The 2001 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was the 115th edition of the GAA's premier gaelic football competition. It was played between May and September 2001. This was the first year that the qualifier system, whereby teams knocked out of the provincial competitions entered a secondary competition to qualify for the All-Ireland series, was used. A similar system had already been successfully used in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. Galway lost to Roscommon in the Connacht Semi-Final but managed to reach the All-Ireland Final, beating Wicklow, Armagh and Cork in the qualifiers. They exacted revenge against Roscommon in the quarter finals and defeated Derry in the semi-final. In the final, they outclassed a Meath side still jubilant after hammering the reigning champions