SO THE Sam Maguire Cup heads off this morning on a journey which by now it could make without the assistance of humankind. The cup returns to Kerry for the 36th time in all and the fifth time this decade.
Any differences? For the Kerrymen accompanying the silverware this was one of the sweetest All-Ireland wins of the lot.
Kerry beat Cork yesterday in a game which started as a helter-skelter exhibition of all that is best in football and evolved into an exercise in Kerry getting their tactics just right and consuming a hefty young Cork team as implacably as a python consuming a rabbit. For the attendance of 82,286 it was an afternoon which began like a rollercoaster ride and finished with a lesson about belief and confidence.
The final whistle summoned a surge of green-and-gold-clad spectators onto the field, the GAA giving up on the now traditional switch from crowd control Plan A to Plan B. Kerry people, normally sniffy about the quality of their All-Ireland victories, celebrated this one with a passion which told its own story.
Earlier this season these old enemies had looked like teams travelling in the opposite direction. Cork had steamrolled Kerry within the confines of Munster and they appeared to go from strength to strength thereafter. Kerry, torn it seemed by internal bickering and disciplinary issues, limped towards Croke Park. The cathedral of the game has always had an energising effect on Kerry teams, however.
So, having replaced the spine of their team, Kerry gained momentum as September loomed. Yesterday they granted Cork the perfect start and then went about writing a fairytale ending for themselves. Cork led by five points after just 10 minutes, having breached the Kerry defence with surprising ease.
Then the screw turned. Kerry scored 10 points before half-time. Cork just two. Kerry stretched the lead from two points to four soon after the break and after that Cork just beat themselves again and again off the Kerry defence with as visible an effect as waves beating off a rock.
By the end of the game Cork had spent themselves with 14 wides and that four-point margin was still intact. Cork managed just one point from play and two from frees in the second-half.
“This is a sweet one,” conceded Kerry manager Jack O’Connor. “I was saying to the selectors out in the caboose there that we had to dismantle the team through the summer. A lot of changes down the centre of the team since the game in Pairc Uí Chaoímh. It is difficult to do that. There is great satisfaction when that comes off. People said about 2004 and 2006 [the last titles which O’Connor managed Kerry to] that they were soft. Well, Jesus, there was nothing soft about this one. There were times this year when we were really written off. Fellas like Pat Spillane were almost taking pity on us!”
They travelled a long and winding road to Croke Park this summer. Today they take the fast train home to let the cup glisten again under a familiar sky.