Top dogs to underdogs: what drove this year's All-Ireland winners

Knocked off their perch in recent seasons, Galway and Kerry channelled the sting of criticism into All-Ireland glory.

Galway veteran Ailish O'Reilly said all the talk was about Cork in the lead-up to the All-Ireland camogie final how it suited her team “to the ground”. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

If there’s one general takeaway from the four senior All-Ireland finals we have witnessed over the past month it is that hell hath no fury like a former champion spurned.

All four 2025 champions had been to the mountaintop before. Indeed had Kerry held on against the greatest football team of all-time (or at least the joint greatest, to give Micko’s team of All Talents their fair dues) and thwarted Dublin’s historic five in a row, each of this year’s winners would also have been the champions of 2019.