 | |||||||
| Event | 1985 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Date | 22 September 1985 | ||||||
| Venue | Croke Park,Dublin | ||||||
| Referee | Paddy Kavanagh (Meath)[1] | ||||||
| Attendance | 69,389 | ||||||
←1984 1986 → | |||||||
The1985 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final was the 98th All-Ireland Final and the deciding match of the1985 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, an inter-countyGaelic football tournament for the top teams inIreland.
The final was contested byDublin andKerry. This was one of six All-Ireland SFC finals contested by both Dublin and Kerry between1974 and1986, a period when one of either team always contested the decider.[2] The teams would not meet in an All-Ireland SFC final again until2011.
On the morning of the game, Kerry managerMick O'Dwyer and his players featured in an advertisement forBendix washing machines, with the line "Only Bendix could whitewash this lot".[3]
Kerry led by nine points athalf-time, and twoJoe McNally goals in the second half was not enough to stop them.[4]
Jack O'Shea picked the ball up with wonderful skill in front of refereePaddy Kavanagh, who proceeded to marvel at the Kerryman's abilities.[1]
It was the fourth of five All-Ireland SFC titles won by Kerry in the 1980s.[5]
| Kerry | 2–12 – 2–8 | Dublin |
|---|---|---|
| J O'Shea 1–3, T O'Dowd 1–1, M Sheehy 0–3, T Doyle 0–1, J Kennedy 0–1, P Spillane 0–2 D Moran 0–1 | J McNally 2–0, B Rock 0–3, T Conroy 0–2, J Kearns 0–2, T Carr 0–1 |
          Kerry |     Dublin
|
...Jack O'Shea picking the ball clean off the ground in front of the ref (Kavanagh, Meath) in the 1985 final).
From 1974 to 1986, every final had Kerry or Dublin in it and in six of those they were the final pairing. They shared every All-Ireland going in that time save for Offaly's famous heist of 1982.
