A BEGINNING and an end for Kerry. Their first national title in over a decade put an end at last to a long period of hardborne deprivation. The manner of it on a bad, greasy day in Cork suggests that the latest generation of Kerry players are equipped to begin a new era, emerging decisively from the shadows of their recent ancestors.

To put the achievement in perspective, it was Kerry's first National League title since 1984 and their first national title of any sort since the All Ireland win of 1986. Those who played on the 1984 league team, including manager Paidi O Se, often diffidently explain the fact that the great Kerry team took the trouble to win the league at all as being attributable to the fact that it was the GAA's centenary year and Kerry hoped to mark it (as they did) by winning both national titles.

Yesterday's victory will not be so lightly relegated to the footnotes of Kerry history. For a young team, expected to bring home at least one All Ireland before the end of the century, it was important to plant a flag on the national stage as the long climb continues.

"It's only the league," said O Se afterwards, "but it is important to us. It's a reward for an amount of work done not just by this management team but by previous managements. I am really pleased. I think this shows that we are going in the right direction."

League finals, with their proximity to full blooded championship action, sometimes degenerate to the level of phoney wars. Defeated teams often take the wind out of their conquerors sails by shrugging their shoulders and intimating that a win was the last thing they wanted.

In the aftermath of Kerry's comfortable victory yesterday opinion in Cork was mixed. Either Larry Tompkins's men had been hobbled by a hard week's training and a little shrewd under motivation and will be sniggering up their sleeves all the way to high summer in Killarney or Larry Tompkins has an amount of running repairs to perform on his team.

Most of what was worth seeing occurred before the teams had their halftime tea. Kerry scooted in during the first half for three goals which effectively killed off Cork's challenge. On a day when Kerry's two star forwards, Maurice Fitzgerald and Dara O Cinneide, were slightly out of sorts the satisfaction for Paidi O Se will lie in the fact that the so called lesser lights pulled the team through. Liam Hassett raised all sorts of questions about Niall Cahalane's pace, while full forward Brian Clarke had a good game foraging and hunting for the ball.

After a long sequence of underage success Kerry can be reasonably happy that their investment in youth is about to pay off in the next year or so.

Things have been a little difficult in Kerry since the good old days. Wave after wave of players have broken under the burden of impatiently made comparisons. Yesterday's league final may have been short on classic football but in carving out yet another victory over their nearest neighbours and most bitter rivals, Kerry look to be well on their way to reestablishing their old Munster ascendancy.

Eleven of yesterday's team were 24 years old or younger. Just over a year ago they lost a league quarter final in Pairc Ui Chaoimh to Cork. As such their achievement marked genuine progress, and there was little time for talk in the dressingroom about phoney wars or ersatz victories.

"That's our fourth win in a row over them now so we'll be on top for a while yet I'd say," commented Eamon Breen afterwards, before quietly adding the touch wood word. "Hopefully".

Larry Tompkins, the Cork manager in his first year with the side and looking to find the young players who can return Cork to the preeminence they enjoyed at the turn of the decade, was dismissive of suggestions that Cork are now locked into the role of inferiors within the province.

"Fourth win? Ah, they beat us in the McGrath cup by a point, they can have the McGrath cup every day of the week if they want it.

Kerry intend to take a week off now before returning to preparation with a series of challenge matches during which several of the Munster championship winning under 21 side will be given trials. The possibility of Dubliner, Vinnie Murphy making an appearance in a Kerry shirt before the summer is out has not been dismissed either.

As for Cork, there are worse fates in life than losing league finals.

"We're not going to go away and drop the heads just because we lost a league final," said Tompkins defiantly. "It's all just part of getting the experience and maturity we need."

League finals. Win or lose you can make them mean whatever you want them to mean.