The final twist on September road

IF WE have learnt anything from the last few All-Ireland finals we know that the eventual champion isn’t always the best team over the course of the summer but rather the best team over the course of an hour and a half in late September.

It has been a legacy of both Kerry and Tyrone to provide us with definitive proof these last six seasons that the team who perform best under the klieg lights between 3.30pm and 5pm on the third Sunday always wins the All-Ireland title and anything that happens before or after that period of time is of no consequence.

That is why the beguiling form lines coming into tomorrow’s season finale are in reality so meaningless as to render them redundant. This is a game where all the clichés will apply. This is Cork and Kerry. It really is all on the day and it probably will go down to the wire. Sometimes you realise that clichés are clichés because they’re true.