Champions again! Kerry edge Wexford in All-Ireland decider

Kerry captain, Dick Fitzgerald, describes rivals as 'the coming champions'

Kerry has defeated Wexford the win the All-Ireland football title.

Earlier today, before an attendance of about 20,000 spectators at Croke Memorial Park, the Munster men ran out winners on a score line of 2-2 to 0-3. From the outset, the pace was fast but the football unspectacular. For long periods - the first and last quarters of the match - not a single score was recorded. And yet, this was a game where the standard improved as the tussle wore on, the second half serving up as fine an exhibition of the sport as has ever been witnessed.

The referee, M.F. Crowe, remarked afterwards that the game was as fast as any he had officiated before. ‘A fine battle of styles’, he summarised. ‘Defence on both sides very good. Some splendid individual play.’

The scores that divided the teams in the end were the two goals, one scored in either half. The first, netted by Kerry Captain Dick Fitzgerald, helped the Kerrymen to a half-time lead of 1-1 to 0-1. The second was scored on 45 minutes, the final touch coming from J Skinner after a free by Healy and a pass from Rice.

The result, The Irish Independent has claimed, is proof that Kerry remain the ‘best exponents of Gaelic football in the country’, adding that when they ‘are in earnest they are practically unbeatable’. 

And yet, Wexford, who were better than the final score-line suggested, were neither downbeat nor disheartened in the face of defeat. ‘I thought we had more of the ball than Kerry had’, Jem Roche, their trainer and former contender for World boxing honours, remarked afterwards. ‘We should learn a lot from today’s game.' Roche’s assessment was one broadly shared by Dick Fitzgerald. ‘Wexford gave us a game we won’t forget in a hurry. If they keep going on in their present form they’re the coming champions.’

Following the game, Fitzgerald was presented with a massive silver cup by Mr E.A. Neale, the General Manager of the Great Southern and Western Railway Company.

Today’s final brought a close to a remarkable year for Gaelic football. Already this year the Jones’s Road venue has played host to the epic draw and replay of the Croke Memorial Tournament . Those games attracted huge public interest and delivered spectacular gates for the GAA and yesterday’s game will only have served to further enhance the reputation of the game.

Today’s crowd, which included a ‘very strong muster of ladies’ and leading Irish Party MP, John Dillon, came from all across the country. Thirty-one special trains ran into Dublin for the occasion, the largest number coming from Wexford and adjoining counties on services laid on by the Dublin and South Eastern Railway system. When the gates opened at noon, two and half hours before the Mayor of Wexford threw the ball in, two thousand spectators filed through the turnstiles.