Is this the Greatest Football Team of the 21st Century?

Updated / Thursday, 25 Dec 2025 08:21 Who cracked our 21st Century Best 15? Eric Haughan By Eric Haughan RTÉ Sport journalist It's the most wonderful time of the year. For the most part. Every silver lining has a cloud, and in this (admittedly charmed) business of ours, that cloud sometimes comes in the form of the annual 'throw out your ideas for a Christmas feature’ request from the sports editor. Every December, you hope he’ll forget. Alas, he does not. Glutton for punishment that we are, we decided to eschew a standard, safe ‘keep it tight at the back’ crowd-pleaser. And cause a row instead. So here we go, with our attempt to select the Greatest Gaelic Football Team of the 21st Century . This idea had its origins in a debate which we became embroiled in during a post-golf dinner earlier this year where two Meathmen, two Dubs and a Limerickman attempted to pick this fictitious team. Our efforts were abandoned before we’d reached the half-back line. Things were said that can never be taken back. However, we felt this was a task with some merit and therefore warranted another crack. Sober. We’ve had 26 seasons of the All-Ireland senior football championship this century. The All-Ireland titles breakdown in that time is as follows: Dublin have won nine; Kerry have added eight to remain the all-time ‘winningest’ (we’re hopeful that's the only Americanism we resort to herewith but, at this early remove, we can’t promise anything) football county; all four of Tyrone’s Sam Maguire wins have come in this period. The Red Hands’ Ulster rivals Armagh have also won their only two All-Irelands since the 2000s began. Added to that, there have been single titles for Galway, Cork and Donegal. The turn of the century coincided with the second halves of some historic inter-county careers. Peter Canavan finally got his Tyrone side over the line in 2003. And again in 2005. Pádraic Joyce led Galway to a pair of All-Ireland titles in 1998 and 2001 while his Tribesmen were also beaten finalists in 2000. The great Seamus Moynihan was winning captain and Man of the Match in the first All-Ireland final of the 21st Century when his Kerry team saw off Joyce's Galway and the versatile defender would cap off a wonderful season by being named Footballer of the Year. Derry legend Anthony Tohill certainly played his best football in the 1990s – including that 1993 All-Ireland title – but he had enough left in the tank to drive his county to a league and Ulster championship double in 2000 while collecting the last of his four All Stars. Ciarán Whelan did as much as any Dub to try end the Boys in Blues’ Sam Maguire famine during the 2010s. In the end, the colossal midfielder would become the ultimate ‘inbetweener’, his fine inter-county career falling imperfectly between Dublin’s standalone triumphs of 1995 and 2011. It’s probably only fair if we endeavour to explain the rationale behind some...

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