Over the past six months or so Kerry have firmly re-established themselves as Gaelic football's foremost county. A status that bands of predecessors from the Kingdom had obtained regularly in times past.

However such positions of grandeur looked quite unlikely in the Allainz FL campaign of early 2014 as Eamon Fitzmaurice's men stuttered along, just maintaining their Division One standing.

The production line of young talent in the south west had as one famous Derry scribe announced, practically dried up.

'Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated', once said American writing great Mark Twain. And like Halley's comet the light emerging from Kerry football grew in intensity as the summer progressed.

 

Suppose the first sight of the emerging star (and we are not talking about one Mr. Donaghy) arrived in the spring when a talented  Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne combination brought the All-Ireland senior colleges trophy back to Dingle.

Then favourites, yes favourites Cork suffered a humiliating demolition on provincial final day.

Sure the men in green and gold rode their luck during the two Mayo games but the mix of the young and the not so young prevailed on All Ireland final day as Donegal were 'out Donegaled'.

And to make it a day of all days a splendid Kerry minor team had earlier helped create a double and the Kingdoms first win in the grade since 1994.

Kerry football was back on top! There was more to come.

Teams from the Kingdom swept through the 2014/15 Munster club championships, winning all three grades.

Was the pinnacle reached last weekend?  Austin Stacks could have been classed unlucky not to have gained at least a draw in their semi-final clash with Slaughneil.

But the strength of Kerry football was much in evidence at HQ the previous evening as both Brosna in the junior and Ardfert at intermediate garnered further All Ireland crowns.

And now we have Tommy Walsh back from his adventures Down Under and a recovering Gooch. Talk doing the rounds is about putting titles back to back.

Moral of the story - never write off those canny Kerrymen and especially when it comes to football.

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