All-Ireland SFC Final Kerry: Tom Humphriesreflects on the elements that make the champions so often superior to all their rivals

A certain Dan Doona did well for Leitrim in the New York championships this summer. In his native Kerry, Doona's prowess at a modest level of footballing activity well below that for which he was born was briefly noted. Then everyone moved on.

A few years ago when Jack O'Connor became manager of Kerry his first headache was Dan Doona. On a training trip to Lanzarote, Declan O'Sullivan was being picked on by some locals on a night out and Doona stepped in to protect his former colleague from Kerry minor teams. For his trouble Doona got a karate kick to the face which shattered his jaw and left him drinking through straws for a while.

Doona had scored 1-4 in the 2002 Munster minor final. A minor again the following summer, he was red-carded in the Munster semi-final but scored 0-4 in the All-Ireland semi-final loss to Laois.

The following summer, just recovered from the jaw injury, he scored 2-2 in the Munster under-21 semi-final only to be dropped for the final. His career never left the runway or he never gave it a chance to.

O'Connor and the Kerry selectors believed he was a blue-chip prospect.

He could have three All-Ireland medals by now and be worth every one of them. But Kerry lost him to the new world and moved on.

In just about any other county in Ireland getting Dan Doona back into a county jersey would be a collective concern that took precedence over just about anything else.

"Dan was very talented," says Darragh Ó Sé. "Who knows? Dan didn't give himself the chance to go to the next level. He didn't put himself through that.

"He's young enough. Hugely talented. He could still come back and do it but in Kerry things move on. There's always lads coming through."

That is what is so frightening for every other county at this crossroads in football history. Toward the end of the Páidí Ó Sé era it looked as if Kerry would be gone for a while, that Páidí had wrung everything that could be wrung out of the county's talent.

Jack O'Connor came in and won an All-Ireland straight off the bat, but in 2005 when Tyrone beat Kerry the lamentations for the death of Kerry football began again. Tyrone were about to go dynastic.

"The perspective changes quickly," says Paul Galvin. "Look at Tyrone a couple of years ago. They looked as if they were well set up to detonate. All it takes though is a couple of injuries or a retirement or two and it knocks you off. We have a lot of good players in Kerry now, but say if Darragh did retire and we went into a championship without Darragh and then Gooch gets a knock or Donaghy gets a knock - it gives a different complexion to everything. You can't rest on what you have."

You can't and Kerry is the last county in Ireland where you would find complacency. And yet it would be forgivable.

Last Sunday in the dismantling of Cork, Kerry started with five players who didn't start the 2005 All-Ireland final. The left side of the defence was mint-fresh and 20 years old. Seven players were 25 or under.

From the ranks of their seasoned defenders they were forced to replace not just Séamus Moynihan and Mike McCarthy but also Eamon Fitzmaurice and Brendan Guiney this year. In midfield they lost the services of Tommy Griffin to injury but worked ahead with the recalled and rethreaded Séamus Scanlon in harness with Darragh Ó Sé.

The forwards could afford to have Mike Frank Russell, still just 29 and one of the most decorated players in history, sit on the bench with quality young talent like Paul O'Connor, Darren O'Sullivan and Seán O'Sullivan. Declan Quill, the team's top scorer in the league, didn't get a look in during the summer months.

And of course Tadhg Kennelly is lost to Sydney Swans but nobody is writing ballads about when he will be coming home.

And the odd thing is that Kerry's wealth of talent isn't imitable in the way Kilkenny's system is. There is no great blueprint from which the county works to turn out a stream of players when needed. Just tradition and culture and something which has been mentioned often this week: the fact that it matters more.

Paul Galvin was out during the week and he ran into Paddy Curran. In Kerry, Curran is rated as a future star. Three years with the minors, he scored eight points in last year's drawn final before suffering a jaw injury but played on the losing Kerry side in the replay. He is two-footed and quick, and in college at Tralee he is developing the physique he will need at senior level.

As a schools player he was a phenomenon and holds the distinction of having won a Munster under-15, a Munster under-16 (and a half) and a Munster senior colleges medal all in the one year.

When Galvin ran into the rising star he asked him was he having a drink. Curran declined. He has a trial with the county under-21s this morning.

He played with the under-21 side last year and starred on the South Kerry under-21 side which reached the county final a couple of weeks ago.

He would probably be picked if he turned up this morning inebriated and cursing like a sailor but that's not the prevalent culture in Kerry. Players push up from beneath.

Part of what keeps them pushing through is a lively schools tradition. This year Kerry will have five schools competing in the Munster A grade competition. Teams from Killorglin, Tralee, Killarney, Dingle and Cahersiveen will provide a huge foundation of year-round training and quality coaching based on genuine competition and tradition, an environment development squads can never replicate.

This year Rathmore will compete for the first time in the Kerry colleges competition and will probably graduate to Munster and All-Ireland level next year. The eight-team Kerry county competition is filled out by St Michael's Listowel and Tarbert Comprehensive, a spread which covers most of the county.

There is always somebody coming through, somewhere.

"It is tradition and fellas pushing each other on," says Darragh Ó Sé. "Young guys coming through, somebody trying to steal a march.

"Colm Cooper, say, has been exceptional all year but he's after kicking it on this year and raising the bar a little bit for the next fella coming through.

"The goals have to change over time. People talk a lot about doing it for the Kerry jersey but we did it for ourselves this year.

"Players are selfish. We're selfish - that's the reality. It's the attitude of guys that want to win. Guys don't want to be subs; they want to play. At the end of the day that's the ruthlessness. You'd be a lonely guy if you were waiting for the thing to stop for you."

His friend and colleague Paul Galvin concurs.

"Tradition of winning has a huge part. The development-squad thing never really took off but the tradition is huge. I was looking the other night at Seánie Walsh making that catch and Páidí standing under him and I was thinking that it makes it easier for us, having that tradition of winning, of going to Croke Park and winning.

"I was thinking we have the three Ó Sés on the team and Tommy Walsh on the subs. Tradition is a big part of it all. It doesn't bring pressure. I don't feel it anyway if it does.

"Those guys are always very decent to us, always have advice for us, giving us encouragement to make our own story."

Kerry's success is odder given that the county hasn't won a minor All-Ireland since 1994 and has been without an under-21 title since 1998.

There is a county under-16 development squad but not a lot of fuss is made of it. If there is a secret it is in the apprenticeship system which has evolved with the senior panel. Good minors come through onto the senior panel, spend a couple of years beefing up and learning the ropes and are then sprung.

Killian Young and Pádraig Reidy were minors together. Last week at 20 years of age they were All-Ireland senior medallists together. As Kerry's need was for defenders they got a little jump on players like Paul O'Connor and Darren O'Sullivan, but those are the breaks. Next year they should see more game time and Kerry will continue developing players like Tommy Walsh (who was on the bench on Sunday) and Paddy Curran and probably Walsh's midfield partner from last year's minor side, David Moran.

From this year's minor side Barry John Walsh (brother of Tommy and son of Seánie) is already a standout with another year to go at minor. Patrick Curtin was eye-catching too.

Further down the line Declan O'Sullivan's 16-year-old brother, Dominic, already looks as if he will emerge as a defender of real quality. The one thing which is said about each player in that holding pattern is that he wants it.

This year Kerry pulled off something which ostensibly they had no right to do. They lost inspirational players and a charismatic manager. They had been in three finals in succession, winning two, and had no right to feel hungry.

Cork, after serial humiliations in Croke Park, had the right to feel they would have the monopoly on desire at least. Yet Kerry blew them away.

"At the end of the day it's about the panel," says Darragh Ó Sé. "You're only as good as what you're competing against inside in training. Some of the best football we have is inside in training. Pat (O'Shea) came in this year. He basically set the tone. We were lucky enough to come out the right side of it again.

"Management have a lot to do in organising, but it comes down to attitude in the end. Nobody is going to watch you doing weights or make sure you do the right things. You can bring a horse to water . . ."

This year under O'Shea's tutelage change was minimal - deliberately so. The Kerry squad got used to hearing a chorus of new voices and there was a little tweaking of the style of their forward play but basically the trust was put in the players and the challenge was given to them.

"It was a bit hard to adapt alright," says Galvin, "but when I got home from Australia there was no time to be dwelling on it. It was a bit different: not just one new voice but five or six new voices - obviously you'd have a big input from selectors and physical trainers. It takes getting used to if you were close to the previous manager.

"Jack gave me my chance and I'll never forget that. You're too busy though with games to worry too much. Players just look after themselves. Pat pushed us a lot in terms of challenging us, asking did we want to do this. He was demanding enough in terms of how he pushed the buttons of different players."

That pushing the right buttons, finding the positive motivations in desire and hunger and legacy are what will keep Kerry sharp. Quietly this week players when they met socially were floating the idea of the three-in-a-row and burying it again, knowing baby steps will be required first and the three-in-a-row will take care of itself if everything else is looked after.

And whether it happens or not, this team have already created a legacy and tradition which will keep the culture alive. They say in economics there are competitive advantages and natural advantages. Kerry have both just now and plan to keep it that way.

Kerry's 2007 Football Panel

Age 19 - Tommy Walsh

Age 20 - Pádraig Reidy, Killian Young

Age 21 - Darren O'Sullivan, Paul O'Connor

Age 22 - Bryan Sheehan, Kieran O'Leary

Age 23 - Declan O'Sullivan, Donncha Walsh

Age 24 - Colm Cooper, Kieran Donaghy, Daniel Bohan, Rónán Ó Flatharta

Age 25 - Séamus Scanlan, Ronan Hussey, Declan Quill

Age 26 - Kieran Cremin

Age 27 - Marc Ó Sé, Aidan O'Mahony, Paul Galvin, Eoin Brosnan, Micheál Quirke, Seán O'Sullivan

Age 28 - Tom O'Sullivan

Age 29 - Tomás Ó Sé, Mike Frank Russell, Tommy Griffin

Age 30 - Mossie Lyons

Age 32 - Diarmuid Murphy, Darragh Ó Sé