The 1896 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, the ninth in the competition's history, took place at Jones Road, Dublin, on 6 February 1898, with Cork official Thomas Dooley as referee.

[1] The Limerick team, having won the toss, chose to defend the railway goal, gaining the advantage of a diagonal but strong wind.

Limerick quickly countered, driving the ball toward the Dublin goal, but Roche saved splendidly.

Despite Limerick’s early pressure, Dublin transferred the play and scored their second point after a brief delay due to an injury to a Young Irelands player.

[2] Shortly after resuming, Limerick pressed hard, quickly earning a goal from William Murphy,[3] levelling the score at 1-4 to 0-7 after 16 minutes.