Who’s is the most competitive of them all?
A county championship win is something so outlandish and so far-fetched for most clubs that winning the thing seems like the greatest and the most prestigious thing in existence.
There’s tunnel vision and there’s there’s a little bit of narrow-mindedness and every player, and every club will vouch for the merits of their own.
So to cut the bias out of it, we’ve devised a metric to find out where the toughest championship to win actually is and where the rest of them rank behind it.
The statistics since 2000 were gathered on how every county football championship winning club have fared against the other county’s best (since 2000) in their province and in the All-Ireland of the junior, intermediate and senior grades.
When there are counties on the same number of points, their provincial final appearances will be considered with the legitimacy of each appearance ranked from senior down.
Point system for All-Ireland wins
All-Ireland win
Senior = Five points
Inter = Three points
Junior = Two points
Point system for provincial wins
Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connacht wins
Senior = Three points
Inter = Two points
Junior = One point
Football
1 Kerry – 89
(One All-Ireland senior win, eight Munster senior wins, five All-Ireland intermediate wins, twelve Munster intermediate wins, eight All-Ireland junior wins, fifteen Munster junior wins)
2 Galway – 67
(Four All-Ireland senior wins, eight Connacht senior wins, one All-Ireland intermediate win, five Connacht intermediate wins, two All-Ireland junior wins, six Connacht junior wins)
3 Mayo – 57
(Two All-Ireland senior wins, seven Connacht senior wins, one All-Ireland intermediate win, six Connacht intermediate wins, eleven Connacht junior wins)
4 Dublin – 53
(Four All-Ireland senior wins, ten Leinster senior wins, one Leinster intermediate win, one Leinster junior win)
5 Cork – 46
(One All-Ireland senior win, seven Munster senior wins, two All-Ireland intermediate wins, four Munster intermediate wins, two All-Ireland junior wins, two Munster junior wins)
6 Armagh – 39
(Three All-Ireland seniors, eight Ulster seniors)
7 Tyrone – 32
(One Ulster senior win, three All-Ireland intermediates, six Ulster intermediates, one All-Ireland junior, six All-Ireland juniors)
8 Derry – 29
(One All-Ireland senior, seven Ulster seniors, three Ulster intermediates)
9 Roscommon – 27
(One All-Ireland senior win, four Connacht senior wins, four Connacht intermediate wins, two Connacht junior wins)
10 Meath – 23
(One Leinster senior win, three Leinster intermediate wins, two All-Ireland junior wins, ten Leinster junior wins)
11 Monaghan – 19
(Two All-Ireland intermediates, three Ulster intermediates, seven Ulster juniors)
12 Kildare – 18
(Two Leinster senior wins, five Leinster intermediate wins, two Leinster junior wins)
13 Laois – 12
(Two Leinster senior wins, two Leinster intermediate wins, two Leinster junior wins)
14 Antrim – 11
(One All-Ireland senior, two Ulster seniors)
15 Donegal – 7
(One Ulster senior, one Ulster intermediate win, Two Ulster juniors)
16 Clare – 6
(Two Munster seniors)
17 Wicklow – 6
(One Leinster senior win, one Leinster intermediate, one Leinster junior win)
18 Westmeath – 6
(One Leinster senior win, three Leinster junior wins)
19 Down – 6
(Three Ulster intermediates)
20 Cavan – 6
(One All-Ireland junior championship, one Ulster intermediate, two Ulster juniors)
21 Fermanagh – 5
(One All-Ireland intermediate, one Ulster intermediate)
22 Louth – 4
(Three Leinster intermediate wins, one Leinster junior win)
23 Tipperary – 3
(One Munster senior win)
24 Carlow – 3
(One Leinster senior win)
25 Limerick – 3
(One Munster senior win)
26 Longford – 3
(One Leinster senior win)
27 Sligo – 1
(One Connacht junior win)
28 Waterford – 0
29 Offaly – 0
30 Wexford – 0
31 Leitrim – 0
32 Kilkenny – 0
