FLASHBACK: Dublin v Galway- 1974 All-Ireland Final

With Dublin and Galway gearing up to do battle in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship for the second year in-a-row, Conor Martin has looked back at the 1974 All-Ireland final between the pair, where an unfancied Dublin side wrote themselves into GAA folklore.

Dublin were experiencing a drought when it came to provincial and All-Ireland success before 1974. Our last provincial title was won in 1965, while our last All-Ireland title was in 1963.

Managed by the legendary Kevin Heffernan, Dublin beat Wexford and Louth in the opening two rounds, beat Offaly and Kildare in the last eight and semi-finals before overcoming Meath by five points in the Leinster final.

Despite their triumph, Dublin didn’t receive the praise they probably should have, with some pundits focusing on the performance put in by Meath rather than the victorious Dubs. Goals from Brian Mullins and Anton O’Toole helped to book a place in the All-Ireland final at the expense of Cork.

But still, Dublin were the underdogs; our opponents, Galway, had been beaten in the two previous All-Ireland finals and many expected them to become All-Ireland champions at last.

Galway landed the first sucker punch of the final when Michael Rooney found the net for the men in maroon, but Dublin were not deterred and kept themselves in the game, O’Toole probably scoring one of the points of the game with a fine solo run, swerving the oncoming Galway defence before fisting the ball over the bar.

After trailing by two points at the break, 1-4 to 0-5. The tide would turn in Dublin’s favour in the second-half when Paddy Cullen got down well to deny Liam Sammon from the spot. Jimmy Keaveney would then help Dublin kick on before going on to top score with 0-8 for himself and the Dubs. The St Vincent's clubman would also be the 1974 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship’s top scorer overall with 1-36 scored that year.

David Hickey would also help Dublin pull away from the Connacht men before Mullins scored the final point of the game to send the Dublin faithful wild; the Jacks were well and truly back as Heffo's men ran out 0-14 to 1-6 winners with Seán Doherty raising Sam Maguire to signal the start of a new era – the era of Heffo’s Army.

Dublin Scorers: J Keaveney 0–8, B Mullins 0–2, D Hickey 0–2, A O'Toole 0–1, J McCarthy 0–1

Galway Scorers: M Rooney 1–1, T Naughton 0–2, J Duggan 0–1, J Tobin 0–1, J Hughes 0–1

Dublin:

1 P. Cullen

2 G. O'Driscoll

3 S. Doherty (C)

4 R. Kelleher

5 P. Reilly

6 A. Larkin

7 G. Wilson

8 S. Rooney

9 B. Mullins

10 B. Doyle

11 T. Hanahoe

12 D. Hickey

13 J. McCarthy

14 J. Keaveney

15 A. O'Toole

Subs not used

16 B. Pocock

17 B. Donovan

18 D. Billings

19 K. Synnott

20 P. Gogarty

21 L. Deegan

22 P. O'Neill

23 J. Brogan

24 F. Ryder

Galway

1 G. Mitchell (C)

2 J. Waldron

3 J. Cosgrove

4 B. Colleran

5 L. O'Neill

6 T. J. Gilmore

7 J. Hughes

8 W. Joyce

9 M. Rooney

10 T. Naughton

11 J. Duggan

12 P. Sands

13 C. McDonagh

14 L. Sammon

15 J. Tobin

Subs used

J. Burke for C. McDonagh

Date 22 September 1974

Venue Croke Park, Dublin

Referee Paddy Devlin (Tyrone)

Attendance 71,898.