Paradise lost or great expectations? This was no Penguin Classic but it will have the look of one for Kerry.

In Tipperary town 34 years ago, Donie Buckley got enough of his right fist to a desperate, late sideline ball from his Desmonds colleague Martin Downey to deliver a first All-Ireland club football title to the town of Castleisland.

Kerry must simplify their kickout strategy and go long from the tee against Dublin, says former Kingdom star Declan O’Sullivan.

Seventeen Kerry players are in line to make their All-Ireland senior final debut on Sunday afternoon.

Peter Keane wasn’t the least bit surprised to hear Jim Gavin regard his Kerry side as a team of the now, rather than one for the future.

You don’t have to be an anti-Dub to have left Croke Park on Saturday evening feeling utterly deflated at what you had just witnessed.

And so what stands between Dublin and immortality is the county that itself was denied that very place in history on another All-Ireland final day.

As well as taking umbrage with some decisions made by referee Maurice Deegan, Tyrone manager Mickey Harte felt more than six minutes of second-half injury time should have been awarded.

Peter Keane told reporters afterwards that he did not watch Saturday’s Dublin-Mayo semi-final (“there was no point, we were worrying about ourselves”), but he clearly heard some of the commentary which followed the Dubs’ comprehensive win as the Kerry manager was incredibly quick off the mark when it was put to him that nobody was giving the Kingdom a prayer on September 1.

One hasn’t really lived as a journalist unless you’ve pointed a recording device at a winning manager and posed the most pointless question of them all: What was said in the dressing-room at half-time?

Mission accomplished for Peter Keane and his men. They are where they want to be.

A rousing second-half Kerry display ensured it will be they who are the last men standing between Dublin and the five-in-a-row that eluded the Kingdom in 1982.

Shortly after the final whistle, the two teams mingled, swapped jerseys, and smiled in the middle of the field. Level 15 times and never more than two points difference between them, it was all they could do.

A last gasp Michael Murphy free levelled this game for a 15th and final time in a cracking Super 8, Round 2 game.

There is huge anticipation throughout the country this morning for the second coming of the Super 8s.

Kerry may have a chance to exact revenge on Galway in Fitzgerald Stadium, in Killarney, on July 13 or 14, but David Moran is not sure it’s an advantage for the Munster champions to have their home game first day out this year.

There are four Munster final debutants in the Kerry team to face Cork at Páirc Uí Chaoimh tomorrow evening.

Kerry football manager Peter Keane is hopeful of having a full hand to pick from for Saturday week’s Munster SFC final.

On the road up to Ennis on Saturday evening, Clive Tyldesley was being interviewed on the radio about his recollections of his 1999 Champions League final commentary on ITV, and specifically about those final, frantic minutes when Manchester United went from 1-0 down in injury-time to somehow turn the tables and beat Bayern Munich 2-1.

The result was never in doubt, so why did Kerry’s victory feel like a let-down?

Kerry manager Peter Keane has included four debutants in his first championship side, which will take on Clare in Cusack Park in tomorrow night’s Munster SFC semi-final (7pm).

Last Sunday saw the curtain come down on what was one of the more enjoyable and competitive national football league campaigns in recent memory.

Tomorrow’s league final presents both Kerry and Mayo with a great opportunity to win a national title in Croke Park.

Earlier this week, a graphic posted on Twitter by Mayo GAA blog Ah Ref! revealed that players from the west of the county had seen the most action in this year’s Allianz League campaign to-date with 45%.

We can’t say for certain if Mayo’s players will be back at Croke Park this year beyond Sunday but they will certainly be seeing the inside of plenty of churches.

David Clifford is in line to make his first start for Kerry this season as he is named in the full-forward line in tomorrow’s final round Division 1 game in Roscommon.

Kerry manager Peter Keane had mixed news regarding the county’s walking wounded as they prepare to face Mayo in a crucial Allianz NFL clash at a sold out Austin Stack Park on Saturday night.

Perhaps we could cut straight to the last 15 minutes or so.

It’s almost 20 years since East Kerry were kingpins of football in the county and their stock of young talent threatens to bring them close to the summit this year.

The mathematics of championship selection is pretty elementary. Eight into six doesn’t go. Nor does nine. So which of the Kerry forwards is dodging awkward conversation with Éamonn Fitzmaurice before the Munster football final on July 3?

EX-CAPTAIN Kieran O’Leary and defenders Jack Sherwood and Pa Kilkenny are among six Kerry footballers that have been released or have left the Kingdom’s Championship squad this week.

Kerry U21 boss Jack O’Connor has warned that the county must start producing young players capable of surviving at senior level as “Aidan O’Mahony, Marc Ó Sé, Kieran Donaghy, and Colm Cooper can’t go on forever”.

Ibis Du Rheu battled on bravely to outpoint Flying Angel in a close finish to the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham.

So the guessing games begin.

James O’Donoghue has recovered to take his place in the Kerry side to play Tyrone in Sunday’s All-Ireland SFC semi-final in Croke Park (throw-in 3.30pm).

“To rock up” is one of those great new verbs. It came to mind watching Bryan Sheehan approach each of the five frees he kicked on Sunday.

Grand National-winning jockey Jason Maguire will miss this year’s renewal of the world’s greatest steeplechase as he sits out the rest of the campaign to recover from injury.

Allianz FL Division 1 

Monaghan 1-11 Kerry 0-10

Cork travel to face Galway in the Allianz NHL on Sunday and boss Jimmy Barry-Murphy has made a raft of changes for the game, a total of five alterations since the win over Dublin.

Cork 3-17 Kerry 2-9

If Cork had somebody to rope the wind, they might just have left Ballyshannon with a league point last Sunday.