Tyrone and Kerry’s legacy will endure

THEY lived cheek by jowl for so long that it’s perhaps appropriate that they should suffer their demise on the same day, at the same venue, in the same utterly unexpected fashion.

Kerry and Tyrone illuminated the Noughties. If the early to middle part of the decade could be characterised by Tyrone’s throwing down of the gauntlet to Kerry, the second half saw Kerry issue a powerful response.

In head-to-head clashes, Tyrone enjoyed the upper hand: but it would be disingenuous to reduce the Tyrone-Kerry rivalry to those direct meetings. An All-Ireland won is an All-Ireland won, regardless of who you beat along the way, and your standing cannot be diminished by the failure of your opponents to advance far enough to cross your path.