{"id":431816,"date":"2026-05-04T13:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T13:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/431816\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T13:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T13:43:10","slug":"kerry-play-donegal-in-first-round-dublin-and-louth-to-meet-again-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/431816\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerry play Donegal in first round, Dublin and Louth to meet again \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, Round One pairings:<\/p>\n

Kerry v Donegal<\/p>\n

Dublin v Louth<\/p>\n

Armagh v Derry<\/p>\n

Monaghan v Mayo<\/p>\n

Roscommon v Tyrone<\/p>\n

Galway v Kildare<\/p>\n

Cork v Meath<\/p>\n

Westmeath v Cavan<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all from me for today, thanks for following along.<\/p>\n

As a parting gift, I\u2019ll leave you all with Gordon Manning\u2019s The Weekend That Was:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the tunnel beneath the Gerry Arthurs Stand, midway through his post-match interview on Armagh\u2019s record-breaking victory, Kieran McGeeney was asked about his goalkeeper.<\/p>\n

\"ArmaghArmagh goalkeeper Blaine Hughes signs autographs after their win over Tyrone last month. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cGiven Armagh had just set a new scoring record of 42 points in an Ulster senior football championship game, it might have been a peculiar line of questioning.<\/p>\n

\u201cArmagh had 12 different scorers against Down. Blaine Hughes was not one of them. But none of what happened in the provincial semi-final would have been possible with their goalkeeper. He was their platform, their launch pad. Hughes provided Armagh with the ammunition to shoot the lights out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Gordon\u2019s analysis in full below:<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Goalkeeper jersey is not for keeps any more as counties continue rotational policyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Before we part ways, we might as well do a quick run through how the championship format will play out from here.<\/p>\n

After these Round One games, the eight winners go to Round 2A and the eight losers going to Round 2B.<\/p>\n

In Round 2A, the eight first-round winning teams will be drawn against each other, with repeats of the provincial final pairings avoided. The same will be the case in Round 2B among the eight round-one losing teams. In both 2A and 2B, the first team drawn will have home advantage.<\/p>\n

Round 3 will take the four losing teams from Round 2A and draw them against the four winning teams from Round 2B. Again, the draw will, where possible, avoid pairing counties that met in provincial finals.<\/p>\n

The four winners of Round 2A go straight to the quarter-finals, sitting out the third round. They\u2019ll be drawn against the four Round 3 winners with the draw first attempting to avoid repeating provincial final pairings and then, where possible, pairings from Rounds 1 and 2.<\/p>\n

From there, it\u2019s the regular dash to the Sam Maguire Cup, with this year\u2019s All-Ireland final to be played on Sunday, July 26th.<\/p>\n

Those eight games will be staged over the last two weekends of May.<\/p>\n

The Munster and Connacht finals are being played this weekend, so the first round ties involving those four counties will be played on the weekend of May 23rd\/24th.<\/p>\n

The Ulster and Leinster deciders will be played on May 17th, so the first round games involving those four counties will be on the weekend of May 30th\/31st to allow them a week off before starting in to the All-Ireland series.<\/p>\n

May 23rd\/24th:<\/p>\n

Kerry v Donegal<\/p>\n

Cork v Meath<\/p>\n

Roscommon v Tyrone<\/p>\n

Galway v Kildare<\/p>\n

May 30th\/31st:<\/p>\n

Dublin v Louth<\/p>\n

Westmeath v Cavan<\/p>\n

Monaghan v Mayo <\/p>\n

Armagh v Derry<\/p>\n

Lovely stuff. Here\u2019s confirmation of the Round 1 ties:<\/p>\n

Dublin v Louth<\/p>\n

Cork v Meath<\/p>\n

Monaghan v Mayo<\/p>\n

Westmeath v Cavan <\/p>\n

Kerry v Donegal<\/p>\n

Galway v Kildare<\/p>\n

Armagh v Derry<\/p>\n

Roscommon v Tyrone<\/p>\n

Dublin first out.. They\u2019ll play Louth.<\/p>\n

Next out is Cork.. They\u2019ll play Meath.<\/p>\n

Monaghan next, they\u2019ll play Mayo.<\/p>\n

Westmeath draw Cavan.<\/p>\n

Kerry to face Donegal. Another repeat.<\/p>\n

Galway draw Kildare.<\/p>\n

Armagh get Derry.<\/p>\n

Leaving Roscommon to face Tyrone.<\/p>\n

At last, here we go.<\/p>\n

GAA ard sti\u00farth\u00f3ir Tom Ryan and Central Competitions Control Committee chairperson Brian Carroll are in to help with the draw process.<\/p>\n

Paddy Andrews has promised that we\u2019ll go to the draw after a quick bit of reaction from Monaghan\u2019s man of the moment Rory Beggan and manager Gabriel Bannigan.<\/p>\n

The lads on GAA+ are on to discussing the last of the four provincial semi-finals that were played this weekend so we should be moving on to the All-Ireland draw shortly.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll be joined by GAA ard sti\u00farth\u00f3ir Tom Ryan for the draw.<\/p>\n

In the weekly Inside Gaelic Games newsletter, our writers picked out five things they learned from the weekend\u2019s action.<\/p>\n

Dublin getting back on track, Monaghan knowing their stuff, and the Division 3 conundrum were among the talking points this time around.<\/p>\n

Read the analysis from Denis Walsh, Malachy Clerkin, Se\u00e1n Moran and Gordon Manning below, and you can sign up to receive the Inside Gaelic Games newsletter straight to your inbox each Monday at the top of the page.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Dublin out to reclaim Leinster throne: Five things we learned from the GAA weekendOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In case you missed the weekend\u2019s football results, here\u2019s how things panned out:<\/p>\n

Leinster SFC semi-finals:<\/p>\n

Dublin 0-20 Louth 0-10 (report<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Westmeath 2-21 Kildare 0-23; aet (report<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Ulster SFC semi-finals:<\/p>\n

Monaghan 1-30 Derry 3-23; aet (report<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Armagh 3-33 Down 0-14 (report<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Paddy Andrews in the host seat tells us the draw will take place in about 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

First, they\u2019re going to chat through the weekend\u2019s action. Andrews is joined by Donegal\u2019s Patrick McBrearty and Meath\u2019s Shane McEntee.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll forgive them for the slight delay. Looks like we\u2019re about to get this show on the road after a little musical interlude.<\/p>\n

Five minutes until the draw gets under way.<\/p>\n

For anyone just joining us, here\u2019s what\u2019s happening:<\/p>\n

Draw details:<\/p>\n

Eight provincial finalists to be drawn against eight top-ranked non-provincial finalists from the leagueOpen draw, with provincial finalists having home advantageDraw to be live streamed on GAA+ and YouTube (can be viewed at the top of this page when the draw gets under way)<\/p>\n

Teams:<\/p>\n

Bowl 1 (Provincial finalists)<\/p>\n

Galway, Roscommon, Dublin, Westmeath, Cork, Kerry, Armagh, Monaghan<\/p>\n

Bowl 2 (League-ranked)<\/p>\n

Donegal, Mayo, Meath, Louth, Derry, Tyrone, Cavan, *Kildare<\/p>\n

The eight first-round games will be played over two weekends: May 23rd\/24th and May 30th\/31st.<\/p>\n

The ties involving the Munster and Connacht finalists will be played on May 23rd\/24th, as those provincial finals are both down for decision this Sunday (May 10th). <\/p>\n

The games involving the Ulster and Leinster finalists will be played on May 30th\/31st as those deciders will be played on May 17th.<\/p>\n

Kildare are in the non-provincial finalists lot today despite finishing the league outside the top eight among non-provincial finalists.<\/p>\n

\"Kildare’sKildare\u2019s Kevin Feely lifts the Tailteann cup after last season’s win over Limerick. Photograph: Tom O\u2019Hanlon\/Inpho <\/p>\n

That\u2019s because they won the Taileann Cup last year, guaranteeing them a spot in this year\u2019s All-Ireland series.<\/p>\n

The eight remaining counties are in the draw due to their ranking following this year\u2019s National Football League and last year\u2019s Tailteann Cup (more on that later).<\/p>\n

At the end of the league, all the counties were ranked based on where they finished in their division, and in light of promotions\/relegations.<\/p>\n

\"Donegal'sDonegal’s joint captains Michael Langan and Shane O’Donnell lift the M\u00edche\u00e1l \u00d3 Muircheartaigh Memorial Cup after their NFL Division 1 win over Kerry in March. Photograph: James Crombie\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Of course, many of our provincial finalists rank highly in that regard, so they\u2019ve been taken out of consideration and instead we get the top-ranked counties from the league that haven\u2019t qualified for a provincial final.<\/p>\n

They are: (overall end-of-league ranking)<\/p>\n

Donegal (first), Mayo (third), Meath (seventh), Louth (11th), Derry (12th), Tyrone (13th), Cavan (14th), *Kildare (17th).<\/p>\n

Eight of the counties involved in today\u2019s draw are here by virtue of reaching their respective provincial finals.<\/p>\n

They are:<\/p>\n

Connacht \u2013 Galway & Roscommon<\/p>\n

Leinster \u2013 Dublin & Westmeath<\/p>\n

Munster \u2013 Cork & Kerry<\/p>\n

Ulster \u2013 Armagh & Monaghan<\/p>\n

\"RoryRory Beggan celebrates his free to seal Monaghan’s win over Derry in Saturday’s Ulster semi-final. Photograph: Tom O\u2019Hanlon\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Afternoon all! Welcome along to The Irish Times blog for the first-round draw for the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.<\/p>\n

Sixteen teams are waiting to learn their opening-round Sam Maguire opponents, with eight ties to be set up.<\/p>\n

The draw is due to get started at 1pm. <\/p>\n

Draw details:<\/p>\n

Eight provincial finalists to be drawn against seven top-ranked non-provincial finalists from the league and last year\u2019s Tailteann Cup winners, KildareOpen draw, with provincial finalists having home advantageDraw to be live streamed on GAA+ and YouTube (can be viewed at the top of this page when the draw gets under way)<\/p>\n

Teams:<\/p>\n

Bowl 1 (Provincial finalists)<\/p>\n

Galway, Roscommon, Dublin, Westmeath, Cork, Kerry, Armagh, Monaghan<\/p>\n

Bowl 2 (League-ranked)<\/p>\n

Donegal, Mayo, Meath, Louth, Derry, Tyrone, Cavan, *Kildare<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, Round One pairings: Kerry v Donegal Dublin v Louth Armagh v Derry Monaghan v…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4365,110979,4183,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-431816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-gaelic-football","tag-football-championship","tag-gaa","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}