Connacht Senior Football Championship

Connacht GAA Football Senior Championship
Current season or competition: 2024 Connacht Senior Football Championship
Irish	Craobh Sinsir Peile Connachta
Code	Gaelic football
Founded	1888; 136 years ago (1888)
Region	Connacht (GAA)
No. of teams	7
Most titles	Galway/Mayo (48 titles)
Sponsors	SuperValu, Eir, AIB
TV partner(s)	RTÉ Sky Sports
Motto	Be there. All the way.
Official website	Official website

The Connacht Senior Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football competition for the senior county teams of Connacht GAA. All of the counties of Connacht participate in the championship, as well as counties London and New York. The winning team receives the Nestor Cup.^[1]

The Connacht Senior Football Championship is run on a knock-out basis in which they are eliminated from the competition. A series of games are played during the summer months and the final is played in June or July. The winners and runners-up progresses directly to the All-Ireland Group Stage. (before 2020, all losing teams progress to the All-Ireland Qualifiers and before 2001 the All-Ireland was a straight knock-out format meaning all losing teams were eliminated after a single defeat).

Galway are the two time title-holders, defeating Sligo by 2-20 to 0-12 in the 2023 final.

History

Galway are Connacht's most successful county with 9 All Ireland titles. Roscommon have won the competition 24 times, most recently in 2019. Sligo have won the Nestor cup three times, most recently in 2007, while Leitrim have won the competition twice, most recently in 1994. The competing counties play for the JJ Nestor Cup, which is presented to the winning captain on Connacht Final Day.

London have competed in the Connacht Senior Football Championship since 1975, while New York joined in 1999. In this time London have managed three victories: one in 1977 and two in 2013, against Sligo and Leitrim.^[2][3][4] New York recorded their first and only victory in the championship over Leitrim in 2023.^[5]

Connacht championship moments

• Leitrim 0-12 - 2-04 Mayo (24 July 1994):
• Sligo 1-10 - 0-12 Galway (8 July 2007):
• Mayo 5-11 - 0-10 London (21 July 2013):
• New York 0-15 pen - 0-15 Leitrim (8 April 2023):

Teams

2024 Championship

Seven counties will compete in the 2024 Connacht Senior Football Championship: the five counties in the Irish province of Connacht and the two foreign-based teams of London and New York.

County	Location	Stadium	Province	Pos. 2023	Champ. titles	Last champ. title	All-Ire. titles	Last All-Ire. title
Galway	Galway	Pearse Stadium	Connacht	Champions	49	2023	9	2001
Leitrim	Carrick-on-Shannon	Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada	Connacht	Quarter-finals	2	1994	0	—
London	South Ruislip	McGovern Park	Britain	Quarter-finals	0	—	0	—
Mayo	Castlebar	MacHale Park	Connacht	Quarter-finals	48	2021	3	1951
New York	Bronx	Gaelic Park	North America	Semi-finals	0	—	0	—
Roscommon	Roscommon	Dr Hyde Park	Connacht	Semi-finals	24	2019	2	1944
Sligo	Sligo	Markievicz Park	Connacht	Runners-up	3	2007	0	—

Personnel and kits

County	Manager	Captain(s)	Sponsors
Galway	Pádraic Joyce	Seán Kelly	Supermac's
Leitrim	Andy Moran	Donal Wrynn	J. P. Clarke's Saloon, New York
London	Michael Maher	Liam Gavaghan	Clayton Hotel
Mayo	Kevin McStay	Paddy Durcan	Intersport Elverys
New York	Johnny McGeeney	Johnny Glynn	Navillus
Roscommon	Davy Burke	Brian Stack	Ballymore
Sligo	Tony McEntee	Keelan Cawley	AbbVie

Venues

Stadia and locations

County	Location	Province	Stadium	Capacity
Galway	Galway	Connacht	Pearse Stadium	26,197
Leitrim	Carrick-on-Shannon	Connacht	Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada	9,331
London	South Ruislip	Britain	McGovern Park	3,000
Mayo	Castlebar	Connacht	MacHale Park	25,369
New York	Bronx	North America	Gaelic Park	2,000
Roscommon	Roscommon	Connacht	Dr Hyde Park	18,890
Sligo	Sligo	Connacht	Markievicz Park	18,558

Managers

Managers in the Connacht Championship are involved in the day-to-day running of the team, including the training, team selection, and sourcing of players from the club championships. Their influence varies from county-to-county and is related to the individual county boards. From 2018, all inter-county head coaches must be Award 2 qualified. The manager is assisted by a team of two or three selectors and an extensive backroom team consisting of various coaches. Prior to the development of the concept of a manager in the 1970s, teams were usually managed by a team of selectors with one member acting as chairman.

Winning managers (1983–2023)

#	Manager(s)	Winning team(s)	Titles(s)	Winning years
1	John O'Mahony	Mayo Leitrim Galway	8	1988, 1989, 2009 1994 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003
2	James Horan	Mayo	6	2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2020, 2021
3	John Maughan	Mayo	4	1996, 1997, 1999, 2004
4	Mattie McDonagh	Galway	2	1982, 1983
	Martin McDermott	Roscommon	2	1990, 1991
	Jack O'Shea	Mayo	2	1992, 1993
	Kevin Walsh	Galway	2	2016, 2018
	Pádraic Joyce	Galway	2	2022, 2023
9	Tony Regan	Galway	1	1984
	Liam O'Neill	Mayo	1	1985
	Cyril Dunne	Galway	1	1986
	Willie Joyce	Galway	1	1987
	Bosco McDermott	Galway	1	1995
	John Tobin	Roscommon	1	2001
	Peter Ford	Galway	1	2005
	Mickey Moran	Mayo	1	2006
	Tommy Breheny	Sligo	1	2007
	Liam Sammon	Galway	1	2008
	Fergal O'Donnell	Roscommon	1	2010
	Noel Connelly	Mayo	1	2015
	Pat Holmes
	Kevin McStay	Roscommon	1	2017
	Anthony Cunningham	Roscommon	1	2019
	Brian McEniff	Sligo	1	1975

Roll of honour

• Golden background – Connacht champions also won the All-Ireland Championship.

County	Title(s)	Runners-Up	Years won	Years runners-up
Galway	48	34	1900, 1902, 1911, 1913, 1917, 1919, 1922, 1925, 1926, 1933, 1934, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1945, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2016, 2018, 2022, 2023	1901, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1912, 1918, 1923, 1924, 1927, 1929, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1939, 1943, 1948, 1951, 1961, 1962, 1969, 1977, 1978, 1990, 1996, 1999, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2014, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021
Mayo	48	34	1901, 1904, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1920, 1921, 1923, 1924, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1939, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1955, 1967, 1969, 1981, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2020, 2021	1903, 1905, 1913, 1917, 1925, 1926, 1928, 1933, 1934, 1938, 1940, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1952, 1953, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1991, 1994, 1995, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2008
Roscommon	24	25	1892, 1903, 1905, 1912, 1914, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1947, 1952, 1953, 1961, 1962, 1972, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1990, 1991, 2001, 2010, 2017, 2019	1906, 1911, 1915, 1916, 1919, 1925, 1931, 1941, 1942, 1950, 1955, 1970, 1974, 1976, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1998, 2011, 2016, 2018, 2022
Sligo	3	16	1928, 1975, 2007	1920, 1922, 1930, 1932, 1947, 1954, 1956, 1965, 1971, 1981, 1997, 2002, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2023
Leitrim	2	9	1927, 1994	1914, 1949, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1963, 1967, 2000
London	0	1	-	2013

List of finals

Notes:

• 1888-1891 No Connacht representative in All-Ireland series
• 1892 Roscommon represented the province
• 1893-1899 No Connacht representative in All-Ireland series
• 1900 Galway unopposed
• 1902 Galway unopposed
• 1946 Objection and counter-objection. Replay ordered
• 1939 Game unfinished - awarded to Mayo
• 1922 Objection - refixed

Team records and statistics

Team results

Legend

• 1st – Champions
• 2nd – Runners-up
• SF/QF/PR – Semi-Finals/Quarter-Finals/Preliminary round

County	2013 (7)	2014 (7)	2015 (7)	2016 (7)	2017 (7)	2018 (7)	2019 (7)	2020 (4)	2021 (5)	2022 (7)	2023 (7)	Years
Galway	QF	2nd	SF	1st	2nd	1st	2nd	2nd	2nd	1st	1st	11
Leitrim	SF	QF	QF	QF	SF	SF	QF	QF	SF	SF	QF	11
London	2nd	QF	QF	QF	QF	QF	QF	—	—	QF	QF	9
Mayo	1st	1st	1st	SF	SF	QF	SF	1st	1st	QF	QF	11
New York	QF	QF	PR	PR	PR	QF	QF	—	—	QF	SF	9
Roscommon	SF	SF	SF	2nd	1st	2nd	1st	SF	SF	2nd	SF	11
Sligo	QF	SF	2nd	SF	QF	SF	SF	—	QF	SF	2nd	10

Debut of counties

Year	Debutants	Total
1900	Galway	1
1901	Mayo, Roscommon	2
1902-04	None	0
1905	Sligo	1
1906	Leitrim	1
1907-74	None	0
1975	London	1
1976-98	None	0
1999	New York	1
2000-	None	0
Total		7

List of Connacht Senior Football Championship counties

The following teams have competed in the Connacht Championship for at least one season.

Winning teams

Most recent championship meetings

• COVID-19 caused the following games to be cancelled in 2020: Galway's games against both New York and Sligo, Roscommon's game against London, and in 2021: Mayo playing London and Roscommon playing New York meant that 2021 was a fresh draw.
• In 2024, Galway vs London, Mayo vs New York.
• In 2025, Roscommon vs London, Galway vs New York.
• In 2026, Mayo vs London, Roscommon vs New York.
• In 2027, Sligo vs New York, Leitrim vs London.
• In 2028, Sligo vs London, Leitrim vs New York same as 2023.

Consecutive titles

Quintuple

• Mayo (1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910)
• Galway (1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960)
• Mayo (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)

Quadruple

• Mayo (1929, 1930, 1931, 1932)
• Mayo (1948, 1949, 1950, 1951)
• Galway (1963, 1964, 1965, 1966)
• Roscommon (1977, 1978, 1979, 1980)

Treble

• Mayo (1935, 1936, 1937)
• Galway (1940, 1941, 1942)
• Galway (1982, 1983, 1984)

Double

• Mayo (1915, 1916)
• Mayo (1920, 1921)
• Mayo (1923, 1924)
• Galway (1925, 1926)
• Galway (1933, 1934)
• Roscommon (1943, 1944)
• Roscommon (1946, 1947)
• Roscommon (1952, 1953)
• Roscommon (1961, 1962)
• Galway (1970, 1971)
• Galway (1973, 1974)
• Galway (1986, 1987)
• Mayo (1988, 1989)
• Roscommon (1990, 1991)
• Mayo (1992, 1993)
• Mayo (1996, 1997)
• Galway (2002, 2003)
• Mayo (2020, 2021)
• Galway (2022, 2023)

Single

• Galway (1900, 1902, 1911, 1913, 1917, 1919, 1922, 1938, 1945, 1954, 1968, 1976, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2016, 2018)
• Mayo (1901, 1904, 1918, 1939, 1955, 1967, 1969, 1981, 1985, 1999, 2004, 2006, 2009)
• Roscommon (1892, 1903, 1905, 1912, 1914, 1972, 2001, 2010, 2017, 2019)
• Sligo (1928, 1975, 2007)
• Leitrim (1927, 1994)

By decade

The most successful team of each decade, judged by number of Connacht Senior Football Championship titles, is as follows:

• 1900s: 6 for
  Mayo (1901, 04, 06, 07, 08, 09)
• 1910s: 4 each for
  Mayo (1910, 15, 16, 18) and
  Galway (1911, 13, 17, 19)
• 1920s: 5 for
  Mayo (1920, 21, 23, 24, 29)
• 1930s: 7 for
  Mayo (1930, 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 39)
• 1940s: 4 each for
  Mayo (40, 41, 42, 45) and
  Roscommon (1943, 44, 46, 47)
• 1950s: 5 for
  Galway (1954, 56, 57, 58, 59)
• 1960s: 6 for
  Galway (1960, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68)
• 1970s: 5 for
  Galway (1970, 71, 73, 74, 76)
• 1980s: 5 for
  Galway (1982, 83, 84, 86, 87)
• 1990s: 5 for
  Mayo (1992, 93, 96, 97, 99)
• 2000s: 5 for
  Galway (2000, 02, 03, 05, 08)
• 2010s: 5 for
  Mayo (2011, 12, 13, 14, 15)
• 2020s: 2 each for
  Mayo (2020, 21) and
  Galway (2022, 23)

Other records

Final success rate

No counties have appeared in the final, being victorious on all occasions.

On the opposite end of the scale, one county has appeared in the final, losing on each occasion:

• London (2013)

Gaps

• Longest gaps between successive Connacht titles:
  • 67 years:
    Leitrim (1927–1994)
  • 47 years:
    Sligo (1928–1975)
  • 32 years:
    Sligo (1975–2007)
  • 29 years:
    Roscommon (1914–1943)
  • 12 years:
    Mayo (1955–1967)
  • 12 years:
    Mayo (1969–1981)
  • 11 years:
    Roscommon (1892–1903)
  • 10 years:
    Roscommon (1962–1972)
  • 10 years:
    Roscommon (1980–1990)
  • 10 years:
    Roscommon (1991–2001)
• Longest gaps between successive Connacht finals:
  • 27 years:
    Leitrim (1967–1994)
  • 22 years:
    Leitrim (1927–1949)
  • 16 years:
    Sligo (1981–1997)
  • 15 years:
    Sligo (1932–1947)
  • 13 years:
    Leitrim (1914–1927)
  • 11 years:
    Roscommon (1892–1903)
  • 10 years:
    Roscommon (1931–1941)

Active gaps

• Longest active gaps since a championship title:
  • 30 years:
    Leitrim (1994–)
  • 17 years:
    Sligo (2007–)
  • 5 years:
    Roscommon (2019–)
  • 3 years:
    Mayo (2021–)
  • 1 year:
    Galway (2023–)
• Longest active gap since a championship final appearance:
  • 24 years:
    Leitrim (2000–)
  • 11 years:
    London (2013–)
  • 3 years:
    Mayo (2021–)
  • 2 years:
    Roscommon (2022–)
  • 1 year:
    Galway (2023–)
  • 1 year:
    Sligo (2023–)

See also

• All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
  • Leinster Senior Football Championship
  • Munster Senior Football Championship
  • Ulster Senior Football Championship

References

This page was last edited on 8 April 2024, at 02:06