Following their relegation to Division 3 of the Allianz Football League, few would have predicted that Cork would have given both Dublin and Kerry a significant test during summer combat.
Well that's the way it turned out, with the Kingdom narrowly avoiding a Rebel ambush in the Munster final and then Dublin's late blitz resulting in a somewhat flattering winning margin for them in the Super 8s.
Paul Kerrigan was on the field of play for both encounters and is obviously well placed to give a view on Sunday's All-Ireland final between Gaelic football's age-old rivals.
Like most observers, Kerrigan is predicting Jim Gavin's men to deliver a fifth Sam Maguire success on the spin. And while he's not totally discounting Kerry's chances, any hope of success for the Kingdom must be built on them having a right go and not being ultra defensive.
Speaking on 2fm's Game On, the 2010 All-Ireland winner said: "I expect Dublin to win it by five or six points. Kerry, like Kilkenny in the hurling, are a proud county. Whether they are favourites or underdogs they expect to win every final.
"I think it will be pretty close for three quarters of the game, with Dublin to pull away after that.
"If Kerry are to pull off a surprise, they will have to try and outscore the Dubs and push up on them from frees, dead balls and 45s. There is the chance that they could back off around the middle third - but one thing is for sure, Kerry won't go ultra-defensive.
"When we played them in the Munster final, it was very much man-for-man. Against Tyrone (in the All-Ireland semi-final), they did have an extra body back but that wasn't an overly radical approach.
"If you give Dublin the ball and let them play around with it they'll eventually find a way to get scores.
"There is always the fear that they could give you a good beating. You can't let that override you either and we stayed with them until the last ten minutes when they put on the afterburners."
Kerrigan did go on to highlight the success that Cork had against both of Sunday's finalists, while also stressing Dublin's advantage in the attacking ranks.
"We felt we were in a good place going into both games, and that we could trouble both of them," he added.
"We exposed Kerry through hard running, one on ones and support play.
"For the Dublin game, we dropped one guy back - our centre-forward Sean White played as a second centre back. Rather than give Cian O'Sullivan the sweeping role we tried to push up on that. It was a case of trying something different and as a result we created plenty of chances against them.
"A lot has been said about how lethal Dublin's and Kerry's attack is. I think Dublin's six are probably a bit better.
"Two most unheralded are Niall Scully and Brian Howard. Howard's having an unbelievable year, he really steps up in the middle third when they are under a bit of pressure. Scully works hard and has a great knack of nicking a goal.
"Dublin's six and two or three off the bench shades it for them in the attacking stakes.
"There is hope for Kerry though, but it's a year or two too soon for them."
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