GAELIC GAMES: Some days only the most primitive, the most timeworn of clichés will suffice. Kerry had 32 All-Irelands yesterday morning. They had 33 yesterday afternoon after their 1-20 to 2-9 demolition of Mayo. Just enough time in between to prove themselves simply the best.

As football finals go this was a disappointment, lacking in fizz and flavour, and, after the 25th minute, when The Gooch put the game beyond rescue, there was only the general genius of Kerry left to admire.

Mayo, losing their third All-Ireland final in a decade, had to endure a phenomenon they must have thought they'd left behind after their 20-point thrashing back in the 1993 semi-final. Droves of their supporters made for the exits through the second half, leaving huge blue scabs of empty seats in the stands. Every turned Mayo back stole a little bit more of their team's morale.

Perhaps Mayo's problem was that they have been away from this locality for too long. The game evolves and moves on. The Northern revolution which brought All-Irelands to Armagh and Tyrone was felt most keenly in Kerry, where the county team fell victim in the last two seasons to big, strong, rampaging Northern sides.

Those who spoke about Mayo's speed and dash forgot perhaps the lessons Kerry learned the hard way. The game is about establishing the right to speed and dash. Kerry remembered last August and the stomach-churning sight of the green and gold being battered and buffeted by swarms of Tyrone men. They went home and fashioned a response.

"I tell you, it's simple," said Jack O'Connor afterwards. "We spoke at half-time about the fact that we were in a great position in 2002 inside in that same dressing-room and it looked like we had Sam going home. We left it after us. We were going to drive on and keep attacking. That's the way it panned out."

Kerry didn't just play better football - they earned the licence to do so. Their defenders burst forward at astonishing speed, their midfield did the horsework and did the fancy stuff too. And their forwards? Enough to say that Kerry had 21 scores and another 13 wides, nearly half of those being put astray through the distracted boredom of the final quarter.

They made the right calls, too. There was a little fuss of apprehension in Kerry last week when O'Connor chose to play John Crowley instead of Mike Frank Russell. "Tut, tut," said the purists who have doubted this side all summer.

Russell is the epitome of Kerry forward play: quick and darting and mercurial. Crowley is an animal of a different stripe. He showed yesterday that O'Connor had made the correct call. He bustled and hustled and broke up the play. He caught and created. Every time the ball dropped in on the Mayo full-back line they looked like men with one bucket of water and three fires to put out.

"Fellas come in and out of form," said Crowley. "I got my crack today. Two weeks ago I didn't think I'd be playing in an All-Ireland. They picked the team on training, though, and I did as best I could the last four weeks. Today was going to be the end of the year one way or the other so I gave it everything. We had a gameplan. In the first 20 minutes the game was helter-skelter, but the plan worked."

Then, of course, there was The Gooch. Those of us inclined to launch a national campaign for his safety were alarmed to note yesterday that the stripling's repertoire has extended to the fielding of high balls in the company of muscular, desperate men. Some day one of them will kill him. In the meantime we can but enjoy his astonishing skills. He scored 1-4 from play and his goal 10 minutes before half-time dropped Mayo like an inhalation of chloroform.

"Colm Cooper? The Gooch? What can I say about him that ye haven't written already?" wondered O'Connor. "He's an exceptional player. Not alone can he win the low ones, he can win the high ones too. It's something we set out to do, to send some high ball in to him. We felt they were a bit vulnerable. I've said it 20 times - in the air he's as good as what's around. I wanted the lads to check out his marker early on. He has a nose for goal. He's just a genius."

Kerry had the bad start which has become a familiar part of their season. Alan Dillon's goal after four minutes sent the Mayo crowd into orbit for a short while, but it didn't even have the distinction of being the earliest goal Kerry have conceded this year. Stephen Kelly of Limerick decked them after 10 seconds. Then, as yesterday, Kerry got up, dusted themselves down and went to work.

That they completed the job without three of their finest craftsmen makes the story all the more remarkable. Darragh Ó Sé watched on crutches. Séamus Moynihan and Mike Frank Russell sat in splinterland until the game was bagged and wrapped.

Yesterday's All-Ireland seemed so unlikely back last autumn when Páidí got jilted. It looked impossible when Kerry began the O'Connor era with a defeat to Longford in the league. It still looked a long shot when Kerry began preparing for a final without Darragh Ó Sé and Moynihan. And yet O'Connor, the teacher from Ballinskelligs, is about nothing if he is not about learning. All summer Kerry have accrued knowledge and experience. To that was added the edge that hunger gives.

"This hunger, lads," said O'Connor afterwards. "It's the sort of thing you can't quantify. All month, there was a great feeling in the camp. The lads were enjoying training. They were looking forward to the last training session as much as the first. Pat Flanagan (physical trainer) has really rejuvenated a lot of the players."

And O'Connor has rejuvenated Kerry. The rest of the football world braces itself.