Pat Donnellan, who had outplayed Denis O'Sullivan early on, stepped into the breach at a stage when O'Callaghan had reduced Kerry's arrears to a minimum.

The Kerry resurgence had been fueled by a vintage period for Mick O'Connell, but when the Galway mentors switched Donnellan onto the Valentia man, midfield control - slight though it was - swung back to the reigning champions.

The margin of three points hardly flattered Galway, but the Tribesmen had too much on the day for Kerry and duly collected their second consecutive All-Ireland SFC title.

Team: 1 Johnny Geraghty (GK) 2 Enda Colleran (c) 3 Noel Tierney 4 Bosco McDermott 5 John Donnellan 6 Seán Meade 7 Martin L. Newell 9 Mick Garrett[[[Template:Galway Football Team 1965#{{{section}}}|contradictory]]] 8 Pat Donnellan 10 Cyril Dunne 11 Mattie McDonagh 12 Seamus Leydon 13 Christy Tyrrell 14 Seán Cleary 15 John Keenan  ?'

for Keenan Substitutes not used: 17 Tom Sands 18 Tommy Keenan 19 B. Geraghty 20 Michael Moore Half-time:0–7 – 0–5 Competition:All-Ireland Senior Football Championship(Final) Date:15.30 BSTSunday, September 26, 1965 Venue:Croke Park, Dublin Attendance: 77,735 Referee:Mick Loftus (Mayo) Match rules:60 minutes.Replay if scores still level.Maximum of 3 substitutions.