Once the semi-final draw was made, the consensus was that if one Ulster team was to gate-crash the traditionalists' party, it was likely to be Derry.
The game is anticipated to be very 2023. Jack O'Connor braced his own people for a bit of a grind this week, telling reporters frankly that he was "not expecting a classic" and appealing for the Kerry supporters to show "patience."
These words evidently haven't done much for ticket sales in the Kingdom, which has never been frenzied for All-Ireland semi-finals, and is not reported to be brisk this time either.
It's 19 years since Kerry and Derry last met in the senior championship but the more relevant recent encounter between the counties is the September 2017 minor final.
That was the day David Clifford came to wider notice as an emergent superstar, the greatest teenage prodigy the GAA had seen, certainly since Joe Canning.
He blasted home 4-04 in a devastating display as Kerry cantered to a fourth successive All-Ireland title at the grade.
By the end of the day, former Dublin players were jokingly wishing him well in his Aussie Rules career, which they fervently hoped would be well remunerated and long.
Clifford's unfortunate marker that day was Conor McCluskey, who survived a torrid afternoon to become one of two graduates from that side to the current Derry senior team, alongside Padraig McGrogan.
He was one Derry player to emerge with credit from last year's disappointing semi-final loss to Galway, performing an estimable marking job on Shane Walsh (then in peak form).
In 2023, he has been one of the stars of the campaign, combining bracing defence with counter-attacking raids. He was Man of the Match against Monaghan in Ulster and can't have been far away from scooping the prize against Donegal.
After years of dismal underachievement, culminating in a shocking fall into Division 4 in 2018, Derry got their ducks in a row around the turn of the decade.
There's been an air of irresistible momentum about Derry since the truncated league campaign of 2021, when then Fermanagh manager Ryan McMenamin mischievously marvelled at their incredible fitness at a time when organised training had been officially prohibited.
Early in this campaign, especially after they rattled home 1-21 in the Ulster semi-final, there was a sense that Derry were treading along the same path as Donegal in the 2011-12 period.
Having reached a certain plane of achievement on the back of formidable defensive organisation, they would now fine-tune their attacking game, with runners pouring forward from deep.
We saw further evidence of this progression in the televised victory over Donegal in Ballybofey, when Derry ripped through the admittedly porous home defence at will. They finished with three goals, with Conor Glass lamenting afterwards that they hadn't scored seven.
The mood has cooled towards Derry's chances since the quarter-final.
Those who succeeded in staying awake or resisted the urge to switch over to Lord's saw Derry trundle past Cork in unimpressive fashion.
Shane McGuigan, their designated scorer in chief, made little impact beyond stroking over frees.
They've had hiccups before, notably in the Division 2 decider, when their previously lauded defence shipped four goals, and could have conceded plenty more, in a slightly surreal second half against Dublin.
They've also withstood plenty of chaos. Their season was briefly thrown into turmoil on the week of the Ulster final, with Rory Gallagher stepping away from the manager's post following very serious allegations made by his ex-wife.
His assistant Ciaran Meenagh has slotted into the manager's bib, ensuring reasonable continuity.
Similar to the Dubs, Kerry's 2023 form had left pundits underwhelmed. On the back of last year's All-Ireland win, their interest in pursuing a fourth straight league title was minimal. If their objective was to secure their Division 1 title by expending as little possible effort then that was surely achieved.
Munster was a breeze as per usual, though they did bury Clare with no little swagger, the Clifford brothers performing superbly the day after losing their mother.
It was in the group phase that Kerry were briefly derailed, suffering a first home defeat in 28 years against Mayo in Killarney before edging past Cork thanks to a hotly disputed penalty call.
Luck intervened in the final round as Mayo's implosion in the last quarter against Cork gifted Kerry top spot and a direct route to the last-eight. They sidestepped the unwelcome detour of a preliminary quarter-final, which seemed a likely destination post the Mayo loss.
In the infamous semi-final of 2021, most pundits had broadly dismissed Tyrone's chances against Kerry, partly on the basis of their Covid ravaged preparations. In 2023, by contrast, the world was braced for another Tyrone sucker punch and Kerry smashed them.
The Tyrone match witnessed Kerry's most complete championship display of Jack O'Connor's third stint, more stylish and impressive than they'd been at any stage of last year's All-Ireland run. It was especially pleasing given that David Clifford's radar was askew though he did decorate the game with his part in Seanie O'Shea's goal.
They avenged the '21 semi-final with some relish, their defence yielding nothing and registering a bewilderingly high number of turnovers. Diarmuid O'Connor, another veteran of the 2017 minor final, and part of a midfield that was supposed to be flailing without the influence of David Moran, took home the Man of the Match bauble and slickly slotted home the opening goal.
All the struggles of the early rounds of Championship 2023 were dismissed as pointless preamble. There were even echoes of 2009 - another Jack O'Connor orchestrated All-Ireland title - when Kerry laboured through the qualifiers only to explode into form in the famous 'startled earwigs' game which sent Pat Gilroy into deep reflection, and thus probably did more harm than good.
Colm Cooper speculated that Kerry had managed their season in order to peak for the knockout stages. The just retired David Moran was inclined to put it down less to design. "Sometimes you just hit form at the right time," he observed this week.
Derry have been one of the most consistent teams in the country in the past 19 months. The players are comfortable in the system and the personnel rarely changes. So set is their starting team that the Glen boys were even asked to tog for a facile league win over Limerick shortly after the controversial club final. Their winning habit is strong.
But Kerry, under the current regime, don't appear likely to be suckered into an ambush. Their defence has morphed from a fatal weakness in 2021 to a core strength in a couple of years. Their forward division was terrifying, and was purring against Tyrone even despite Clifford's scratchy display.
Kerry's northern defensive guru Paddy Tally could be their ace in the hole in organising themselves against Derry's methodical attacks. Enda McGinley noted on RTÉ GAA podcast this week that Tally is well acquainted with the Derry players, having coached McGuigan in St Mary's Sigerson Cup triumph.
"The last thing you do about these is be cavalier with the ball and just be giving it back to the opposition and you might not see it again for a few minutes," O'Connor noted.
Derry are dangerous opponents but Kerry are keenly aware of it. The champions should have enough to get home and set up the scene for another final against their old rivals.
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