The Kingdom must rise. They are used to heading down towards the mountains and sea with the big football cup on crisp silvery nights when autumn is closing in fast. But it turns out that winning in July is just as good.
Kerry claimed their 38th All-Ireland football title on Sunday with a 0-20 to 0-16 win over a Galway team who shrugged off the cloak of outsiders to remind the country that these garlanded days are their natural stage.
Pádraic Joyce’s team fell short here in the end but left with the consolation of one of a magisterial individual display from Shane Walsh, their totemic corner forward. But, like so many counties, they discovered that Kerry can always find a way to find a way. It’s what they call tradition.
“It had to be ground out and we spoke about that on Thursday night,” said Jack O’Connor, who returned this year to lead Kerry to league and All-Ireland success.
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“There are many ways to win a game. We feel that all the work we have done on the mental side of the game with the lads we can dig out a game, we can dog it out. As it turned out that was the way,” he said.
“A lot of people thought this might be an easy game for us. We never bought into that for one minute. I just think we needed everything, in the end, to get over the line because that was a really good Galway display today.”
The game treated the nation to shooting exhibitions from Walsh and David Clifford but never fully exploded into an out-and-out classic.
Instead, a gripping affair had as its turning point a free awarded to Kerry in the 67th minute, which will be the subject of hot debate. Ironically, the official, Seán Hurson, is a Tyrone man, the county that was the thorn in Kerry’s and O’Connor’s side during the All-Ireland finals of 2005 and 2008.
Galway would not score after that: the moment seemed to collectively wind them and Kerry had the guile and toughness to piece together three late scores. On RTÉ, the sight of the fabled jerseys celebrating was enough to draw tears from Pat Spillane, the provocative Kerry pundit who stepped away after three colourful decades with the broadcaster. All things end.
Except Kerry winning these days. And for the first Christmas in decades, the postal traffic from the Kingdom to Tyrone might be busy this year.
