STAT ATTACK: What the numbers can tell us about the All-Ireland final

“How can Sam Maguire, the father of Irish football, so viciously discriminate between two equally strapping soldier sons?”

Those were the words of an RTÉ promotion ahead of the 2017 final between the counties, and they ring true to this day.

Winning is in the DNA of the Kerry men just down the Atlantic coast, who sit clear atop the throne. A whopping 39 Sam Maguire successes mean you can’t move for Celtic Crosses in Killarney, Tralee, and Dingle.

For Mayo, meetings with Lady Luck have been few and far between. Only four counties can better their 18 final-day appearances, but they have by far the worst success rate of any champion (17 per cent).

TOP OF THE PILE

Moving on from the history books, it’s time to focus on the here and now. Both sides have played a total of seven fixtures across the season, having had two in their provinces, and both had to go the long route to reach the quarter-finals.

Team bosses Andy Moran and Jack O'Connor have made full use of their squad depth over the course of their journey through the backdoor. Andy Moran has handed out 31 appearances, while Jack O’Connor has used 29 players to date.

Of those 31 for the Green and Red, 16 have managed to trouble the scoreboard operator. It doesn’t take a footballing genius to guess that Ryan O’Donoghue is top of the pile.

His 2-51 across seven appearances gives him an average of 8.14 points per game, while his 2-26 from play (4.57 points per game) also sees him top the ‘from play’ charts, narrowly trailed by one Kobe McDonald.

The Belmullet battler is only bettered across the whole country in 2026 by one man. David Clifford is among the greatest to ever lace up a pair of boots, boasting an average of nine per game from his 7-42 tally.

Unsurprisingly, Fossa’s finest tops his county’s charts from open play also, with 7-28 to his name and an average of seven per game.

TIGHT MARGINS

Precisely 22 players have scored at least one point in 2026.

The reigning, defending kings hold the edge in terms of attacking and defending, albeit by a wafer-thin margin.

The challengers have scored 25.3 points per game and conceded 21.3. Kerry, on the other hand, have scored on average 26.1 points and shipped 20.3. Mayo have narrowly scored more than Kerry in a single game. A 3-23 haul the last day out against Louth sees them marginally eclipse Kerry’s 3-22 and 2-25 returns against Kildare and Tyrone respectively.

On Mayo’s most fallow days (1-18 against both Tyrone and Roscommon), they also managed to score more than Kerry’s lowest return of 0-16 against Donegal.

That day against Tír Chonaill, when they lost by ten points, is the only defeat that Kerry have suffered this campaign.

Mayo’s heaviest loss was the ten-point loss to Roscommon, while their one-point Omagh loss was their narrowest margin of defeat.

The Roscommon loss was the game in which they conceded the most (2-25), while the 2-20 Kerry conceded against Donegal remains their worst day at the office defensively.

Their best is the 1-14 against Clare, while Mayo were watertight to only ship 0-15 against Louth.

Both have only made two appearances in Croker to date, though Kerry will be able to draw on the League final and last year’s run to the All-Ireland decider.

TOE-TO-TOE

Lastly, we’ll touch on All-Stars. Mayo have a total of seven gongs in their dressing room. However, the men swaggering into Croke Park with a fistful of medals also possess no shortage of national acclaim, with 25 All-Stars to their name.

All of those facts and figures can be dissected and pored over until the cows come home.

However, if the 15 privileged souls in those white Mayo jerseys can go toe-to-toe with the 15 wily Kerry men staring them down, then they stand 70 minutes away from etching their names in history.

MAYO TOP SCORERS

1: RYAN O’DONOGHUE 2-51 (16f, 4tpf, 1m)

2: KOBE MCDONALD 1-25 (3tp, 1tpf, 1 45)

3: DARRAGH BEIRNE 2-15 (2tpf, 1tp, 1f)

4: JACK CARNEY 0-13 (6tp)

5: JORDAN FLYNN 0-12 (3tp)

KERRY TOP SCORERS

1: DAVID CLIFFORD 7-42 (5tpf, 3tp, 4f)

2: DYLAN GEANEY 0-22 (4tp)

3: PAUDIE CLIFFORD 1-18 (2tp, 2tpf, 2 '45)

4: TONY BROSNAN 0-9

5: PAUL GEANEY 1-5 (2f)