Kerry captain Gavin White lands All-Ireland football final man of the match award
The Kingdom stormed to Sam Maguire Cup glory with a 1-26 to 0-19 win over Donegal.
White scored 0-3 in a superb half-back performance at Croke Park.
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While David Clifford and Paudie Clifford were among others in the conversation, the winner was announced on The Sunday Game on RTÉ, and presented by GAA President Jarlath Burns at the team banquet at the winners' hotel.
Mayo legend Lee Keegan labelled White's showing as 'one of the all-time great half-back performances,' to which he said:
'Ah look, I suppose you go out there and try to perform as best you can.
'Plenty of the lads played exceptionally well today. You see Paudie there getting 76 possessions, it's unbelievable. Look, it's a team performance, our main objective this morning was to get the Sam Maguire back to the Kingdom so we're just absolutely thrilled with that. '
Kerry captain Gavin White is the 2025 All-Ireland Final Man of the Match
📺 Watch the #SundayGame live: https://t.co/AKAre5FHdN pic.twitter.com/8yLvMpudGq — The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) July 27, 2025
White continued: 'One of our targets at the start of the game was to make a mark in the first 10 minutes, use our experience from the last couple of years and thankfully we were able to do that.
'I'm a bit lost for words to tell you the truth, just so emotional over the last five our six hours. Immensely proud of all the players. It's been a tough year, it's been a tough couple of years. To get Sam Maguire back home, I'm just immensely proud of all of them.'
The Dr Crokes man also spoke about changing his own game, recalling a meeting with team coach Cian O'Neill at the start of the season.
'Like any player in the country with the new rules, you have to evolve to some degree,' said White.
'The kick out has obviously been a huge part of it, breaking ball being key to primary possession. It's something that probably wouldn't have been one of my strengths in previous years so it was obviously something I needed to target this year.
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'It was a bit of a struggle when I came back after the club campaign, but gradually got to grips with it and thankfully it paid off.'
Both captains landed the man of the match awards in this year's All-Ireland football and hurling finals: Ronan Maher was honoured for Tipperary last week.
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