2018 National Football League (Ireland)
The 2018 National Football League, known for sponsorship reasons as the Allianz National Football League, was the 87th staging of the National Football League (NFL), an annual Gaelic football tournament for Gaelic Athletic Association county teams. Thirty-one county teams from the island of Ireland, plus London, compete. Kilkenny do not participate.
| League details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 27 January – 1 April 2018 |
| Teams | 32 |
| League champions | |
| Winners | Dublin (13th win) |
| Captain | Stephen Cluxton |
| Manager | Jim Gavin |
| League runners-up | |
| Runners-up | Galway |
| Captain | Damien Comer |
| Manager | Kevin Walsh |
| Other division winners | |
| Division 2 | Roscommon |
| Division 3 | Armagh |
| Division 4 | Laois |
← 2017 2019 → | |
The first six rounds in all four divisions were scheduled to have been played before 24 March 2018, allowing the final round seven matches to be played on that date. Due to poor winter weather, some fixtures in Division 2 (round 6) and Division 4 (rounds 5 and 6) had not been played by that date. The GAA decided to proceed with the final round seven matches in the four divisions before the completion of the earlier rounds. This decision proved controversial - for instance, in the rescheduled Division 2 match between Louth and Meath which was played on 31 March 2018, Meath needed to win to avoid relegation while Louth had nothing to play for as they were already relegated irrespective of the result. Meath beat Louth by 1-12 to 0-07, thereby ensuring that Down were relegated.
Eir Sport and TG4 provide live TV coverage of the league on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons respectively. The highlights programmes are RTÉ2's League Sunday on Sunday evenings and TG4's GAA 2018 on Monday evenings.
The league concluded on 1 April 2018 with Dublin defeating Galway in the division 1 final. It was their fifth Division 1 title in six years.