On Sunday evening at Croke Park, as the Kerry young guns misfired in the face of the Dublin artillery, one pessimist about the prospects of a team other than the Dubs winning the All-Ireland this year, a Longford man, turned to another, a Kerryman, and said, 'I wonder if this will be the year Dublin will hammer a team in the All-Ireland'.
The Kerryman, in the unfamiliar territory of feeling like he wanted to escape Croke Park for the first time in his life and do something more pleasurable - like run up Carrauntoohil barefoot - laughed; maybe this will be the year the Dubs make all other football fans despair.
Until that happens, until they destroy a team in an All-Ireland final, Mick O'Dwyer is not going to mark Jim Gavin's side down as an all-time great team just yet.
The 81-year-old spoke to RTÉ on Monday at a civic reception in Tralee where his achievements as a Kerry footballer and a manager were recognised.
Well at the present time, they're an exceptionally good team but then they've only won All-Irelands by single points against Mayo. Until they hammer a team in an All-Ireland final by seven or eight, ten points then I'll say they're a really great team.
But they are certainly the best team I've seen for quite a long while and they'll take a lot of beating.
Of Dublin's five All-Ireland victories since a 16-year drought was ended in 2011, only the 2015 final against Kerry has been won by more than one point.
In contrast, the eight All-Irelands which O'Dwyer claimed as manager in the 70s and 80s were won by an average of nearly eight points. During that period, Dublin also won three All-Irelands by an average of seven points. It is that prism of history through which the Waterville man is judging this Dublin team.
