THE LAST POINT: Great expectation, greater heartache

Maybe we were expecting too much, perhaps the thrilling football championship we've enjoyed this year raised our expectation levels to unreasonable heights but I think it fair to say that you didn't have to be a Donegal supporters to have come away from last Sunday's All-Ireland Final feeling a little deflated and let-down.

No doubt about it, Sunday's conclusion of the most entertaining Championship in years was something of a damp squib, not because Kerry won or weren't worthy winners, they were certainly the better team but because the tempo and atmosphere of the contest was nothing like what we expected.

I thought that maybe it was my natural Dub inclination to begrudge the Kingdom any  success that comes their way  - the rivalry may be mostly respectful, the banter good-natured but there is an edge certainly between the counties, the legacy of far too many 'ah yerras' grating on the ears after Kerry ruthlessly dispatched yet another team from the capital, the boys in blue being built up as world beaters only to suffer another humiliation as the hands of the men from the south west.

I'm not quite sure if it was like that for Donegal, although I'll admit I was surprised to see all but one of the Irish Independent's experts plump for the Ulster men in Saturday's edition, the sole exception being Kerry native Sinead Kissane but that seemed to be the norm, journalistic integrity and impartially getting thrown out the window by pundits the length and breadth of the country as geographical bias often looked to be the deciding factor.

I'm not trying to be wise after the event - anyone who asked me over the weekend who I thought would triumph in Croker, I said Donegal before quickly adding that it wouldn't surprise me one little bit if Kerry took home the 'canister' as they have christened Sam Maguire over the years. That wasn't sitting on the fence; but more a realism that when Kerry reach All-Ireland Finals, they tend to win them more often than not.

THE LAST POINT: TIPP TOPS OF A MAGNIFICENT SPORTING WEEK

You'd have got long odds on Jack O'Connor's side winning the All Ireland four or five weeks ago after they were hammered by Meath in the group stages but maybe that benefited them in the long run, the scutching they got from their own in the national media obviously lighting a fierce fire under them, a fire that burned everyone off and  all the way to the title.

Of course, that didn't stop Kerry rolling out the greatest hits of 'we weren't respected' and 'nobody gave us a chance' but that's not quite true either. One of the aforementioned pundits, Philly MacMahon, gave his take on why he thought Donegal would take Sam back to the Hills but he candidly admitted that the same reasons could easily see Kerry win the title for the 39th time.

The victors write the history and Donegal players who were nailed on certainties for an All-Star or Player of the Year nominations are now after-thoughts just as new legends are being forged in Kerry - that's the nature of the game, look back at last year's two game, extra-time epic in the Leitrim SFC Final and the thin, thin line between a pat on the back and a kick up the backside has never been finer.

What did surprise me was the most 'un-Donegal' like display of the year from Jim McGuinness' men - I'm not going to try and devalue Kerry's triumph by suggesting that the Ulster men threw it away, I heard too much of that for a few of the Dubs' wins over the past 15 years, but Donegal unfortunately picked the worst time of the year to produce their flattest performance of 2025.

Granted the opposition was different but the lightning runs and blistering pace Donegal demonstrated in demolishing Meath and Monaghan in successive games was conspicuously absent in Croker last Sunday - Kerry certainly had a lot to do with that but what struck this frustrated viewer, shouting at the TV down in Leitrim, was Donegal's strange passiveness, the lack of intensity in both attack and defence.

Nothing summed this up better than the two minutes before the halftime break - the world and his mother knew Kerry would hold onto the ball before creating a two point opportunity and lo-and-behold, up popped David Clifford to thump a monster two pointer over the bar, turning a manageable five point gap into a daunting seven point deficit.

I'm not one for conspiracy theories or trying to devalue the victories of one team over another but Donegal looked like a team who were either battling illness in the camp or had a collective meltdown as the occasion got to them - either way, the result was the same as a team described in the past week as perhaps the fittest and fastest ever were reduced to ponderous plodding along with the ball.

It was so unlike what I've come to expect from Donegal that I don't know what to make of it - maybe they got sucked into a tactical game that drained the life out of them; the need to restrict the ball into Clifford & Co blinding them to the fact that their zonal defensive system allowed Kerry hold onto the ball for long periods and when you have a team full of pure footballers in the way Kerry do, they'll find a way no matter your system.

Yet it is a measure of Donegal's resilience and talent that, with 15 minutes left on the clock, there were just four points on the clock. Four points of a Kerry lead that was built entirely on five two pointers from David Clifford and Sean O'Shea and none from Donegal. Three wasted opportunities came and went and, as many a county can attest down through the years, you can't give the Kingdom those sort of chances and not pay a price and down the stretch Donegal certainly paid dearly.

For that and many other reasons, it will be a long hard winter for Donegal and their supporters - Jim McGuinness was graciousness personified in how he analysed the game afterwards on RTE but there is no escaping the fact that their manager will feel his team simply didn't perform on the day and you've got to wonder if their window has already closed, given the mileage in the legs of Michael Murphy and Paddy McBrearty.

Donegal certainly have some wonderful young players coming through the ranks but so too do Tyrone, Derry and even the Kingdom themselves so there is no guarantee that the Donegal messiah can pull off another miracle and lead them to another All-Ireland triumph.

Perhaps the only guarantee is that Kerry keep winning - five All-Ireland Minor titles in a row, appearing in Minor and U20 finals pretty regularly and the odd bolter like Joe O'Connor appearing out of nowhere mean that the big-boned, swift moving prototype of a Kingdom footballer will always come along to provide the platform for the Cliffords, Geaneys and Sean O'Shea to perform upon.

THE LAST POINT: THE UINTENDED POWER OF WORDS

You can't but admire the seemingly effortless skill Kerry bring to the game, making what is  a complicated sport look devastatingly simple - Jack O'Connor maybe recognising that Donegal, like many before them, would be so preoccupied with the Cliffords that someone like Gavin White could do serious damage, demolishing Donegal's plans so that David Clifford could take advantage as McGuinness' men scrambled to cover.

Being brutally honest, it was not the game that the All-Ireland Championship deserved - Kerry were cagey and calculating as they denied Donegal the wildness they needed that often fires them to victory. Credit the Kingdom brains trust for realising that but like 2014 when Kerry caught Jim McGuinness' men out by playing a cagey, almost dull tactical masterclass in slowing down the game, Kerry did what they had to do to win and they did it in style.

That has always been Kerry's greatest attribute - as much as their wonderfully skillful footballers, the sheer athleticism of their players or their history but the fact that they find a way to win, by hook or by crook. Congratulations to Kerry on a thoroughly deserved win and you could tell by their celebrations that it meant more than the usual 'yerra, sure we're Kerry' celebrations!