Trophy Delaney Cup | Founded 1888 No. of teams 11 (2014) | |
 | ||
Irish Craobh Sinsir Peile Laighean | ||
The Leinster Senior Football Championship (sponsored by Toyota, Ulster Bank, Vodafone) is the premier "knockout" competition in the game of Gaelic football played in the province of Leinster in Ireland. The series of games are organised by the Leinster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association and are played during the summer months. The competition involves the counties of Leinster playing against each other. The Leinster Football Final is played in July in Croke Park, Dublin. The winning county is presented with the Delaney Cup, named after a famous Laois GAA family, and advance to the quarter finals of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.
Contents
Dublin are the most successful county, having won the championship on 55 separate occasions, more than twice as many as their nearest rivals Meath, although Wexford won 6 consecutive championships between 1913 and 1918, a feat equalled by Kildare between 1926 and 1931. It was unequalled by any other team, until Dublin won their own 6-in-a-row between 1974 and 1979.
The Leinster Football Championship is run on a knock-out basis, whereby a team is eliminated from the competition once they lose. All of the counties of Leinster except Kilkenny participate in the championship. The draw is seeded, with the previous year's semi-finalists getting byes to the quarter-finals. Six of the remaining seven teams are drawn for three preliminary round matches, while the seventh team also gets a bye to the quarter-finals.
Teams
The Leinster championship is contested by 11 of the 12 counties in Leinster. Kilkenny is currently the only county not to compete.
2010 Leinster Football Final
Meath won the 2010 Leinster Final against neighbours Louth in controversial circumstances.
During the Leinster Final on 11 July 2010, in the 74th minute of the match against Louth, a goal was awarded by the referee after brief consultation with only one of the match umpires (although camera evidence shown on the RTÉ Two coverage of the game proved that the ball was carried over the line by a Meath player). Crowd violence, controversy and recriminations ensued. However, Meath received the Leinster title and the cup.
Teams by decade
The most successful team of each decade, judged by number of Leinster Senior Football Championship titles, is as follows: