More of the same in All-Ireland repeat

The Division 1 final of the Allianz Football League, the tier that often gets dismissed in spring as something of a phoney war.

The eight sides who competed here, as well as a couple more from Division 2, will produce the Sam Maguire winner in July, so teams won't want to give too much away, or so the story goes.

Indeed, the All-Ireland champion in 2023 and 2024 came from the second tier, rather than the top flight, so there's very modern precedent set for Division 1 being just that, a phoney war.

This final feels slightly different however, with it being a repeat of last year's All-Ireland decider. When the two best counties from the previous summer meet in the following spring's league final, it means that little bit more.

On top of that, neither county is in championship action for four weeks, so teams can possibly get stuck into the game a bit more. As such, this is a good runout to get ahead of the serious business of the summer.

Kerry defending their crown and O'Connor's record

For defending champions Kerry, it's a national final and they won't want to upset their current momentum.

The men from the Kingdom came into 2026 with all available trophies in the cabinet, between the Corn Mhíchíl Uí Mhuircheartaigh for this competition, the Munster Championship trophy - recently renamed the Páidí Ó Sé Cup - and the Sam Maguire.

As has been well covered by now, they also have an incredible record under Jack O'Connor, having managed to follow every league title under the manager with an All-Ireland triumph later in the year. This is the first time, however, they've done back-to-back league finals under O'Connor.

A win today could precede a first ever back-to-back of All-Irelands under the current manager, but that's for the future.

They've run an impressive league race this year, so far, with four wins and two draws from seven games.

They had to show character to overcome Roscommon in controversial circumstances on day one, should have beaten Galway in Tralee, eased past Dublin at Croke Park, showed little mercy against Monaghan in Killarney, obliterated Mayo on home turf before taking the point they needed against Armagh, including some intense late defending, to assure themselves of a final spot.

Coming off an All-Ireland final victory, it can be easy to be nonplussed by the following year's league campaign, but it's clear that if Kerry took their foot off the pedal at all, they were still better than most sides in the country.

And this is a campaign that has been disrupted by injury to one of their chief play-makers, Paudie Clifford.

"Their game, when they're at their best, is at a level above anybody else," as Enda McGinley recently put it on the RTÉ GAA Podcast.

The one league game we haven't mentioned in the spring is their defeat. It came away to today's opponents back in game week two, as the Munster men were turned over by four-points in Ballyshannon.

This Kerry team are just far too good to allow a pattern of defeats to develop against anyone, so while the manager or players might speak publicly about a league title not being important, on the field this afternoon, you'd expect them to bring a big performance.

Route to the final - Kerry

Round 1: Kerry 2-18 Roscommon 1-20

Round 2: Donegal 1-22 Kerry 1-18

Round 3: Kerry 2-17 Galway 3-14

Round 4: Dublin 1-10 Kerry 1-16

Round 5: Roscommon 2-7 Dublin 1-21

Round 6: Kerry 2-29 Mayo 0-19

Round 7: Armagh 1-21 Kerry 0-24

Not quite revenge for Donegal but bragging rights

Donegal are in the league final this year after Jim McGuinness's fairly startling complaint 13 months ago, that the competition can't be won by every county.

"I think it's disingenuous in many respects to create a format that doesn’t allow people to go after it properly," he told the media after his side beat Derry in Ballyshannon.

Of course McGuiness was more or less correct. The Tír Chonaill men would have been facing into their Ulster opener just a week after the date picked for the league final last year. The four-week gap to their meeting with Down this year, however, opened up a window to go after a spot in this showpiece game.

Tyrone and Armagh managers Malachy O'Rourke and Kieran McGeeney, who meet in the Ulster opener in two weeks, might have found themselves agreeing with McGuinness's views from last year, but that's a discussion for another day.

Like Kerry, Donegal fell to just one defeat in their campaign, that coming in the second-to-last game against Roscommon, but they did manage an additional victory.

They beat everyone else, bar Galway, who they drew with, and they secured a victory against Dublin on their first trip to Croke Park after last year's All-Ireland. After that disappointment, when they couldn't get to grips with Kerry's attacking threats, a return to the venue to face the team that beat them will surely rise a performance from the Ulster men.

Donegal have only claimed Division 1 honours once in the entire history of the competition. That was back in 2007, so there's a little bit of history on offer for this group of players today.

They, like Kerry, have the provincial trophy - in their case the Anglo-Celt Cup - in the cabinet from last year, so they'd surely love to take one of Kerry's national trophies before six o'clock this evening.

Route to the final - Donegal

Round 1: Dublin 0-20 Donegal 1-20

Round 2: Donegal 1-22 Kerry 1-18

Round 3: Donegal 1-19 Mayo 0-14

Round 4: Armagh 0-19 Donegal 1-20

Round 5: Donegal 1-17 Galway 0-20

Round 6: Roscommon 2-20 Donegal 0-20

Round 7: Monaghan 3-15 Donegal 3-20

Ciarán Whelan's view

"I think both teams will be looking for a performance," said 1999 league final runners-up medallist Ciarán Whelan on this week's RTÉ GAA Podcast.

"I think both managers have been quite vocal in the last few weeks saying they weren't too bothered about it, but that's probably just throwing that out there into the media circles.

"Donegal will be trying one or two things to see if there are any weaknesses in the Kerry set-up.

"Kerry are coming into it without Paudie Clifford, so they nearly have a ready-made excuse if things don't go their way.

"If you get the Donegal team that was very fluent and really on top of their game in that first three or four league games versus the Kerry team that has played (well), particularly against Mayo, we will get a very, very entertaining game.

"But just that ruthless efficiency of Kerry in front of goal... midfield is going to be massive.

"Joe O'Connor is back moving very well and if Donegal get (Jason) McGee and (Michael) Langan in there to try and disrupt that a bit, that might help Donegal.

"But you'd have to give Kerry the edge."

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