1998 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final
| Event | 1998 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship | ||||||
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| Date | 27 September 1998 | ||||||
| Venue | Croke Park, Dublin | ||||||
| Referee | John Bannon (Longford) | ||||||
| Attendance | 65,886 | ||||||
The 1998 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final was the 111th All-Ireland Final and the deciding match of the 1998 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, an inter-county Gaelic football tournament for the top teams in Ireland.
This was Kildare's first appearance in an All-Ireland football final since 1935. They were assisted on their way there by a semi-final victory over Kerry, masterminded by Kerryman Mick O'Dwyer. Going into the final Kildare were raging hot favourites to beat Galway. They didn't.
Galway defeated Kildare by a scoreline of 1 – 14 to 1 – 10. They took their first Sam Maguire Cup in 32 years - since the 1966 team completed a three-in-a-row for the county. Michael Donnellan's goal was #1 in the 2005 TV programme Top 20 GAA Moments.
Kildare went into freefall. They failed miserably against Offaly in the first round of the following year's Leinster championship and then were relegated from the National League. They have not appeared in an All-Ireland football final since.
Kildare were marginal favourites to take the title after dethroning reigning champions Kerry in a tight and close game. As well as dethroning the reigning champions, Kildare had also defeated Meath and Dublin, the 1996 and 1995 champions respectively. Galway were never in danger of losing against Derry in the semi-final and won by 5 points in the end victory.
Like in their semi-final against Derry, Galway started well and had three unanswered points on the board by the 13th minute, one of which saw Michael Donnellan race towards the Kildare at great speed before taking his point. Kildare got their first score through Eddie McCormack In the 20th minute, Kildare took the lead, after Dermot Earley scored a goal.
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