Well now, this was a turn up for the books. The NUIG celebrations, after five drama-filled minutes of second-half injury-time, told as much.

Galway football manager Kevin Walsh said he notices the circle of life as he calls players into his squad whose fathers he lined out with and against in his own career.

Kerry 3-7 Galway 0-9: That 20-year famine that preceded the first of Jack O’Connor’s two minor triumphs must now surely be a distant memory down Kingdom country.