The All-Ireland Junior Football Championship is a GAA competition involving four Junior Gaelic football inter-county teams. Prior to a change in competition structure in 2021, the competition was previously for all Junior Gaelic football inter-county teams in Ireland. In this previous format, the definition of what constituted a Junior player differed from county to county. In some, the junior team was the second team after the senior team. This meant that any players who had not played with the senior team could play with the junior team. In others, such as Cork and Kerry, players could only be chosen from clubs that played in junior or intermediate grades. These counties could not choose players from senior clubs, even if they were not on the senior county team. When a team won this championship, it had to pick a new team for the following year. No player could thus be on a winning team for two successive years. Ulster did not participate in the Junior Championship for a period, Cavan the 2014 champions represented Leinster in the absence of an Ulster competition. Kerry are the most successful county in the competition's history, having lifted the title on twenty occasions. Kerry are current winners winning five in a row All Irelands. The 2008 championship was won by Dublin for the first time since 1960. Sligo defeated Kerry in 2010 to win their first title since 1935. The current holders are New York, defeating Kilkenny by 0-13 to 1-09 in the 2023 final.

History

Summary of champions

History

For the bulk of this competition's history up to 2021, the winners of the provincial Junior Football Championships met to decide who was the "Home" winner. This team then met the champion county in Great Britain to determine the All-Ireland Junior Football champion.

Format

Historic format (1912-2019)

The five provincial winners would contest the All-Ireland Junior Football Championship. Teams (5)

Current format (2022-)

At GAA Congress in 2021, a motion was passed to change the entire structure of the All Ireland Junior Football Championship competition to that of a mostly 'overseas competition' along with just one Irish county, Kilkenny. The Junior Football Championship competition therefore now involves just four teams: New York, Kilkenny, and the winner and runner-up of the British Junior Championship, all meeting in the All Ireland Junior Championship semi-finals. Teams (4)

Teams

2024 Championship

Ten counties will compete in the 2024 All-Ireland Junior Football Championship:

Roll of Honour

Wins by County

Wins by Province

List of Finals

List of finals (since restructure)

All finals

Team records and statistics

Team results (since the 2022 restructure)

Legend

For each year, the number of teams in each championship (in brackets) are shown.

Performances and statistics by province

By decade

The most successful team of each decade, judged by number of All-Ireland JFC titles, is as follows:

Other records

Finishing positions

Unbeaten sides

Beaten sides

On one occasion a team was defeated twice but have remained in the knockout championship:

Final success rate

Eight counties have appeared in the final, being victorious on all occasions: On the opposite end of the scale, nine counties has appeared in the final, losing on each occasion:

Consecutive participations

000 have the record number of consecutive participations in the championship, taking part in 000 seasons.

Biggest wins

Scoring Events (2023–)

Successful defending

A number of defending champions have retained their title. These are:

Gaps

Provinces

Longest undefeated run

The record for the longest unbeaten run stands at 000 games held by 000 (0000–0000).

Miscellaneous

Player records

Winning captains

Sources