By Cian Murphy

1955 – THE BIRTH

The Dublin-Kerry rivalry is so great that it once reversed the tide of emigration - even if it was for only one day in the 1950s.

So humongous was the hype before the 1955 All-Ireland senior football final that railway authorities in London were forced into putting on extra trains to bring Irish people to Holyhead desperate to be in Croke Park for the meeting of the Dubs and the Kingdom.

Dublin v Kerry hadn’t been anything special before then with only periodic meetings. This was different. This was townie versus culchie and in Dublin’s case this narrative was bloated by the fact that the clubs in the new city satellites after the emptying of the tenements in the 30s were now producing Dublin teams of near 100 per cent Dublin born and reared players.

The biggest of them was St Vincent’s GAA Club in Marino who had supplied all 14 of Dublin’s outfield players and even wore their club’s famous white with a blue band jersey when winning the National League final of 1953. The Dubs toppled the reigning All-Ireland champions Meath in the 1955 Leinster final and headed to the final with star full forward and Vinnies man Kevin Heffernan typifying a radical new style of slick movement.

Kerry under their inspirational leader Dr Eamonn O’Sullivan stuck to their traditional ‘catch and kick’ philosophy. The clash of styles caught the public imagination and when it came to the crunch the Kingdom traditionalists won out by 0-12 to 1-6. A knee injury hampered Heffernan’s movement and with Tadhg Lyne and Sean Murphy starring for Kerry they halted Dublin’s operation free flow.

1975 – THE SURPRISE

With Heffernan now as manager, Dublin had come from out of the blue to stun the country in winning the 1974 crown with a type of blitzkrieg football built on phenomenal reserves of fitness and finished by skillful forwards.

When the Kerry team arrived at Dublin’s Hueston Station for the 1975 final they were mistaken for a minor team such was their youthful appearance. Whether they were underestimated by the champions or not, the Dubs were brought face to face with their biggest adversary as the Kerry kids led them on a merry dance. Not even the concussion of their captain Mickey Ned O’Sullivan could derail them as they won out by 2-12 to 0-11.

Heffo had met his equal in Mick O’Dwyer, who like the Dubliner was himself an All-Ireland winning star forward, fiercely driven and a deep thinker on the game. In talents like Pat Spillane, Paidí Ó Sé, Mikey Sheehy and John Egan, Kerry had a team of gifted young footballers ravenous for success and skillful enough to make the most of every opportunity.

The cult of the manager in the GAA was born. So too was a football rivalry revived.

1976 – THE REVENGE

Kevin Heffernan never made any attempt to hide the hurt which the 1955 final had inflicted on him. Not even captaining Dublin to the Sam in 1958 eased the pain of that loss and so he was jubilant when victory over the Kingdom was achieved in 1976.

If the Dublin breakthrough of 1974 was credited with reviving interest in the GAA in the Capital, by 1976 the Dublin-Kerry rivalry had everyone fascinated as two great teams and two great coaches drove themselves and their teams to new heights.

The addition of swashbuckling Drimnagh dynamo Kevin Moran gave the Dubs a powerful new momentum and they powered their way to a 3-8 to 0-10 victory to recapture the Sam Maguire. It would lead to Heffo uttering the immortal line about beating Kerry in a final being as good as winning two.

1977 – THE EPIC PART 1

Those who were lucky enough to be there for the semi-final meeting will still hold it above all else as the greatest game of all time.

It certainly caught these two at their peak and an epic was produced. In announcing on TV that there was still more than 25 minutes left to play in the game, RTÉ commentary legend Micheál Ó Hehir added: ‘hallelujah!”

The calibre of the play, the ferocity of the battle for possession and the execution of score taking went to a different level as the momentum swung between the teams. Football was very different then and there was little or none of the possession-based chess that dominates today’s exchanges. It added to the excitement as the ball was kicked early and often and it was the survival of the fittest between the two best and fittest teams in the land.

It was Kerry who held the upper hand and a five-point lead before a barnstorming Dublin comeback and a flurry of goals led to them winning by 3-12 to 1-13. Goals from John McCarthy, David Hickey and Bernard Brogan and 0-4 from Anton O’Toole were decisive.

2001 – TRIP TO TIPP

In the first year of the new back door system and All-Ireland quarter-finals, Dublin and Kerry produced two enthralling encounters in Semple Stadium over a draw and replay that packed out Thurles.

Kerry under Paidí O Sé were reigning champions and in full control with Seamus Moynihan and Darragh O Se influential. Dublin manager Tommy Carr sprung veteran Vinny Murphy into the full-forward line late on which provoked a flurry of high ball goalmouth action and suddenly the Dubs plundered two goals unexpectedly and were leading in injury time. Up stepped the great Maurice Fitzgerald with a sideline into the wind some 40 metres out which he stroked over via an in-swinging beauty, with Carr in his ear for good measure, to snatch the dramatic draw.

Kerry were much the better team in the replay with full forward Johnny Crowley in hot form. They still lived dangerously, and Dessie Farrell fluffed a glorious late goal chance which might have altered the direction of the game, but the Kingdom deservingly held on.

2009 – THE STARTLED EARWIGS

Dublin under new manager Pat Gilroy had emerged from Leinster in top form. Kerry had lost in Munster and stuttered and stumbled through the qualifiers narrowly escaping defeats to Longford, Sligo and Antrim.

The form book suggested it would be Dublin’s day. That script was in tatters after only 40 seconds when Colm ‘Gooch’ Cooper scythed his way inside the full back line to slot an inch perfect goal finish and raise a clenched fist to Hill 16.

With 69 minutes left to play the Dubs never recovered. Kerry seized the momentum and never let it go and afterwards a deflated Gilroy likened his team to being ‘like startled earwigs’.

The match was the confidence booster Kerry needed and they strode on to the Sam Maguire after this 1-24 to 1-7 demolition with their confidence restored.

2011 - THE KICK PART I

It was a tense and tight affair but with a Colm Cooper goal, Kerry were well on top when they led by four points with 10 minutes to go and there was a sense they were parrying Dublin and seeing their way to the finish line.

Dublin, appearing in a first final for 16 years, continued to look for openings and the breakthrough finally came when, after a midfield turnover, quick-thinking Alan Brogan released super sub Kevin McManamon who raided forward, rounded a man and drilled low to the Kerry net.

Wing back Kevin Nolan equalized from out the field and suddenly the Dubs were in full voice and Kerry were on the backfoot. Bernard Brogan scored a ridiculous effort from the corner of the Hill and Cusack. Kieran Donaghy responded with a similar breathtaking equaliser from an awkward angle at the other end.

A draw looked certain until a last gasp chance from a free was left to Dublin goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton to slot from 40 metres into the arms of a jubilant Hill 16 to land a dramatic 1-12 to 1-11 victory and ushering in an unprecedented era of sky-blue success.

2013 – THE EPIC PART II

Ten years on and this semi-final still stands as the high mark of the modern-day clashes. Two teams of great players, playing attacking football, producing drama and scores to leave everyone breathless.

Kerry were a point up in the 67th minute but would lose by 3-18 to 3-11. Their hearts would be broken again by McManamon when he picked up a brilliant acrobatic flick by Michael Darragh Macauley to go marauding forward and curl a dipping shot into the Kerry net. Soon after Eoghan O’Gara thundered in another goal to finally settle the contest.

Early on it was the Colm Cooper show as his vision and passing pulled the strings and had Dublin in turmoil. James O’Donoghue slotted two great goals, one from play and one a penalty and Donncha Walsh added a third to leave Kerry 3-5 to 1-9 up at the break. The early Dublin goal, a classic poachers punched effort by Paul Mannion was the crucial score to keep the Dubs in touch.

2019 – THE DRIVE FOR FIVE

The modern-day Decade of the Dubs had seen Jim Gavin’s team hunt down records and statistics that had been the property of the great Mick O’Dwyer Kerry team.

The greatest grail quest of course was the five in a row – which had eluded all the greats in hurling and football up to that point.

It was only right that it would be Kerry who would stand in Dublin’s way.

Flying wing back Jack McCaffrey bagged 1-3 for Dublin but they were rocked on their heels when Jonny Cooper saw red just on half time.

Killian Spillane’s goal ignited Kerry and with Sean O’Shea scoring an incredible 0-10 they gave up nothing easily.

Eventually Dean Rock slotted a late free to leave it 1-16 apiece with the teams going again the following Saturday evening against a glorious autumn evening skyline.

The replay picked up where it left off and was perfectly poised at the break when level 0-10 each.

Then up stepped a little-known Eoin Murchan who, on a training ground restart move, picked up the knockdown from the throw in and sprinted forward to clip a shot to the Canal End net.

It was the decisive moment with Dublin going on to make history when winning 1-18 to 0-15.

2022 – THE KICK PART II

With their great six in a row winning team unravelling at speed, Dublin were relegated from Division 1 and struggling for form.

However, the sight of the Kerry jersey had restorative powers as they produced their best match of the year and despite being without their injured full forward talisman Con O’Callaghan, they hung on and when Cormac Costello drilled a brilliant late goal it gave them an unlikely chance at a draw or perhaps even better.

However, with Jack O’Connor back at the helm, this was to be Kerry’s coming of age day.

The young stars of the minor ranks David Clifford and Sean O’Shea took their place among the ranks of the Kerry greats with All-Ireland medals to match their stellar talents.

If it was the Cluxton kick in 2011 that had started the great Dublin run, then there was Kerry karma in the fact that it was another free kick – much further out - which would settle it as Sean O’Shea showed nerves or steel and exquisite skill to slot over the winning point into the Hill with the games last kick to win Kerry’s first All-Ireland since 2014 when it looked like extra-time was on the cards.