Kit and kaboodle: A Donegal-Kerry final but not as we know it

Irish Examiner

25-07-2025

The morning after and Jim McGuinness was still scratching his head about the goal that led to Donegal's defeat in the 2014 All-Ireland final.
Irrespective of Kerry's press, Paul Durcan's kick-out to Kieran Donaghy was inexplicable to the point that McGuinness was entertaining the idea that his goalkeeper had been dazzled by the likeness of the Donegal jersey with that of the Kerry one.
'Well, they [the colours] were very close,' said McGuinness in the team hotel the following day.
'We were going to propose in the run-up to the game maybe go in white ourselves. Just for ourselves to go in white. But listen, you'd be nitpicking.'
The sun had also been in Durcan's eyes in that 51st minute as he attempted to find Leo McLoone only for Donaghy to pounce. It too had been mentioned as a factor but the man himself, speaking two months later, wasn't making any excuses.
'It was hard the way it went for myself on the day with the mistake I made, on the biggest stage that is possible in my sport. I have to live with it and move on and try and enjoy playing my football, whatever I have left in my career.
'I just kicked the ground. I was trying to hit it out to the right slightly. I've watched it back myself again and I just kicked the ground and the ball took off at the wrong angle.'
However, the confusion between the jerseys that September day was also shared in Kerry.
'We played Donegal in '14, I swear to God it was green and gold everywhere,' said that season's footballer of the year James O'Donoghue on Off The Ball's Football Pod recently.
'We requested blue and were declined. We had played in blue in the semi-final (games v Mayo) against and they said 'no'. The Cusack (Stand), the Hogan, the Hill are green and gold as well and both teams. It's impossible, it's impossible to see what's going on and if you're a goalie would want to have his wits about him.'
O'Donoghue 'genuinely' felt the colour clash could have led to Durcan's faux pas but there will be no chance of Shaun Patton doing the same on Sunday. For the first time in 15 years, both All-Ireland finalists will wear their alternative kits after being sanctioned by Croke Park and signed off by referee Brendan Cawley.
For the previous game, Donegal had been due to wear their white second strip against Meath who were also set to don a yellow version of their kit only for referee Paul Faloon to instruct they return to their original jerseys.
That U-turn caused issues in the counties who had initially been agreeable to the alteration and trained in their changed jerseys.
When it was confirmed on the Wednesday of the game that they would be going back to their home wear, there was disgruntlement.
Aside from the clashes, colour blindness and counties' keenness to exploit their marketing worth are other factors. Before last year's All-Ireland final, Kieran McGeeney touched on both after Armagh wore their black kit against Kerry in the semi-final.
'They (the GAA) are very funny about that, don't ask me why – you have to get special permission,' he said. 'We have two players with colour blindness, that's an issue at different times, so when you have full block colours it can be an issue for two of them.
"I don't know, that sort of stuff goes way over my head. You'd think it's a simple enough thing, like wear what you want as long as you can distinguish between the two teams. You'll have traditionalists but I still think part of the thing we have now in each county is that, whether we like it or not, there has to be a commercial value to it.'
The prevalence of colour blindness among players, which affects approximately 8% of men and less than 1% of women, is being taken seriously enough that GAA sources say there is a possibility in the future that either (or both) Cork and Kerry will have to change from their traditional jerseys when they face each other.
Green-red is the most common form of colour blindness. In a 2023 piece, MayoGAABlog's Willie Joe explained his condition and spoke of how locating the brown ball on the snooker table and co-ordinating clothes was a difficulty.
'You get the picture. Reds into greens into browns – they're all the one to these eyes. Blues, purples and pinks – they all look lovely, I'm sure, whatever they are. What even is teal?'
He continued: 'The problem is the similarity a colour-blind person perceives in colour tones. If these aren't obviously different – and I mean very obviously different – then colour-blind people like me won't be able to tell two sets of players apart.
'The solution is a maddeningly simple one. If one team wears a dark-coloured top, then the other should wear a light-coloured one. Same with the shorts. That's all that's required. Is this asking too much?'
The GAA are listening, even if what will be presented on the field on Sunday will be unusual. Not since that Cork and Down wore white and gold in 2010 have both teams had to alter their garb on football's biggest day.
Where does this land with Kerry's notorious superstitiousness?
The piseog of Jack O'Connor prefacing all four of his All-Ireland titles as manager with Division 1 crowns serves him well going into this weekend. Kerry will also be assigned the Hill 16 side dressing room in the Hogan Stand where they were for all four of those successes under O'Connor as well as the 2014 decider against Donegal.
However, there will be those supporters who associate the change of attire with 1982 when Kerry lost the gold hoop for the final.
And didn't Kerry wear blue and Donegal white when the latter won against O'Connor's side in the 2012 All-Ireland quarter-final?
And yet the older vintage will point to how Kerry won back-to-back finals in 1969 and '70 draped in a royal hue of blue.
New rules and new clobber, it's a Donegal-Kerry final but not as we know it.
Kit and kaboodle
Since their All-Ireland final in 2014, Donegal and Kerry have met 10 times. In their last three meetings, both teams have worn their alternative kits.
2025: Division 1, Killarney: Kerry in blue, Donegal in white
2023: Division 1, Ballybofey: Kerry in navy blue, Donegal in white
2022: Division 1, Killarney: Kerry in blue, Donegal in white
2020: Division 1, Tralee: Kerry in blue
2019: All-Ireland q-f Croke Park: Home jerseys
2018: Division 1, Killarney: Home jerseys
2017: Division 1, Letterkenny: Home jerseys
2016: Division 1, Tralee: Donegal in white
2015: Division 1, Tralee: Home jerseys
Ten All-Ireland final jersey changes
2010: Cork (white) v Down (gold)
2004: Kerry v Mayo (red)
1996: Meath (yellow for replay) v Mayo
1996: Meath (green) v Mayo
1982: Offaly (predominantly white) v Kerry (green)
1981: Kerry (yellow top half) v Offaly (predominantly white)
1973: Cork (white) v Galway (no change)
1972: Offaly (green) v Kerry (blue)
1970: Kerry (blue) v Meath (green)
1969: Kerry (blue) v Offaly (green).