after some earlier to-ing and fro-ing that up to before Coopers goal saw Dublin lead by 2 points to one, all of a sudden the Kingdon were leading 1-01 to 0-02.
Dublin needed to react, and needed to react quickly and they were efforts to mount a comeback was helped by the referee when Diarmuid Connolly was brought down by Aidan O’Mahony, Bernard Brogan stood up and hit his first point of the day to bring the game to 1 point.
Bernards brother Alan should have rattled the net in the 24th minute as he had only Brendan Kealy to beat but the Kingdom keeper spread himself to make the save. As the pace was beginning to quicken, Donaghy then seemed certain to score Kerry’s second goal a minute later but Cian O’Sullivan produced a brilliant block to avert the danger.
And as Dublin continued to grow in confidence, another Bernard Brogan free doubled their advantage before Paul Galvin, who already had been introduced for Kieran O’Leary, replied with Kerry’s first score in 14 minutes.
After Brogan and Cooper missed easy frees at either end, Joe McQuillan blew the half-time whistle with the Dubs 0-6 to 1-2 ahead in a contest that while intriguing, had not yet caught fire.
With 63 minutes on the clock Dublin looked in trouble as captain fantastic Colm ‘Gooch’ Cooper pushed the Kingdom four points ahead but a minute later the game was turned on its head when substitute Kevin McMenamin netted for the capital’s footballers.
Kevin Nolan’s first-ever point in the championship soon followed and the Dubs now had the wind at their backs – the teams were now level for the fifth time. Bernard Brogan’s sixth point of the game pushed the Leinster kingpins ahead with a minute to play but Kerry were not done and Kieran Donaghy’s effort on 70 minutes would grace any All-Ireland final.
However, there was to be one final twist as Dublin were awarded a free in a very kickable position. Bernard Brogan wrapped his arms around the ball, aware of the significance of what was to come, and called on Cluxton to write his name into the history books. The vetern netminder cooly stepped up and split the posts under pressure that no one in the famous old ground would have ever experienced.
Dublin: Stephen Cluxton, Cian O’Sullivan, Rory O’Carroll, Michael Fitzsimons, James McCarthy, Ger Brennan, Kevin Nolan, Denis Bastick, Michael Darragh MacAuley, Paul Flynn, Barry Cahill, Bryan Cullen, Alan Brogan, Diarmuid Connolly, Bernard Brogan.
Kerry: Brendan Kealy, Killian Young, Marc O Se, Tom O’Sullivan, Tomas O Se, Eoin Brosnan, Aidan O’Mahony, Anthony Maher, Bryan Sheehan, Darran O’Sullivan, Declan O’Sullivan, Donnacha Walsh, Colm Cooper, Kieran Donaghy, Kieran O’Leary.