There could be no other way. With the fall of Dublin on Saturday and Cork yesterday, youth and romance and novelty were eliminated from the All-Ireland championship to leave burning the only core question of this summer of football.
The best three counties in the land stand primed and as August fades comes the feeling that the truth of the championship awaits us. The long months have been a preamble to these momentous weeks ahead. Kerry, the reigning champions, the curators of tradition, will meet either Armagh or Tyrone, the raging pride of Ulster, this September.
This magnificent Northern rivalry will grace Croke Park for the third time this season when the counties gather in Croke Park next Sunday but whatever the outcome, the public has its dream football final. As preordained, it will be North versus South, the Kingdom against the Power. It did not help Billy Morgan's young Cork team that predestination seemed to weigh against them yesterday as they had their hands more than full coping with a sleek, economic Kerry performance.
The exuberance and flair that Cork exhibited on the way to this reunion with their Munster-final victors was not on display here: it was not allowed to be. The Kerry defence could not have been more businesslike had they taken the field carrying briefcases, their hunger and concentration denying Cork even a late consolation goal in the pleasant, afternoon sunshine. In those moments, Billy Morgan stood perfectly still, his hair a snowier shade of white, his hand fending the sun from his eyes, as if Kerry were not dazzling enough.
"I'm devastated," the great Nemo man admitted afterwards. "Because I know we are much better than that. Kerry picked up all the breaks and that really hurt us. Fair play to them, they had their homework done."
But this was more than reading, writing and arithmetic. It is no coincidence that this is a Kerry team littered with schoolteachers. When Philip Clifford, Cork's thin white duke and most explicit threat, scored a terrific point after five minutes, we braced ourselves for a rebel-rousing afternoon. Kerry had different ideas and no Cork forward scored from play for the next 50 minutes. By then, the outcome was iron-cast and the flawless display of Colm Cooper, who tortured the Cork back line, was the main source of intrigue.
Even by his own standards, it was a heightened display by the special one from Killarney. Although he has matured a little since his signature summer of 2001 - he probably has to pay full fare into the movie house these days - Cooper's wraith-like frame is one of the great wonders of the modern game. On a day when Croke Park stood silent in honour of the memory of the great Seán Purcell, the young Kerryman's excellence seemed like a tribute.
Yesterday proved that shadowing Cooper is about the toughest job in Gaelic football. Niall Geary was handed the task yesterday and everybody in the crowd of 39,594 felt a degree of empathy for the Nemo man when Morgan withdrew him 17 minutes in. By then, Cooper had fired over four points, each an advertisement of his limitless repertoire and each a spur to his team- mates. They responded. This was by far the most potent Kerry have been since destroying Mayo in last year's showpiece and for the most part, they were cruising.
Cork trailed by 1-19 to 0-9 at the close and although Cooper's contribution slowed with the pace of the contest, he was given a thunderous ovation when Jack O'Connor called him ashore after 66 minutes. By then, luminous replacements like Mike Frank Russell and Dara Ó Cinnéide had already begun to flash over fine points with masterful ease and it was clear that Kerry were not playing against their local adversaries any more. They were playing for September places.
Flamboyant as Kerry's attacking play can be, however, discipline is their central motif. Although Cork's Derek Kavanagh was declared fit enough to merit an 11th-hour recall, it did not matter.
Cork's highly regarded young midfield was swamped in a sea of green and gold. Declan O'Sullivan or Eoin Brosnan stood poised on the 50, the still point of Kerry's world, while all around, players like Paul Galvin, the excellent Marc Ó Sé and Aidan O'Mahony ferreted for possession. Once in control, Kerry were the picture of calm, Tomás Ó Sé in particular demonstrating his own understated class as they worked the ball along the flanks and then launched deadly, diagonal balls down towards Cooper and young Bryan Sheehan, with Kerry shirts streaming forward in support.
Under such pressure, the Cork game unravelled, with Graham Canty and Anthony Lynch too preoccupied with holding their line to inspire the kind of comeback they produced against Galway. Cork are young and Morgan's depth in the craft of management is well known but it is hard to see what immediate good they can take from this comprehensive lesson.
Equally so, it is arguable that the champions could have done with a more arduous outing as they prepare to face whoever comes through the impending duel for the honour of the Red Hand.
Jack O'Connor grinned when asked about Armagh and Tyrone, who have become an inseparable entity in the imagination this summer. "Sure we will only be playing one of them," he reasoned. "But I suppose the hurt of 2002 (against Armagh) and 2003 (against Tyrone) has driven this team on."
Understandably, he was not pressed as to his preference. Tyrone or Armagh is Hobson's choice.
Before a swelling, sky-blue crowd on Saturday afternoon, Mickey Harte's team hit true stride at the perfect time, killing off Paul Caffrey's full-hearted Dublin team with a sumptuous 2-18 to 1-14 victory.
Dublin were gallant, threatening Tyrone with five splendid second-half points before Owen Mulligan goal pierced the city bubble and that was that. Like Armagh, Tyrone have forced every team they have encountered to bow before them in admiration. Only Kerry remain to be conquered. And the beauty of this alignment is that these fearless Northern cousins would die for the right to challenge for that honour. There could be no other way.
