All-Ireland Football Final: Mayo v Tyrone - By The Numbers

Malachy Clerkin opens the record books ahead of Saturday night’s decider


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All-Ireland medals already won by the Mayo and Tyrone players. It’s the first time since 2012 that an All-Ireland final takes place with no All-Ireland winners on the pitch.

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– Lee Keegan goals in All-Ireland finals. Nobody else has scored a Mayo goal in a final since Andy Moran in 2013.

– Sets of brothers in the Mayo panel – Paddy and James Durcan and Aidan and Conor O'Shea. The last All-Ireland final not to feature a set of brothers at any stage was Cork v Meath in 1999.

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– All-Ireland final victories for Tyrone: 2003, 2005, 2008.

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– All-Ireland final defeats for Tyrone: 1986, 1995, 2018.

– All-Ireland final victories for Mayo: 1936, 1950, 1951.

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All-Ireland final defeats for Mayo: 1916, 1921, 1932, 1948, 1989, 1996, 1997, 2004, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2020. This only puts them third in the all-time list. Cork lie in second on 16 final losses. And nobody has lost more All-Ireland finals than Kerry (23).

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– Goal-less matches in the 2021 championship, down from six the previous year. Two involved Dublin. Tyrone and Mayo were involved in one each.

– Tyrone players to have scored a goal in an All-Ireland final. Paudge Quinn (1986), Peter Canavan (2005), Tommy McGuigan (2008), Peter Harte (2018, penalty).

– Finals since the turn of the 21st century not to have featured either Dublin or Kerry or both. The 1990s were known as the revolution years in hurling but there was huge novelty in the football championship too – six finals in that decade alone had neither of the two big guns in them. The empire has struck back with extreme prejudice in this century.

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Finals in the history of the football championship to feature a Connacht v Ulster clash. The score so far is Ulster 3 (Cavan in 1933 and 1948, Donegal in 2012) v Connacht 2 (Galway in 1925 and Roscommon in 1943).

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All-Ireland final matches – including the 2016 replay – played in by Lee Keegan, Aidan O’Shea, Cillian O’Connor and Kevin McLoughlin. They jointly hold the record for All-Ireland final appearances without a win.

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Points needed for Darren McCurry to catch Seán O’Shea as the 2021 championship’s top scorer. In five of the last eight seasons, Cillian O’Connor has topped the charts. Ryan O’Donoghue needs 10 points to catch O’Shea – which either means extra-time, a replay or a man-of-the-match award for O’Donoghue. Possibly all three.

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Tyrone will be the 10th different county Mayo have met in an All-Ireland final. Previously, they have come up against Wexford, Dublin, Laois, Louth, Meath, Cavan, Cork, Kerry and Donegal. Mayo will be the fourth different county Tyrone have met in a final – they’ve come up against Kerry, Dublin and Armagh before.

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– Place on the roll of honour held by both Mayo and Tyrone with three All-Irelands apiece. One of them will move up to join Tipperary and Kildare in a tie for ninth place when this is all over.

– Different clubs represented in Tyrone’s likely starting line-up. Edendork (three), Coalisland (two) and Pomeroy (two) will have multiple starters and eight others will have one.

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Different clubs represented in Mayo’s likely starting line-up. Ballintubber (three) and Breaffy (two) look set to have multiple starters and 10 others will have one

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Seconds it took for Dublin to score a goal against Mayo in last year's final. In four of Mayo's six final matches since 2012, the first score they've conceded has been a goal. Three of the six fastest goals in All-Ireland final history have been scored against Mayo in the past decade – Dean Rock in 2020, Con O'Callaghan in 2017, Michael Murphy in 2012.

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Kevin McLoughlin will be the oldest player on the pitch at 33. Lee Keegan, Aidan O'Shea and Rob Hennelly are the other players over 30 in the Mayo team. On the Tyrone side, Peter Harte will be 31 in a couple of months, making him the oldest in the squad. Niall Morgan, Mattie Donnelly and Tiernan McCann are all in their fourth decade as well.

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The current record, in years, between All-Ireland titles. Louth’s won their second All-Ireland in 1912 and had to wait until 1957 for their third. Should Mayo finally do it this year, they will extend that record to a whopping 70.

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This will be the 62nd new pairing in an All-Ireland football final since the competition began (hat-tip to the magnificent @GAA_Stats account for running the numbers). Since Limerick v Cork in the hurling was also a new pairing for a final, this is the first time there have been two unique final pairings in the same year since 1995.