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On this page The index: counties with four games or more
One-player teams: how much each county relied on its top scorer in 2026
Of the counties that played four or more games in the 2026 championship, Kerry relied most on one player: David Clifford scored 71 of their 203 points, 35.0%. Mayo were next, with 31.0% from Ryan O'Donoghue, so the two finalists topped the index. At the other end were Donegal, whose two joint top scorers had 14.9% each, and Leinster champions Westmeath, who got 16.2% from Brandon Kelly.
Data checked on against the published scorer lines of all 56 games in the 2026 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, provincial games included.
The index: counties with four games or more
Every county has a top scorer; the question behind talk of one-player teams is how much of the scoring he carried. The measure is simple: the top scorer's points as a share of everything the county scored in the championship, using the official final scores. A county that went out after one game can post a huge share from a single afternoon, so the main table keeps the 15 counties that played at least four games.
| # | County | Games | Top scorer | His points | County points | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kerry | 8 | David Clifford | 71 | 203 | 35.0% |
| 2 | Mayo | 8 | Ryan O'Donoghue | 62 | 200 | 31.0% |
| 3 | Cork | 6 | Steven Sherlock | 43 | 141 | 30.5% |
| 4 | Roscommon | 5 | Diarmuid Murtagh | 34 | 136 | 25.0% |
| 5 | Kildare | 4 | Darragh Kirwan | 20 | 83 | 24.1% |
| 6 | Galway | 5 | Rob Finnerty | 29 | 135 | 21.5% |
| 7 | Louth | 6 | Sam Mulroy | 29 | 136 | 21.3% |
| 8 | Derry | 4 | Shane McGuigan and Lachlan Murray | 21 each | 100 | 21.0% |
| 9 | Meath | 4 | James Conlon | 20 | 98 | 20.4% |
| 10 | Dublin | 8 | Cormac Costello | 41 | 202 | 20.3% |
| 11 | Armagh | 7 | Conor Turbitt | 35 | 197 | 17.8% |
| 12 | Tyrone | 4 | Darren McCurry | 16 | 93 | 17.2% |
| 13 | Monaghan | 7 | Jack McCarron | 31 | 189 | 16.4% |
| 14 | Westmeath | 7 | Brandon Kelly | 35 | 216 | 16.2% |
| 15 | Donegal | 4 | Michael Murphy and Oisín Gallen | 14 each | 94 | 14.9% |
Our count from the match reports. Points count a goal as three and a two-pointer as two. Download the index for all 33 counties (CSV).
Three counties had joint top scorers: Derry, Donegal and Laois, which is in the second table below. In Derry, Shane McGuigan and Lachlan Murray finished level on 21; in Donegal, Michael Murphy and Oisín Gallen on 14 each.
Kerry and Mayo leaned hardest
Kerry and Mayo met in the final on 26 July, and Mayo won 1-20 to 1-17. They were also first and second in the index. Clifford scored 7-50 in Kerry's eight games and O'Donoghue 2-56 in Mayo's. How the two compare as players is on our Footballer of the Year page; Clifford's season, game by game, is on his David Clifford stats page.
Reliance on one player is not the same as having only one scorer. Kerry used 23 different scorers in 2026 and Mayo 17. What sets them apart is how much went through the top three: 57.6% of Kerry's points came from David Clifford, Paudie Clifford and Dylan Geaney, and 60.0% of Mayo's from O'Donoghue, Kobe McDonald and Darragh Beirne.
The counties that spread it around
Westmeath won the Leinster title, beating Dublin 2-28 to 0-26 after extra time in the final on 17 May, and none of the 15 shared its scoring more widely across the top of the team. Brandon Kelly's 4-23 made him their top scorer, but 20 different players scored for them in seven games, and their top three accounted for 34.7% of their points, the lowest of them all.
Armagh and Monaghan sat close to Westmeath. Armagh's top scorer, Conor Turbitt, had 17.8% of their points, and Oisín Conaty was only eight behind him. Monaghan's Jack McCarron had 16.4%, with Mícheál Bannigan on 22 and goalkeeper Rory Beggan on 21.
Counties with one to three games
For counties that played once or twice, the share describes one or two afternoons rather than a season. They are listed here for completeness.
| County | Games | Top scorer | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wexford | 1 | Mark Rossiter | 63.6% |
| Fermanagh | 1 | Darragh McGurn | 55.6% |
| Longford | 1 | Dylan Farrell | 52.6% |
| Tipperary | 2 | Seán O'Connor | 50.0% |
| Offaly | 1 | Dylan Hyland | 41.7% |
| New York | 1 | Frank O'Reilly | 38.5% |
| Antrim | 1 | Niall Burns | 37.5% |
| Limerick | 1 | James Naughton | 36.8% |
| Clare | 1 | Mark McInerney | 35.3% |
| London | 1 | Jim Davis | 33.3% |
| Sligo | 1 | Lee Deignan | 30.4% |
| Carlow | 1 | J Clarke | 30.0% |
| Waterford | 1 | Michael O'Brien | 30.0% |
| Cavan | 3 | Paddy Lynch | 28.8% |
| Wicklow | 2 | Eoin Darcy | 26.8% |
| Leitrim | 2 | Barry McNulty | 26.2% |
| Down | 2 | Daniel Guinness | 22.7% |
| Laois | 2 | Evan O'Carroll and Paul Kingston, joint | 19.0% |
Carlow's scorer is named as the match report gives him.
2026 against 2025
Kerry barely moved: Clifford had 34.5% of their points in 2025, when he scored 8-62 of their 249. Mayo leaned less on O'Donoghue than a year earlier, 31.0% against 36.9% over six games in 2025. Louth's reliance on Sam Mulroy fell from 33.8% to 21.3%. Armagh went the other way, from the most evenly spread county in 2025, when Rory Grugan's 13.2% was the lowest top-scorer share of all, to 17.8% in 2026.
The results without the top scorer
The same blunt test as on our David Clifford page: take the top scorer's points off the county's score in each game, change nothing else, and see which results change.
| County | Top scorer | Actual | Without him |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kerry | David Clifford | W6 L2 | W1 D1 L6 |
| Mayo | Ryan O'Donoghue | W6 L2 | W2 L6 |
| Cork | Steven Sherlock | W4 L2 | W2 L4 |
| Dublin | Cormac Costello | W5 L3 | W3 D2 L3 |
| Westmeath | Brandon Kelly | W5 L2 | W3 L4 |
| Armagh | Conor Turbitt | W5 L2 | W4 L3 |
| Monaghan | Jack McCarron | W4 L3 | W2 L5 |
Without O'Donoghue's points, Mayo lose their wins over Monaghan, Meath and Cork, and the final. Without Clifford's, Kerry beat only Kildare. Armagh would have lost only one of their wins, against Tyrone.
The test is crude. Without its top scorer a team would take the same shots through other players, and the frees he kicked would still be awarded. What it shows is how much of a county's winning margin ran through one man.
How we counted
We counted every scorer line in the match reports, GAA.ie for nearly all games, with the official team sheet, RTÉ, the Irish News, Hoganstand or Wikipedia's championship page where the GAA.ie line was missing or incomplete, and checked each team's line against its final score. County totals come from the official results. Two scorer lines, Monaghan in the Ulster final and Westmeath against Monaghan, add up to a point or two more than the final score, so Jack McCarron's and Brandon Kelly's shares may be fractionally high. Games are all championship games a county played, provincial and All-Ireland. The full scoring list is on our GAA top scorers 2026 page.
Frequently asked questions
Which county was the most one-player team in 2026?
Among counties with four or more games, Kerry: David Clifford scored 35.0% of their championship points.
What share of Kerry's points did David Clifford score?
71 of 203 in 2026, 35.0%, after 86 of 249, 34.5%, in 2025.
Which county spread its scoring most?
It depends on the measure. Donegal had the lowest top-scorer share, 14.9% for each of their joint top scorers. Westmeath had the lowest share for their top three, 34.7%, with 20 different scorers in seven games.
Who was each county's top scorer in 2026?
Kerry's David Clifford led all 33 counties with 71 points. Every county's top scorer is listed on this page, and the CSV adds each county's second scorer and its 2025 figures.