We're bound for yet another Kerry-Dublin All-Ireland decider after a late surge from the champions saw them overhaul Derry in a thrilling semi-final at Croke Park.
Trailing by two points with five minutes of normal time remaining, Kerry appeared on the cusp of the latest in a line of sickening losses to Ulster opposition.
Derry, renowned for a laborious and defensive style of play, attacked Kerry from the first, building up a three point lead at half-time, having barely registered a single wide.
They had responded well to Kerry's early second half push and in a more low-scoring second period, nursed a 1-14 to 1-12 lead heading down the stretch.
With it all on the line, Kerry pushed up hard on the Derry kickouts, realising that allowing the short ones would lead to a slow and torturous death.
A Seanie O'Shea free, questionably awarded after Stephen O'Brien was deemed to have been fouled, ended a 17-minute scoring drought for Kerry in the 65th minute.
Less than a minute later, David Clifford, delivering a characteristically stellar display, worked another free to level the game.
Sensing the momentum turn, the champions made their winning burst. The livewire substitute O'Brien was the unlikely source of the lead point, curling over with his left to put Kerry in front for the first time since the 22nd minute - "We're not quite sure why he threw the left (boot) at it," remarked Jack O'Connor with a smile afterwards.
Derry's play was growing ragged. Indeed, the play in general was. David Clifford had his face in his hands momentarily after butchering a promising counter with a loose pass. Seconds later, however, he was celebrating after Brendan Rogers tossed the ball back to Kerry. The Fossa superstar seized on the loose ball, eschewed the options right and left to stroke over another point.
It was a pivotal and indicative moment.
The Kerry support, trailing in the noise stakes and frozen in discomfort for long stretches, roared in triumph. With Derry running out of puff and increasingly stretched, O'Shea was found in oceans of space to land the easiest of scores to make it a three-point game.
There was an overwhelming sense from there that the game was done. Derry laboured in search of a goal but hardly threatened. Shane McGuigan's last gasp attempt to drop the ball into the square, after a lengthy McKinless injury, was overhit and dropped over the bar for a worthless point to leave it 1-17 to 1-15 in the finish.
The exhilarating first half confounded widespread expectations of a borefest. Derry's quarter-final win over Cork had been an exercise in tedium, which had mainly served to promote the joys of Test Match cricket on the other channel. O'Connor's call for patience among the Kerry support sounded ominous.
Derry manager Ciarán Meenagh confirmed afterwards that they were determined to attack Kerry, noting that their opposition may have taken their cues from the media coverage anticipating a defensive game.
They started with blistering intent, chasing a goal straight from the throw-in but Ethan Doherty's pass to Niall Loughlin didn't go to hand and his snatched shot was blocked on the ground.
Five minutes later, they would have their goal. It came from a typical source. Centre back Gareth McKinless powered inside from the left wing, slipped a pass to Rogers whose shot was blocked at close quarters by Shane Ryan - not his last save. However, McKinless followed in to skitter the ball home from a few yards.
Kerry responded immediately, with another half-back finished goal of their own, though theirs was somewhat cleaner in execution. A sweeping ensemble attack down the left. Gavin White drove forward, slipped a pass to Paul Geaney, who swiftly transferred it inside to O'Shea inside from the end-line. White, as ever, had continued his run. Seanie popped it across and the wing back slapped it home.
Two goals in 60 seconds. The stadium was rocking and we were teed up for the best half of football of the summer.
The Ulster champions found the left flank a profitable line of attack, McGuigan and the excellent Paul Cassidy lobbing early points. Meenagh's side had also been hit by the early loss of Padraig McGrogan, injured in the course of scoring their first point of the game.
At the other end, Clifford, impervious to pressure, was easily living up to his legend, and giving the lauded Chrissy McKaigue a horrible afternoon.
He had two from play inside 20 minutes, the latter after sliding out to collect an angled ball, springing off his knees swiftly to swing over a point from the Cusack Stand sideline. Clifford scored three more in the first half from a combination of frees and mark, with McKaigue booked for repeat fouling.
The shootout began to take on the same vibe as the 2022 All-Ireland final, as McGuigan, in the wars plenty, briefly began to match Clifford at the other end. After a sluggish quarter-final display, McGuigan was on song in the first half, landing 0-03 from play against the marking of Jason Foley.
Keeper Odhran Lynch scored a Colm Coyler midway through the first half, after his poorly struck shot somehow bounced over.
At 1-06 apiece on 22 minutes, Diarmuid O'Connor was shown black for a hand-trip on Rogers after losing an earlier tussle.
Derry's uber-modern attacking approach was perfectly adapted to exploit their advantage and, unlike Monaghan the evening before, they made decent hay in the 10 minute period.
Rogers and Ciaran McFaul hoisted over two inspirational scores to push the lead out to two.
Shane Ryan became the second keeper to score, albeit in slightly contentious fashion. Tom O'Sullivan short-changed him with a dicey lateral pass, and the keeper had to make a spurt to collect, colliding hard with McGuigan with his backside in the process. As the Derry attacker lay prone on the turf, the Kerry netminder (if we may still call them that) strode forward to point to a mixture of cheers and boos.
But Rogers swung over his second of the day and McGuigan rose from the canvas to dart inside Jason Foley to land another. Their every punt at goal was registering on the board and it felt like it could be a historic day.
Trailing 1-11 to 1-08 at the break, O'Connor and Quirke swapped out Adrian Spillane for O'Brien and demanded more energy. "We felt we weren't going after the game in the first half," O'Connor observed later. "We took a few chances in the second half. There was no such thing as a sweeper, no such thing as extra men back."
This paid dividends early in the half, with Clifford and O'Shea, the latter scoreless in the first '35, landing a brace of points in the third quarter to leave the scores tied at 1-12 by the 50th minute mark.
O'Shea's second from play on 48 minutes was followed by a lengthy scoring drought for Kerry, which felt costly in real time, as Derry began to exercise control again.
The second half was played considerably more along the lines predicted beforehand, though the game was already pegged as a classic.
Full-back Eoin McEvoy cantered into open country up the left wing, popping a pass to Ciaran McFaul on the loop, the corner-forward restoring Derry's lead. On 59 minutes, McGuigan was fouled by Foley on the 21 metre line and tapped over the free himself to double the lead.
It was all there for Derry but their shooting was more glitchy in the second half, a couple of opportunities missed at the near post.
With Kerry pushing up, the Ulster's side looked increasingly gassed. The relative thinness of their panel reared its head and the two-point lead wasn't enough to survive the killer surge. Though there were complaints about the 65th minute free awarded for a foul on O'Brien.
Derry, in contrast to their rather miserable fadeout in last year's semi-final, departed the championship in riotous fashion this time. Albeit, Meenagh was quick to concede afterwards it was an opportunity missed.
Kerry, having come good at the very end of a tense semi, ready themselves for another Dublin final, a quadrennial occurrence these days. There'll be plenty of time for the nostalgia fest in the next fortnight but tonight we can reflect on a classic semi.
Kerry: Shane Ryan (0-01); Graham O'Sullivan, Jason Foley, Tom O'Sullivan; Paul Murphy, Tadhg Morley, Gavin White (1-00); Diarmuid O'Connor (0-01), Jack Barry; Dara Moynihan, Seán O'Shea (0-04, 1f), Adrian Spillane; Paudie Clifford (0-01), David Clifford (0-09, 4f, 1m), Paul Geaney.
Subs: Stephen O'Brien (0-01) for Spillane (35), Brian Ó Beaglaíoch for Murphy (55), Tony Brosnan for Geaney (55), Micheál Burns for Moynihan (58), Ruairí Murphy for Paudie Clifford (73)
Derry: Odhran Lynch (0-01); Chrissy McKaigue, Eoghan McEvoy, Conor McCluskey; Conor Doherty (0-01), Gareth McKinless (1-00), Pádraig McGrogan (0-01); Conor Glass, Brendan Rogers (0-02); Niall Toner, Paul Cassidy (0-02), Ethan Doherty; Ciaran McFaul (0-02), Shane McGuigan (0-06, 3f), Niall Loughlin.
Subs: Padraig Cassidy for McGrogan (8), Benny Heron for Padraig Cassidy (51), Lachlan Murray for Toner (59), Ben McCarron for McKinless (75)
Referee: Joe McQuillan
