1955 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final
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Event | 1955 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship | ||||||
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Date | 25 September 1955 | ||||||
Venue | Croke Park, Dublin | ||||||
Attendance | 87,102 | ||||||
The 1955 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final was the 68th All-Ireland Final and the deciding match of the 1955 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, an inter-county Gaelic football tournament for the top teams in Ireland. A then record crowd attended.[1] The game went down in history as "famous" and a "classic".[1][2]
Pre-match
British Rail were forced to schedule extra trains to Holyhead such was the clamour to see a Dublin team playing an exciting new brand of football.[1]
Until the Wednesday before the final Kerry's seven-day-a-week training regime, led by Dr Eamonn O'Sullivan, began with a brisk walk before celebration of Mass each morning; there followed light breakfast, a training session out on the pitch, lunch, an afternoon training session. This was considered revolutionary at the time, particularly as the GAA, fearing the advent of professionalism within its ranks, had implemented an unsuccessful ban on collective training of inter-county teams just the year before, only for it to be overturned within a year.[3]
Match summary
Tadghie Lyne scored six points to give Kerry a commanding 0-12 to 0-6 lead. Ollie Freaney's goal five minutes from the brought Dublin within three points, but Kerry weathered the storm and won.[4]
It was the second of three All-Ireland football titles won by Kerry in the 1950s.[5]
Kerry player Jim Brosnan, scorer of two crucial second-half points, was flown home from New York for the final; he was over there studying medicine.[2]
Legacy
Though the team lost this final, Kevin Heffernan was driven onwards to achieve greater things with Dublin in the 1970s.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d Moran, Sean (17 September 2011). "Kerry pioneers the kings of the urban-rural frontier". The Irish Times. Irish Times Trust. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
The famous All-Ireland final drew a then record crowd and caused British Rail to schedule extra trains to Holyhead because of the feverish excitement to see the match between Dublin's team, dominated by home-grown St Vincent's players and playing a new, unconventional game built around Kevin Heffernan's roving full forward take on Eamonn O'Sullivan, the high priest of orthodox football. It didn't end well for Dublin but the disappointment drove Heffernan to lead another revolution in the 1970s, based on ratcheted-up levels of fitness and a style of play based on working the ball into the danger area and aiming to eschew long-range, speculative shooting.
- ^ a b "Much-loved doctor who won two All-Ireland football medals with Kerry". The Irish Times. Irish Times Trust. 24 December 2011. Retrieved 24 December 2011.
The holder of two All-Ireland senior medals with Kerry, he won the first in 1953 and the second in 1955 when he was flown home for the game from New York, where he was advancing his medical studies at the time. He scored two second-half points that were to turn the classic game against Dublin in Kerry's favour.
- ^ Fitzpatrick, Richard (13 September 2014). "Coaching in Gaelic games increasingly focused on mobility and speed: Dietary expertise used in tandem with technology means players enjoy extended careers". The Irish Times. Irish Times Trust. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
- ^ High Ball magazine, issue #6, 1998.
- ^ "Kerry on honour roll". Irish Independent. Independent News & Media. 14 September 2009. Retrieved 14 September 2009.