If the GAA feel genuinely embarrassed about the public cynicism which greets their big-match draws, someone had better organise an automatic time-keeping system. As yesterday's Bank of Ireland All-Ireland football final simmered towards its denouement, referee Pat McEneaney blew for full time after 40 seconds added for stoppages.

These 40 seconds encompassed two lengthy injuries, four bookings, four substitutions and a warning about time wasting to Kerry goalkeeper Declan O'Keeffe. Galway had momentum so they were slightly more aggrieved, but Kerry had launched the last attack with Denis Dwyer's shot narrowly wide. The match might even still have been level had the correct amount of stoppage time been played. It's just that it would have been interesting to find out.

So the teams meet again next Saturday week. Yesterday saw a bizarre match, the cliched game of two halves, some exhilarating attacking football and a litany of confounded expectation. As with all draws, each team responded with mixed feelings but Kerry were the more relieved.

Many observers had made the point that the Munster champions could hardly have expected Galway to give them the run of the field as Armagh had done in the semi-final replay. But it happened. For the first 25 minutes only one team showed up.

Full of confidence and vigour, Kerry cleaned up. Their forwards wove pretty patterns and struck with easy accuracy. Their centrefield was virtually unopposed and their half lines hungrily gobbled all the breaks. The Connacht champions' defence was experiencing considerable difficulty in coping with the free-running Kerry forwards. And they complicated matters by giving away the ball with almost as much abandon as Kerry were attacking with it.

The first five scores conceded by Galway were as a result of ball carelessly used. McNamara managed to pass the ball to himself in the 16th minute to concede a 20-metre free for Kerry to lead 0-5 to 0-1.

Given John O'Mahony's reputation for meticulous preparation, few would have taken the westerners as the more likely to choke. But like the All-Ireland of two years ago, Galway played the first half as a pale shadow of their potential selves.

Everything was going Kerry's way from the start. Padraig Joyce's first shot went wide on 20 seconds. A minute later, Galway goalkeeper Martin McNamara set the tone for a jittery afternoon by spilling a ball from Dara O Cinneide. Sean O Domhnaill dropped his first catch and a minute after that, the first of many clearances not to find a Galway player outfield was returned for the opening point for the irrepressible Michael Francis Russell.

The opening phase was reminiscent of the drawn semi-final between Kerry and Armagh. Russell set off sirens every time he got on the ball and this time Ray Silke could find no way to mitigate his losses. O Cinneide had swapped with Liam Hassett and led Gary Fahey a merry dance, and in the left corner John Crowley gave notice of his best Croke Park performance this year with two points in 11 minutes.

Liam Hassett was playing a storm on the 40 and with both wing men, Aodhan MacGearailt and Noel Kennelly in flying form, Kerry's attack was having its most coherent afternoon since the first half against Cork in Killarney. aidi O Se and his selectors would have been sorely vexed to be told that their interval lead would be a mere three points.

When Hassett scooped up a loose ball in the 24th minute and stroked over a point, Kerry led by 0-8 to 0-1. Although teams are always being reminded that opponents will have to dominate for a certain amount of time, the general feeling was that a couple more scores and Galway were dead.

Had Kerry availed of the match's only goal chance in the eighth minute, recovery might have been beyond Galway. O Cinneide dropped a ball into the Canal End goalmouth and his Ghaeltacht clubmate MacGearailt got a touch that necessitated John Divilly clearing the ball off the line.

Of the many disappointed expectations, the most sizeable was probably the failure to emerge of the Seamus Moynihan-Padraig Joyce confrontation. The captains started on each other and Joyce mounted a couple of early raids, but as the half progressed and the ball seemed magnetically drawn to the far end, Moynihan was in control.

On the half-back line, Eamonn Fitzmaurice started on the wing to mark Paul Clancy and did well, with Tom O'Sullivan slotting seamlessly in at centre back. Changes became an absolute necessity for Galway. Kevin Walsh was hastened from the bench to assist a stricken centrefield. Young Joe Bergin had the chastening experience of seeing his first All-Ireland flicker by, and in the 19th minute, he was replaced.

The general shake-up rescued the match for Galway. Padraig Joyce dropped back to the 40 and Paul Clancy moved in on Moynihan. The cumulative effect helped reel in the deficit before half-time. Walsh redressed the balance at centrefield where Donal Daly was hacking up for Kerry and Joyce brought vital ball-winning capacity to the half forwards. Clancy's strength and pace began to bother Moynihan and within these adjusted parameters, Derek Savage and Niall Finnegan in particular began to operate.

Having trailed by 0-1 to 0-8, Galway improved sufficiently in the 10 minutes before the interval to outscore Kerry by six points to two. This was a remarkable recovery but it was Kerry who responded better at the start of the second half with two points in the opening two minutes. Suddenly Galway were again five points adrift. But in the remaining half-hour or so, Kerry were to manage only two more points as the momentum of the game changed completely. Under pressure, Kerry frequently resorted to fouling - of Galway's 14 points, eight were for frees awarded for aggressive fouls. Kerry's total included only three frees, two of which were for technical fouls.

Michael Donnellan had an anti-climactic afternoon. Team-mates had to counsel caution as he looked likely to boil over in response to early fouls but as the match wore on, he got on more ball and put in his familiar runs. He was joined by his brother John who kicked a great point in the 60th minute. Galway believed a wide attributed to Clancy in the 54th minute was a point. If so it was certainly a pivotal moment. Instead of being level at 0-13 each, Kerry responded by extending their lead to two - O Cinneide kicking a glorious point after MacGearailt had dispossessed Donnellan. In the end it was Galway who had the chances win the title. After 61 minutes, Sean de Paor split Kerry open with a drive from wing back. Normally he finishes such chances without ceremony. On this occasion his shot dropped into O'Keeffe's arms.

Then in the last minute of normal time, Savage concluded a bamboozling run by doing the same thing with Padraig Joyce steaming past, roaring for the ball and less than happy with its non-arrival. Dwyer then had Kerry's final chance and there was time for no more.

Maurice Fitzgerald made his expected appearance in the 49th minute but was well marshalled by Tomas Meehan, who had a fine second half after the traumas of the first 35 minutes. Maybe Fitzgerald could have inflicted more damage with the early abundance of possession, but that hypothesis had to go untested.