He called it Sam Allardyce Syndrome. Just like Bolton, there were teams out there who would play honest, open football against inferior opposition but would then resort to a cruder, more physical, defensive game against sides . . . namely Kerry, the Arsenal of football . . . with more talent than them.

O'Connor would have been primarily thinking of the battles with Liam Kearns' Limerick but he'd have been mindful of Kerry's defeats to Armagh and Tyrone. Those teams kept throwing something different, unexpected, at Kerry. Limerick hit any Kerryman that moved and moved John Galvin to full forward. Tyrone came up with Gavin Devlin sitting back as a sweeper. Yet here we are this past two years and other contenders still don't get it. To beat Kerry, to win an All Ireland, both your thinking and your football needs to be expansive. The mistake too many teams make is to try to replicate the last game they won instead of studying the last game Kerry lost.

For three years straight Mayo made the unforgivable mistake of trying to go toe-to-toe with Kerry. David Brady was left on the bench. David Heaney was left one-on-one with Kieran Donaghy, with no sweeper to protect him.

This year Dublin similarly took their chances and were duly outgunned. It was a thrilling and gallant approach, but it was naive too, trying to beat Kerry the exact same way they had beaten Laois and Offaly in Leinster. As Paul Curran pointed out on The Sunday Game, last month's loss was depressingly similar to Dublin's other championship exits since 2002. Again, against a top-four team, they had been ahead either at or just after half-time only for their overly-exposed defence to then leak too many scores. Against any other team this year Dublin's trademark gung-ho approach would have won but, against Kerry, Dublin's template should have been Monaghan. Plan A will bring you so far but not all the way; in one or two games you have to play a different way.

In 2003 Tyrone won the league by getting the ball into Canavan and Mulligan as promptly as possible, but when teams countered that in championship, Tyrone duly ran the ball sprinkled with the odd incisive foot pass.

The following year Kerry won both the league and All Ireland final by hitting high diagonal ball into John Crowley but it was the sparing use of such a tactic that made it so effective. This year Kerry again varied their approach.

Last Sunday the poverty of Cork's thinking and football was horribly exposed.

Defensively they got their match-ups wrong. Again no sweeper was placed in front of the Kerry full-forward line. By the time Graham Canty was moved onto Colm Cooper, the Gooch was in his groove. For one game only Ger Spillane would have been worth a punt on Kieran Donaghy in the county's absence to find a man-marking corner back of the standard Anthony Lynch once met. Yet again Cork were imprisoned by 20th century, pre-Harte conventions.

Ultimately though such tweaking would have been mere damage limitation. In hurling they often talk about the pace of one's hurling. There is also such a thing as pace of football: the speed of your decision making and ball movement, the concision of your foot passing and support play. Right now Kerry are operating at a pace of five out of five; Dublin and Tyrone, at four. Cork are tipping the three mark. It's what happens when too much emphasis is placed on perspiration instead of inspiration and too much faith in ball winners instead of ball players.

Until that balance is redressed, then Cork football will fail not only to win All Irelands but also hearts on Leeside. The Cork public's indifference to this side's fortunes has been frequently stated this summer but that public is only waiting to be charmed by the footballers. Up until a season or two ago it was said Dublin needed but lacked swagger. They now have it; judging by some of their antics this year, perhaps too much of it. But Cork need some swagger, some daring, some flair.

This past two years Daniel Goulding has been shamefully underused by senior management. Here's Cork for years lacking a natural corner forward and instead he's rooted to the bench, watching Killian Young and Padraig Reidy . . . players he routinely bettered at underage level . . . fight it out among themselves for Young Player of the Year honours.

Should Billy stay or go? It should be his call. There is no obvious successor, which is as much an indictment of Morgan as it is a tribute to the man. The important thing isn't so much that the manager changes as the management style changes. Go with young Goulding, Gould and Cadogan; the county has enough remaining and upcoming talent to be All Ireland champions in two years' time.

For Dublin, it must be all about next year. Ditto Tyrone . . . there's only so many years you can fail to show up for September showdowns and retain street cred. But until those forces rejoin and reinvent themselves, Kerry remain The Standard. Occasionally, a team like a Tyrone or Armagh eclipses it, but if there's not another championship team in the field, then Kerry win the All Ireland.

It's up to the rest to become that team. Kerry are still ready to be taken.

Here we would disagree with Joe Brolly's thesis that Kerry are a better side to the one they were in 2005. They're not worse, but they're not better. Individual players keep improving, the collective keep learning but only to compensate for the departed experience and talent of O Cinneide, Crowley, Hassett, Moynihan and McCarthy. The thing is, Armagh and Tyrone have slipped while the Dublins and Corks have narrowed but not filled that gap.

They've failed to adequately learn how they and Kerry have lost. But Kerry have learned. That's why they remain The Standard. That's why they're great.