Whoever said absence makes the heart grow fonder obviously hadn't figured on Kerry playing Cork in the All-Ireland football final. It wouldn't have mattered if Kerry had won 34 titles or none at all, because this was the one final they wanted to win, had to win; their heart for football was fonder that it's ever been.

Losing to Cork was clearly not an option. On the day it created a vicious hunger unprecedented by Kerry standards, and a team boldest of the bold, meanest of the mean.

"That was the key, yeah," said Paul Galvin who, like all his team-mates, played as if Cork were an invading army threatening all of Kerry's rich football tradition.

"I felt myself that everything Kerry football stood for was on the line. Everything we'd achieved in the last four or five years, and everything we'd achieved in the last 100 years, was riding on that 70 minutes of football. It was that fear of losing to Cork that was driving us.

"The satisfaction for me comes from the medals. That's what it's all about. I just want to win as many medals as I can while I'm playing. But the fact that it was Cork out there meant defeat was not an option.

"I also knew there was no way I could leave the people of Kerry down. That was very serious for us. We wouldn't have been left back into the county if we'd lost that game.

"But then we had a meeting last night, and I looked around me, and I knew there was no way anyone here would leave that happen. I mean there was no pressure either. I was never more relaxed coming up to a final . . . I was just so calm, basically because I had so much trust in the guys around me. You know these guys will do it for you. It's just a great outfit, and brilliant to be part of."

Galvin wasn't the only one talking that way: Aidan O'Mahony laid down that marker from the start, his determination one of the early signals of Kerry's pending victory.

"A lot of the talk was that Cork would be hungrier for this All-Ireland," said O'Mahony, "but I think every one of this Kerry team was prepared to leave everything on the field. It was the first Kerry-Cork final, and that meant bragging rights for the next 100 years. So it was a game we couldn't lose, really.

"I knew the hunger was there. It was so relaxed last night in the hotel. We had the legs underneath us, and that's all down to the training under John Sugrue and the lads. The work-rate was incredible. The pressure of all six forwards out there was unreal. Their tackling as well. And that's great for us, as defenders, to see that."

For Pat O'Shea, the almost reluctant Kerry manager who has influenced the team in a huge way in such a short spell, the result was deeply satisfying, even if he made it sound more like a call of duty: "We were asked to do a job at the start of the year . . . There's a lot of pressure with that, but when you're going through it out there, my only thought was being thankful I was able to do that job, really, and that I wasn't going to be hiding in Kerry for the next couple of weeks if I hadn't done it. It's a great feeling right now.

"But of course we all know how fickle it can be in football, and you can find yourself on the other side of the fence very quickly.

"But I said from day one that I enjoy what I do. And the family are a part of that, so it's great that they're here.

"Today was all about a team effort, and there were a lot of Kerry players who played exceptionally well. That's what it's been about all year. It was a bit like the Dublin match, where we got a bit of a stranglehold, some crucial scores, opened the gap. And it was very pleasing at the end."

Still, it wasn't just the hunger to beat Cork that won the day. Team captain Declan O'Sullivan reckoned it was as much about pride: "Hunger, I don't know, it's a very vague term. What we have is a lot of honesty, a lot of proud Kerrymen, wanting to win. That's what happened today.

"All-Ireland final day is fantastic, but only if you win it. We've been here in losing dressingrooms, and we certainly didn't want that feeling again.

"Cork's strength has always been driving out of defence. We had to counteract that, go toe to toe with them. And that's all about work-rate.

"You can have all the skill in the world, but you need that honesty as well to win games."

Of course there was also the not inconsiderable feat of winning back-to-back All-Irelands.

"Well that's a very special moment," added O'Sullivan, "for these group of players, and the management. It does take a lot of work. But I think this particular bunch thoroughly deserves it.

"I think we'd prepared very well, and everyone was in great form in training. All those factors were working for us. And that bit of experience as well, being here before."

Even the team rookie Pádraig Reidy found the desire to beat Cork an overriding incentive: "That's true, we didn't want to lose to Cork . . . It was the one game we didn't want to lose.

"I'm just thankful to Pat O'Shea (for the chance) to prove myself again, because I know it was tricky enough after the Monaghan game . . . So to play now in an All-Ireland final was great. To win, obviously, a dream come true."