GAA top scorers 2026 in football: from play and from frees

Data checked on 4 November 2026 against the published scorer lines of all 56 games in the 2026 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, provincial games included.

The top scorers of 2026

The list counts every game from the first round of the provincial championships in April to the Sam Maguire final in July, which Mayo won 1-20 to 1-17 against Kerry. A goal is worth three points. A kick over the bar from on or outside the 40-metre arc, in play or from a free, is worth two; 45s and sideline kicks count one.

Our count from the match reports. Games are the games a player scored in; placed balls are frees, 45s, marks, penalties and sideline kicks. Four more players finished on 22: Darragh Heneghan (Roscommon), Sam McCartan (Westmeath), Mícheál Bannigan (Monaghan) and Dylan Geaney (Kerry). Download all 86 players on 10 points or more (CSV).

Clifford also topped the list in 2025, and his eight games in 2026 averaged 8.9 points. Behind him the table is a mix of two kinds of forward: free-takers whose totals rest on placed balls, and inside forwards who scored nearly everything in open play. The rest of this page splits the totals that way.

Most points from play

Placed balls here means frees, 45s, marks, penalties and sideline kicks; our scoring guide explains each. Take them all away and Clifford's lead grows. His 59 points from play were 25 more than anyone else managed.

Westmeath's Brandon Kelly is the surprise in second. Westmeath's frees went mainly to Sam McCartan and John Heslin, and Kelly took none of them: 4-22 of his 4-23 came from play, the other point from a mark. Armagh's Oisín Conaty, on 1-24, did not score from a placed ball at all.

Most points from placed balls

Placed balls are where O'Donoghue built his total. Six two-point frees, 17 one-point frees and a mark gave him 30 of his 62 points, the most from placed balls of any player in 2026.

Frees include two-point frees at two each; penalties count three, and the column also takes in sideline kicks. Con O'Callaghan's 13 include two penalties.

Sherlock's 26 came from five two-point frees, nine one-point frees, six 45s and a sideline kick. Monaghan goalkeeper Rory Beggan scored 0-21 in five games, 15 of those points from five two-point frees and five 45s. Clifford, for comparison, scored 12 from placed balls: four two-point frees and four one-point frees.

The split is as good as the notes in the match reports, which mark most frees and 45s but not always all of them, so treat the placed-ball figures as a minimum. Across the whole championship, the share of scoring from frees and 45s fell sharply in 2026; our free-taking numbers since 2024 show by how much.

Goals and two-pointers

Clifford's seven goals were the most of the championship. Roscommon's Darragh Heneghan had the most unusual line: 5-7, all from play, so more than two-thirds of his 22 points came from goals.

Mayo midfielder Jack Carney kicked more two-pointers from play than anyone. All 18 of his points came from play, and he was one of the three nominees for Footballer of the Year. Fermanagh's Darragh McGurn got his five in a single game, the 1-12 he scored against Armagh in the Ulster championship. How the two-pointer changed scoring across whole games is on our two-point score statistics page.

2026 against 2025

Same count, same rules. In 2025 Finnerty and Mulroy finished level on 49.

Clifford's lead was much narrower in 2026: nine points over second place, against 33 a year earlier.

Clifford's 86 in 2025 came from nine games; Kerry played eight in 2026. O'Donoghue moved from sixth, with 2-39 in Mayo's six games of 2025, to second. Seán O'Shea, Kerry's free-taker in 2025, scored 0-7 in 2026. By July, according to an Irish Times profile quoting Éamonn Fitzmaurice, Paudie Clifford was taking the 45s and long frees that used to be O'Shea's. Michael Murphy's 52 in 2025 took 11 games, as Donegal went to the final.

How we counted

Every figure comes from the scorer lines in the official match report of each game: GAA.ie for nearly all of them. Where the GAA.ie line was missing or incomplete we used the official team sheet, RTÉ, the Irish News or Hoganstand, and for two lines Wikipedia's championship page, which cites GAA.ie. We checked each team's line against its final score. Of the 112 lines in 2026, 110 add up exactly. Westmeath's against Monaghan comes to a point more than the official total in both reports we found, and Monaghan's in the Ulster final to two more in the GAA.ie report, with the other reports differing as well, so a few Monaghan and Westmeath figures may be a point or two high.

A mark is counted with frees, because it is a free kick, so a player's points from play exclude it. "Games" means games a player scored in; the reports do not list every appearance, so we give no averages per appearance. Our player pages for David Clifford and Kobe McDonald go game by game, and the one-player teams index sets each county's top scorer against the rest of the team.

Frequently asked questions

Who was the top scorer in the 2026 All-Ireland football championship?

David Clifford of Kerry, with 7-50 (71 points) in eight games, ahead of Mayo's Ryan O'Donoghue on 2-56 (62).

Who scored the most points from play in 2026?

Clifford again, with 59. Westmeath's Brandon Kelly was next on 34.

Who scored the most from frees in 2026?

Ryan O'Donoghue, with 29 points from frees and one from a mark, 30 in all. Steven Sherlock was next on placed balls overall, with 26.

Who kicked the most two-pointers in 2026?

From play, Mayo's Jack Carney, with eight. Counting two-point frees as well, Ryan O'Donoghue, David Clifford and Steven Sherlock kicked ten each.