Kerry 4-15 Mayo 3-5: Following their stunning semi-final victory over Dublin, many quietly fancied Mayo's chances of overturning Kerry in today's All-Ireland final. Those aspirations never got off the ground. Kerry blitzed their opponents and stormed away to a stunning 13-point victory at Croke Park.
Mayo were desperately poor , frustratingly so for their supporters who had travelled in hope. The defence struggled to contain a Kerry attack which varied its approach impressively. Marking was slack, tackling soft and ultimately Kerry had the run of their rivals from the first whistle.
Mike Frank Russell opened Kerry's account with two quick scores but it was the ferocity and intensity of the ones which followed that stunned Mayo.
Declan O'Sullivan traded neat passes with Kieran Donaghy and found the net just seven minutes in.
Then, moments later, Donaghy himself collected a long ball, turned his marker rather too easily and buried the ball past goalkeeper David Clarke.
If an eight point deficit wasn't enough to contend with, Mayo had also yet to score.
As bewildered as Mayo were, they rallied somewhat in what proved a crazy first half of football. This match could be replayed 20 times and the chances of scoring six goals in 70 minutes would still be slim. Spectators witnessed half a dozen in 35 minutes.
Kerry, with two of them already bagged away, took a back seat for a spell in the opening half, allowing Mayo back into the contest - albeit at arms length.
First, Kevin O'Neill collected Aidan Higgins' precise pass and found the net. Then, on the stroke of half-time, the corner forward goaled for the second time after Ciaran McDonald's shot cannoned off the upright and into his arms.
The problem for Mayo, however, was that in between those two strikes Kerry's predator in chief Colm Cooper had Clarke picking out of his net for a third time.
Kerry led 3-8 to 3-2 at half-time.
The frantic pace and crazy scoring sequence eased considerably on the restart. Kerry, though, continued to harry Mayo in every department - so much so they restricted Mickey Moran's men to one point - Billy Joe Padden - from play.
Any hopes Mayo had of bringing a fight to their opponents was extinguished inside the first 10 minutes of that second period. McDonald, twice from frees and once from play, squandered successive opportunities to make up some ground. Indeed, those misses sucked whatever life there was left from his team-mates.
Kerry kept to their task until the death and Eoin Brosnan and Donaghy were key contributors to the cause as the scoreboard ticked over. And, to compound a miserable day for the Connacht men, Brosnan scored Kerry's fourth goal from close range deep in injury time.
Kerry: D Murphy; M O Se, M McCarthy, T O'Sullivan; T O Se, S Moynihan (0-1), A O'Mahony (0-2); D O Se, T Griffin; S O'Sullivan, Declan O'Sullivan (1-1), P Galvin (0-1); C Cooper (1-2), K Donaghy (1-1), MF Russell (0-2). Subs: E Brosnan (1-1), Darren O'Sullivan, B Sheehan (0-1), E Fitzmaurice, B Guiney
Mayo: D Clarke; D Geraghty, D Heaney, K Higgins; A Higgins, J Nallen, P Gardiner; R McGarrity, P Harte (1-0); BJ Padden (0-1), G Brady, A Dillon; K O'Neill (2-0), C Mortimer (0-3), C McDonald (0-1). Subs: D Brady, B Moran, T Mortimer, A Kilcoyne