For the great teams, excellence supplies its own narrative. There are no stepping stones from contention to achievement, no guff about having to lose one to win one. There's just the game and the pursuit of perfection.
Kilkenny brushed Clare aside yesterday in an All-Ireland final that was about introversion and obsession. As DJ Carey said afterwards, they had nothing against Clare, virtually no history with them. This was about a journey within the game. This was about Kilkenny being as good as they can be.
Last summer, in the popular imagination at least, Kilkenny threatened perfection as they cut through Leinster. They came to Croke Park for an All-Ireland semi-final with Galway and were widely advertised as possessing a full-forward line that was the eighth wonder of the world. They lost.
The time since then hasn't been spent sticking pins through maroon-coloured voodoo dolls.
It's been a movement towards the type of performance which Kilkenny gave yesterday. Two goals and 20 points scored. Three wides over the 70 minutes. Sublime contributions from all parts of the pitch. McGarry. Kavanagh. Barry. Shefflin. Carey. All wondrous. Just about everyone else outstanding.
And when Kilkenny began introducing their subs, two of them, McEvoy and Carter, hit wonder points just for fun.
Few teams have done what Kilkenny have this year in winning both league and championship. They have maintained a standard that is impressive even within the context of their own history and in the latter stages of the All-Ireland series they have handed in two performances which were sublime. Could they be as good yesterday as they were against Tipperary some weeks ago, we wondered?
They answered emphatically.
For Clare, the achievement was in keeping the crowd from seeping out of the ground. They played with the heat and the passion which is their modern hallmark, but the winning of 27 All-Ireland titles means that hurling craft is congenital in Kilkenny and acquired in Clare. That's a lot to overcome. Their pride was their defiance.
"We were beaten by seven points today," said Cyril Lyons, their manager. "I don't know if we were seven points the lesser team, but it doesn't matter now anyway. They were always ahead by five or six and when the score is that way you can try things and they come off."
They come off because excellence makes its own rules too. The world must bend to accommodate its prodigies. Nobody who heard that DJ Carey intended coming back to the black and amber of Kilkenny when the spadework of the provincial championships had been done could have demurred.
If he had left it until yesterday to step from the stands and declare himself available again there could have been no objections. What would be the point of building a cathedral like Croke Park if DJ Carey were not to soar within it.
The joy of the game and the thrill of yesterday was seeing DJ's genius unfold again under the command of his will. DJ came back to the game eight weeks ago. He won his fourth All-Ireland yesterday and one suspects that the two games he played all year will be enough to secure him a ninth All Star. He brushes it all away. Even his goal, another chunky contribution to the cause he has served, was played down until it assumed the significance of a man removing lint from his pocket.
"Ah, I took the chance and put the hurl up and flicked it in the net. Just one of those things."
And his resurrection? His journey back from being hurling's most talked about retiree to the Croke Park pastures?
"It's been worthwhile. You dream when you are a youngster of this. It's occasions like this that matter. I didn't do as much this year as the rest of the lads, but today is fantastic. We knew that Clare would come at us in the second half.
"They got points. And we hoped we'd tack on a point or two when they did. They came back to within three points and then Henry got a great point and we got it back to six."
His mind wanders off into the mechanics of the game he loves. Shefflin. He wishes he had 10 years left playing with Shefflin. Charlie Carter, his old confederate, how Charlie can still illuminate Croke Park when he walks on stage.
DJ was at the Leinster Final this summer and he had that edginess within himself, that little insistence that he was gone before he was ready to go.
"I felt disappointed that my year was gone. Watching in the stand that day I was very passionate. I've never been a spectator. I knew then. At this stage I have the heart to go on some more ... it's all about the legs next year, though."
He went out and trained and lifted weights on his own. He trained when the panel he had rejoined were still resting. And he found the sessions had changed. Every session was like an All-Ireland. Brian Cody had marked out a pitch the precise size as Croke Park. Training on that every night makes lead of a man's legs.
Fortunately, Kilkenny's hunger for excellence matched his own. When their paths intersected a September afternoon like this was inevitable. The team he rejoined was making its own journey. They were convincing champions this summer and will start next season as favourites to repeat.
In the Kilkenny dressing-room, with the Liam McCarthy Cup lying on his kitbag, Andy Comerford stands on the bench and speaks to the players he has captained all year. This is the soul of the GAA we are prying on, those moments when an ordinary man expands his horizons and seizes the respect of others. He speaks passionately.
"You can all hold your heads high lads. Thirty men got us here and every one of them was needed. I'll say one thing, lads, respect yourselves and respect your families. Celebrate for sure, but Kilkenny were always men that were humble.
"Always remember that you're Kilkenny hurlers. Whatever way you celebrate, do it with dignity and do it with pride. Be proud of what you achieved. Respect the jersey. Always remember that you are Kilkenny hurlers."
He stands down with the roar of applause coming towards him. Kilkenny hurlers. All-Ireland
champions.
The jersey. The dignity. The pride. That's the story of the season. That's the narrative of one team's excellence.
