League final panel | Kerry embarrassed, dominant Donegal & hooter farce
episodePreviously titled “League final panel | Kerry embarrassed, Donegal dominant, hooter farce” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is an Irish Independent Podcast. Hello everybody and welcome to the Indosport Podcast. Today we are discussing Gaelic football and specifically the National League Finals that were on in Croke Park over the weekend. Carlo got things underway on Saturday with an extra-time victory over Longford. Their first win in headquarters in 55 years and then it was Downs' turn later in the evening. They took a big step towards Sam Maguire football with another extra-time victory over Wexford. Then yesterday, the curtain raiser was Meath and Cork. Meath pulled out a very impressive victory, just as kind of dramatic and exciting as we had hoped going in. And then the main event, Donegal versus Kerry. Possibly not the contest in terms of an even back and forth that we expected, but God has thrown up a whole host of narratives after Donegal 320, Kerry 210 yesterday.
What were the highlights of the Gaelic football league finals?
I'm glad to be joined for our chat today by Colm Keyes. Colm, how are you?
Goodwill.
Also I have Conor McKeown with me. Conor, how are things? Goodwill. And Philly McMahon for the first time in 2026. A five-time National League winner is back with us. Philly, how are things? Everything's great, yeah. Thanks. Yeah, lots to get into today. A reminder that our GA podcast coverage on Indosport is sponsored by AIB. Proud sponsors of Club and County, AIB proudly celebrate the joy, dedication and support that lies at the heart of Gaelic games in every community and player across the nation. Philly, I'll give you first crack at it as we haven't heard from you in a while. Yeah. Obviously, the All-Ireland Final last year, one of the most debated tactical performances from Donegal's perspective. So going in on Sunday, even though both managers have been at pains to tee up that they didn't care or they had different priorities, we were waiting for the first ball to be thrown in to see how things would unfold.
Not sure anyone expected that. Kerry getting out with a 13-point defeat in the end, which is their heaviest since that Meade game in 2001. And even then, they kind of had to scrap and claw to avoid making it the heaviest defeat in Kerry's history. We'll get into the specifics in a minute, but just how it all played out. What are your big thoughts on that?
Do you know what, when you're at that stage of the season, you just want another extra game and to play a top quality opposition, you're in bonus territory and you just don't want to be going and doing runs that week. So I think both players were set out, regardless of what the silverware was at the end of it, I think both players will kind of be thinking, do you know what, this is great, we're in Crow Park, we're playing a game against... a team that if it's Donegal that we all want it and possibly we need to put a marker down here for later in the year and Kerry are kind of going look we need to keep the foot down on the throats of these because these feel like they're the next big opponents for us so it was for me it was
How did Donegal dominate the match against Kerry?
It was one of those things where it started to drift fairly early in the game in terms of energy. And you were looking at Kerry going, hold on a second here. You're not clouding this back. It's getting worse. And the energy started to... You could see in the Kerry players. I'd love to see their GPS stats to see what distance they covered compared to Donegal. And the efficiency of Donegal was like... Something that I haven't seen in a very long time. And I'm not talking to, you know, I'm talking about like they had 32 attacks and they got 31 shots off. That's incredible. Now you can put that down to them being very efficient on the ball. The movement off the ball was excellent. every time they were getting into that position where, Kerry, you were setting the defensive structure, you could just see bodies moving all the time and it was very hard for them to, it was like they were just waiting for somebody to slip or someone to be 1v1.
Or you could put that down to Donegal's, sorry, Kerry's energy defensively, not being at it, like, you know. But ultimately, what it comes down to is
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:48
2
What were the highlights of the Gaelic football league finals?
0:48–2:33
3
How did Donegal dominate the match against Kerry?
2:33–8:14
4
What were the implications of Kerry's heavy defeat?
8:14–18:56
5
What tactical changes did Donegal implement this season?
18:56–21:23
6
How did Michael Murphy's actions impact the game?
21:23–23:27
7
What are the key factors contributing to Kerry's performance decline?
23:27–24:02
8
How does the new hooter rule affect game strategy?
24:02–1:03:31
Speakers
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