GAELIC GAMES:THESE GAMES should come with a Government health warning stamped on the side. Only The League. Counties who have hungered in the wilderness tend to view the arrival of a National League title as the first sighting of lorries filled with food aid tipping over the brow of a shimmering horizon in a parched land. So it was that Derry celebrated long and lustily on the field in Parnell Park yesterday as another league title bought them a licence to dream of plenty.

They were fine value for their win, however, and entitled to enjoy a few minutes' worth of jigs and reels before getting back to the quotidian worry of championship preparation. Any day you beat Kerry is a good day and any day you beat Kerry in a National final having been seven points down is an excellent day.

Derry have an odd record in the league and if their win stands for anything it is as a reward for taking the competition seriously year in and year out. They have six league titles now and just seven Ulster titles and the one All-Ireland. Kerry's 18 league wins weigh lightly against 72 provincial titles and 35 All-Irelands. Yesterday's win went to where it was wanted most.

Played in the homely precinct of Parnell Park before an exclusive audience of 9,732, this was one of the lower-key finals of recent times and as Kerry majestically carved out a large lead in the opening 20 minutes it seemed as if the subdued lead-in to the game was justified. How deceptive that opening act would appear by the time the final curtain fell.

Marc Ó Sé burst from defence with a coltish enthusiasm early on. Kieran Donaghy caught a ball seconds later where he actually appeared to levitate before feeding a pass to Donncha Walsh to slip it into the Derry net. Darren O'Sullivan had a point as the grace note to an exquisite move minutes later again. Kerry's attacking movement was gorgeous and extravagant and everyone wanted part of it. Aidan O'Mahony exploded from the centre-back posting to hit a massive point from 55 yards and the only presaging of what was to come was when Niall McCusker intervened heroically to block Donncha Walsh after Donaghy had pulled off another circus catch and fed his colleague.

McCusker, not even selected in the Derry starting line-up which had the iconic Kevin McCloy listed at full back, had been an earth-bound bit-player as Donaghy had soared a couple of times early on. He was the first Derry player, however, to cease being mesmerised by the green and gold cavalcade unfolding before our eyes and to start playing football. His defiance from the time of that block onwards was emblematic of his team's will.

Derry slowed the Kerry momentum and finished the half as the stronger team. They came to dominate the middle third of the field and just before the break hit paydirt when they found an unlikely weakness in the centre of the Kerry defence. Barry McGoldrick made good ground, Diarmuid Murphy made a decent save but the ball fell kindly for Fergal Doherty and the Bellaghy man finished triumphantly to the Kerry net.

Paddy Bradley, the cutting edge of virtually everything Derry do, applied two points before the break and Derry went to their tea and oranges just two points adrift.

That was sufficient encouragement and a goal early in the second half - as easy a score as Conleth Gilligan will ever be gifted - gave them a one-point lead.

There was a brief tug-of-war as Kerry demanded the momentum back but Derry were more acute tactically and when a pair of extraordinary points from Enda Muldoon and the full back McCusker sailed over those who worry about such things headed out to beat the traffic.

For Derry it was a remarkable afternoon, a suggestion of solid growth as a team. They celebrated well but recited the mantra at all times. Only the league. Only the league.

"We'll enjoy this for a few days," said manager Paddy Crozier when he hit the dressingroom area looking like a man who might grin himself to death. "Then we will come back training on Thursday and draw a line under it. That will be the end of league 2008."

Three days of carnival in the Oak Leaf county. Then back to the grind. Only the league, boys.