Before yesterday's Bank of Ireland All-Ireland football final, the survivors of the Cavan and Kerry teams who contested the Polo Grounds final 50 years ago were presented to the crowd. It was accordingly ironic that the match which followed was as forgettable as its illustrious predecessor had been historic. Kerry won't complain after closing the book on the longest period of footballing deprivation the county has suffered this century.

Their victory was thorough and well deserved. It rested on twin pillars: the scale of Mayo's woes, from injuries which wrought havoc, to the familiar inability to kick straight, and the awesome performance of Maurice Fitzgerald, who stood head and shoulders above the generality and whose excellence cast a beam of light on the dire mediocrity of the afternoon's football.

Toying with defenders - the luckless Pat Holmes in particular - who were left twisting in the wind trying to contain his ambidextrous threat, Fitzgerald kicked four points from play in a total of nine for the afternoon.

In the process he crowned himself indisputable Man of the Match, Player of the Year and the championship's top scorer, an honour he nicked at the death from both Offaly's Dave Reynolds and Mayo's Maurice Sheridan, who had limped out of the match at half-time.

Last year, Mayo lost the All-Ireland twice but at least they spread the effort over two matches. This time around they lost it twice in the space of one day to markedly superior opposition. The Connacht champions gave a first-half performance of stunning ineptitude, taking 23 minutes to register their first score, and playing to no discernible pattern.

Then, having conjured a little-foreseen, second-half fight-back which exposed Kerry's nerves and took Mayo to within a point of the rattled opposition, the westerners seemed to have decided that 10 minutes of this raised tempo was enough. They accordingly followed a dam-burst 1-2 in the space of two minutes by leaving the scoreboard untroubled for the final 20 minutes.

Although the comeback rattled Kerry and cast doubt on the outcome, the three-point margin was a distortion which flattered Mayo's inferiority on the day. Peter Burke in the losers' goal had pulled down some outstanding saves, particularly from Denis O'Dwyer and substitute John Crowley in the second half.

Kerry won an array of unexpected victories around the field with their centrefield exceeding one modest pre-match target of restricting their deficiency to 40:60 by in fact winning in the middle for the first half and competing well during the second.

Dara O Se capped what has been a season of great improvement and William Kirby, if again bedevilled by inconsistency and eventually replaced, also made a contribution. Around them, the Kerry half lines gobbled up breaking ball and Mayo's platform was plainly going to be smaller than anticipated.

In a fluid defence where markers stayed with their original men except in the central positions, the Kerry flankers, the splendid Seamus Moynihan and Killian Burns in particular, were quick after the ball, and in the middle Barry O'Shea had an authoritative afternoon, taking charge of four different attempts by Mayo to get the full forward position working.

Anchoring the defence, Liam Flaherty gave a robustly flamboyant display using his strength on the ball to win possession and gain a physical edge on immediate opponents, although James Horan gave some anxious moments and Flaherty was generally unable to block off his opposite number, James Nallen's scything runs from deep.

In front of him, Kerry's wing forwards buzzed dangerously. Pa Laide zipped all around the place in the first half and took two points from his activities. Although he was quieter in the second half, he was still effective. On the other side, Denis Dwyer had a fine second half, powering his way up and down the left wing and winning a vital kick-out towards the end.

Mayo did create chances, but embarked on a spree of inaccurate shooting, spectacular even by the dismal standards of the summer.

While this was happening, Kerry methodically racked up the scores, albeit not in the quantities their superiority would warrant, but sufficient to put them well in command.

In fairness to Mayo's defence, they rolled up their sleeves and worked like Trojans - Kenneth Mortimer again cleaning up on a disappointing Dara O Cinneide - to stem the tide and it must have broken their hearts to see their efforts offset by the squander-mania up front.

Very early in the match, Mayo found themselves in difficulty. Dermot Flanagan pulled up after only four minutes and had to be replaced, raising questions about whether he had been fully tested before the match, given the reported difficulty with his hamstring.

The smoothness of the switches had a rehearsed quality and Fergal Costello dropped back to the corner with David Heaney moving from centrefield to replace him, Colm McManamon and substitute Horan slotting into the ensuing vacancies.

Mayo's troubles were exacerbated by the playing of persistently inappropriate ball into the forwards: three times in the first 11 minutes high kicks rained down on Kieran McDonald to predictably little effect.

Nallen's raids from the back were the source of most of the intelligent moves but still the team couldn't muster scores. McDonald nervelessly hit a 21-yard free wide, shortly after Sheridan had begun to emit distress signals by dropping a free short.

Kerry's satisfactory afternoon was clouded in the 22nd minute when Billy O'Shea had to be stretchered off with a suspected compound leg fracture after a collision with Fitzgerald. He was replaced by Crowley, who gave an energetic display which wasn't flattered by a one-point return. Shortly afterwards, Fitzgerald curled over an exceptional free from the right sideline to push Kerry four points clear.

By the end of the half, Mayo had given up on the experiment of Liam McHale at full forward and the Ballina man moved to centrefield to try and kick-start the team. McManamon reverted to the wing and continued to do all the things he usually does well without mastering the things he does badly.

Suffering from the most frustrating curse since Cassandra, McManamon runs all day, gathers heaps of ball and takes up intuitively good positions - but can't exploit them. The number of times he comes in on the end of a well-made move only to waste it must bring tears to Mayo people's eyes.

In first-half injury-time he galloped on to a ball and carried it deep into enemy territory. He could have gone on and fisted a point or even had a crack at goal but instead looped the ball wide.

The next injury afflicted Sheridan who limped around forlornly after another hamstring had gone ping with the Mayo line apparently unwilling to replace him before half-time. On one occasion he caused panic by arising behind the defence to fist a point when a goal was on had he two working legs.

The early stages of the second half tended to confirm the half-time assumption that Mayo would be trimmed. Diarmuid Byrne had replaced Sheridan but the main theme of the afternoon persisted as Fitzgerald kicked a free before torturing Holmes for a seventh point. When Crowley pushed the margin to 0-11 to 0-4, the floodgates were creaking.

Mayo did uncover a deep-seated desire to chase matters and with Pat Fallon beginning to dominate centrefield and the team benefiting from McHale's attempts to spread the play, Kerry's victory march hit a turbulent phase.

Moynihan was penalised for fouling Byrne, who had been given the ball by McManamon. McDonald's penalty was exemplary and was followed by two points within a minute from Horan who was nonetheless only a shadow of the player who had made hay with Meath 12 months ago, taking his points only when there was no reasonable option but to kick for them.

O Cinneide, Fitzgerald (even) and Hassett all hit wides to bloodcurdling cheers from Mayo's reawoken supporters. Mayo's inability to close the one-point gap at 1-7 to 0-11 eventually proved fatal as Fitzgerald steadied Kerry's ship with a 59th-minute point.

Michael Francis Russell made his now customary appearance but at a later stage than usual, in the 61st minute. By then the match was too competitive for the Killorglin wunderkind who would surely have hacked up in the loose-marking anarchy of the third quarter.

The match ended in the 72nd minute on an emblematic note, with Fitzgerald screwing over a line ball from 45 metres. The Kingdom are back and there's no disputing who's king.