2005 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship

The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship 2005, known for sponsorship reasons as the 2005 Bank of Ireland All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was the premier Gaelic football competition in 2005. It consisted of 33 teams and began on Saturday 7 May 2005. Few surprises came during the championship with the dominance of the Ulster teams evident once again. Gaelic football's "Big Three" of this era – Armagh, Kerry, Tyrone – all progressed to the semi-finals.
The Championship concluded on Sunday 25 September 2005 when Tyrone defeated Kerry, who were playing in their second consecutive All-Ireland Final, by a scoreline of 1–16 to 2–10. Tyrone had to play ten games in order to win the Championship – more than any other team before or since.

Format

Since the introduction of the so-called "back-door" system a few years ago, a number of changes have taken place in the championship format. In 2005 the following system was used.
The provincial championships in Munster, Leinster, Ulster and Connacht ran as usual on a "knock-out" basis. These provincial games were then followed by the "Qualifier" system:

Round 1 of the qualifiers included all the counties that did not qualify for the Provincial Semi-finals. An open draw was made to give eight pairings.
Round 2 consisted of the eight defeated teams in the Provincial Semi-finals playing against the eight winners from Round 1. A draw was made to determine the eight pairings.
Round 3 Consisted of the 8 winners from Round 2 playing each other in an open draw format.
Round 4 consisted of each of the four teams defeated in the Provincial Finals shall playing against the four winners from Round 3. A draw was made to determine the four pairings.

The All-Ireland Quarter-finals: Each of the four Provincial Champions played one of the four winners from Round 4. The All-Ireland Semi-finals shall be on a Provincial rots basis, initially determined by the Central Council. If a Provincial Championship winning team is defeated in its Quarter-final, the team that defeats it shall take its place in the semi-final.

The provincial champions and the winners of round 4 contested the quarter-finals. The quarter final matches would be between a provincial champion and a round 4 winner.

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Championship statistics

Miscellaneous

For the first time since 1992 Kildare vs Westmeath in the Leinster championship.
Dublin played Laois in the Leinster final for the first time 1985.
In the old system there would have been Kerry vs Galway and Dublin vs Armagh All Ireland semi-finals.

Top scorers

;Season

Player	County	Scores	Total
Stephen O'Neill	Tyrone	5–49	64
Paddy Bradley	Derry	2–29	35
Colm Cooper	Kerry	4–22	34
Steven McDonnell	Armagh	4–21	33
Tomás Quinn	Dublin	1–29	32
Ross Munnelly	Laois	1–24	27
Hugh McElroy	Monaghan	3–17	26
Owen Mulligan	Tyrone	2–20	26

;Single game

Player	Tally	Opposition
Paddy Bradley	1–10	Monaghan
Stephen O'Neill	2-06	Monaghan
Hugh McElroy	1-09	London
Niall Curran	1-08	Clare
Colm Cooper	2-05	Limerick