It's the final the majority expected to happen even in a year where we thought the most open of football championships was being played out.
They say that the cream rises to the top and it's fair to say that Dublin and Kerry have again deservedly taken their place in the All-Ireland football decider. This pair have given us many thrills on big championship days since 1975, the year when those Kingdom young guns upset Heffo's Dubs in the Croke Park rain.
A rivalry of sorts that was there in the 1950s was certainly rekindled again. Up until the mid 1980s, it was a case of honours even for a while before Kerry took over, winning September finals with a bit to spare, in spite of what the scoreboard read. The Munster men held sway when the pair collided again in the 2000s.
The pendulum then swung back in favour of Dublin following their 2011 Sam Maguire triumph.
Apart from the damp squib that was the 2015 All-Ireland decider, Dublin and Kerry fought out semi-final classics in 2013 and '16 and then gave us two games of high drama that ended with the Dubs completing that famous 'drive for five' in 2019.
Kerry folks were getting somewhat agitated .
Days out from the big firm again renewing their rivalry, Dara Ó Cinnéide elucidated such worries when telling RTÉ Sport: "There was a while when Dublin were dominating we thought we'd never be back there. It was a big thing to beat them last year."
The 2022 All-Ireland semi-final. A sun-splashed day at Croker. All level as the seconds ticked down.
With five minutes of injury-time having elapsed, and the score tied at 1-13 apiece, a tiring David Clifford manufactured a free with the last play of the game.
The kick was from well outside the 45-metre line but Seanie O'Shea opted to have a pop, ignoring the deafening whistles emanating from Hill 16, and curled it over with plenty to spare to send the Kerry faithful into ecstasy on the pitch and in the stand.
Their wait was over and to cap it all Jack O'Connor's side delivered the big prize a fortnight later.
A year on and Kerry eye a successful defence.
In The Sunday Game studio at the end of 2009, Pat Spillane was at pains, somewhat childishly some would say, to point out Tyrone's inability to deliver back-to-back All-Irelands during that decade. Pat took much glee in stating that Kerry were the team of the decade. On Sunday, Jack O'Connor aims to win consecutive All-Irelands as Kerry boss for the first time.
Former Kingdom star Ó Cinnéide, who will be co-commentating on the decider as gaeilge on the RTÉ News Channel, isn't placing too much stock in the importance of the back to back now given that Kerry's rivals on Sunday have recently completed a six-timer.
"If things go well and they win on Sunday, I don't think it will be a huge thing," he opined.
"In my time playing back to back was a Holy Grail. Kerry did it in '06 and '07 and we thought we were doing great and then Dublin do six in a row.
"It's the big picture stuff that managers and players don't be thinking of, but supporters do when looking at Dublin and saying they've achieved so much. A lot of what they have achieved has surpassed what our heroes as kids did: that golden generation that wanted a five in a row and didn't get it.
"Some of them have eight All-Ireland medals, now some of the Dubs have that and heading for number nine. Kerry supporters, more than players, that's the type of thing they'd be talking about leading up to the game.
"Back to back is a kind of cherry on top. There is a more important narrative. Look, Kerry haven't beaten Dublin in an All-Ireland final since 1985. Some of the team that won [an All-Ireland] in 2014, it took them eight years to win another one and the time has come for Kerry to be regarded as a really good team. A lot of the lads won one last year, winning another one will give them credibility.
"I'd be surprised if Kerry do pull it off on Sunday that the talk will be about back to back. We felt we had a decent team two years ago and lost a semi-final to Tyrone; we left that one after us. Four years ago we tried to stop the five in a row and let that chance slip. I'd say the current group will be more focused on than ever to win another All-Ireland.
"If that happens it establishes Jack O'Connor as a great, great manager. Mick O'Dwyer was a hugely successful manager; Eamonn O'Sullivan was a hugely successful manager, also involved with eight All-Ireland wins. If Jack wins on Sunday that will be his fifth, that is serious going."
The expectation is that Gaelic football's greatest rivals will deliver another high-octane decider on Sunday afternoon. However, Ó Cinnéide is not so sure, adding that both counties "are capable of been as negative as any other team".
Time then for a reality check about the Kerry-Dublin romanticism.
"We can get all romantic and expect a great game. Remember the narrative two weeks ago and Jack [O'Connor] created that when saying not to expect a classic against Derry. In fairness it was a totally different game, especially in the first half. But in an All-Ireland final, teams will do what they have to do to get over the line.
"In 2014 - Kerry v Donegal - Éamonn Fitzmaurice won an All-Ireland and departed from the traditions in ways because he had to. People will say we didn't win in the 'Kerry way' but that reality check is there all the time now. Dessie Farrell is the same; he will be thanked for winning, not how his side performed."
Kerry's defensive frailties undermined their push for Sam Maguire glory in 2021. Paddy Tally was brought in and he added more of a solidity that served them well in winning all their competitive games last year.
Watch the highlights as Kerry overcame Derry in a Croke Park thriller
Against Tyrone in the quarter-finals, the green and gold showed a real meanness at the back, perhaps driven by that loss to their Ulster nemesis some two years earlier. However, against Derry, O'Connor's side, who did concede a goal early on, were less than assured in dealing with runners coming at them and were lucky not to concede two more green flags in the second period. Chances that if converted would more than likely have set the Oak Leaf County on their way to a first All-Ireland final in 30 years.
Being exposed like that is a concern for Ó Cinnéide, yet he feels the side are better placed now to deal with the concession of goals in tight games.
"The goal we let in the last day will be disappointing. It came from out the field where we were over committed and the knock on effect was 3x2 and then 2x1 and the ball gets scrambled over the line. Gareth McKinless could possibly have had two goals.
"We conceded a goal last year to Dublin from a turnover.
"There's a bit of a trust, however, between the supporters and this Kerry team in that if we do concede a goal it's not as catostrophic as it would have been two years ago. They seem to learn on the hoof more than they did two years ago."
And so to the question of how the Dubs are going to keep tabs on David Clifford?
Players have tried, yet the Fossa clubman can manage to get a shot away that splits the posts. Often he's at the end of a flowing move, the recipient of a pinpoint pass, where the ball nestles in the net. Against Derry in the semi-final, he was back helping out his defence in times of peril.
"Dublin will come with something, they have to do something different," says Ó Cinnéide, a challenge, he adds that any defender should relish.
"Whatever other teams are trying isn't working. You can't throw your hands up and say 'he's too good'. Damage limitation! When Bernard Brogan was in his pomp there was a theory abroad to put our best defender Marc Ó Sé on him and if he holds him to three points from play, well that's a good day's work. And there was an element of truth to that.
"Any back worth his salt will say that this is a huge scalp. How do we devise a plan? Every forward in the history of the game is markable. Some, less so than others, I suppose. Clifford is going to carry a lot of expectation. It might be a bit much to put Mick Fitzsimons on him and ask to do his best there. They might put Davy Byrne on him, plus one. They might go super defensive and because it's Kerry-Dublin, some will argue that that won't happen.
"Up to now we've had Chrissy McKaigue on Clifford, Derry's best defender, recognised man-marker and you'd say he did as well as anybody could have expected on him. In it simplest terms, you have to try and limit the supply to Clifford, try and stop the bullets coming in. Give whoever is on him a bit of help, whether that is plus one or plus two. It might be one of Mick Fitzsimons' last challenges; he's marked all the best forwards in the country."
"You can't do what Derry did and Chrissy McKaigue is as good as what is out there. I have a feeling that Dublin could go a bit more defensive than normal."
Prediction time.
The 2004 All-Ireland winning captain believes his fellow countymen are on the rise, a squad more equipped than last year.
"From the Kerry point of view our trajectory is different to Dublin's this time. We seem to be slightly on the way up. We are reigning champions and we beat them by a kick of a ball last year, where they can point to missing Con O'Callaghan and not having Jack McCaffrey, Paul Mannion, Stephen Cluxton, or Pat Gilroy on the sideline, involved.
"I do think Kerry are a better team now. The confidence they'll get from overcoming Dublin is worth something to them now. There was a period in that game, early in the first half, where it looked like we could send them home packing. It never happened, we were depending on the last kick of the game.
"There are all those targets now for the Kerry players; whatever we achieved last year let's frank it now with another performance.
"I think there is more scope in Kerry to get the juice out of the lemons. In Dublin, the theory seems to be that it's the band back together for one last hurrah.
"This Kerry group will not be happy with one medal and should not be happy with one medal. Dublin have all the medals, they are weighed down with medals. Kerry's achivement from last year will be diminished if they lose."
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Watch the All-Ireland Football Championship final, Dublin v Kerry, this Sunday from 2.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app or listen to live commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio
