David Clifford and Jack O'Connor declared this is only the start for this Kerry side after their All-Ireland SFC final victory over Galway yesterday.
The Kingdom claimed a 0-20 to 0-16 triumph at Croke Park, powering away from Padraic Joyce's westerners in the closing minutes of an engrossing contest to win the championship for the 38th time.
Clifford, who scored eight points, hopes that this is the beginning of a golden era for Kerry after the county had endured an eight year wait to lift the Sam Maguire Cup again.
Read more: Kerry vs Galway RECAP as the Kingdom topple Tribesmen in All-Ireland final
"100 per cent there's definitely a realisation that this isn’t the end of us by any means," said the Fossa star.
"We are just getting started, so it’s really time to go now."
O'Connor, who has now won an All-Ireland in each of his three spells as Kerry boss and has won four League and All-Ireland doubles while in the hot-seat, took on a core group of this Kingdom side when he took over the minors eight years ago and the under-21s in 2016.
"Look, it isn’t about myself," said the 61-year-old. "It’s about that group of lads.
"We’ve been trying to put them together since 2014. I finished up with the seniors in 2012, because we knew that a new group needed to come.
"The great team from '04 to '09 had come to an end here 11 years ago. I suppose Stephen Cluxton put an end to them.
"We knew that a new group had to be developed and whatever. That began in 2014.
"We didn’t think today would take eight years to go the distance, but with that group, I know we won (a senior) one in ’14 but this is the five in a row minors really coming through today.
"We’re just hoping it is the start of something good."
For Jack O'Connor, yesterday's performance was another box ticked towards David Clifford's football immortality.
For Clifford himself, this was so much more than another day at the office.
"You see so many sportspeople who have never won whatever - Premier Leagues, All-Irelands, whatever," said the Fossa man who, at 23, is already a certified Kingdom great.
"There’s absolutely nothing inevitable about it. It’s tough to take the losses each year but it makes this so much sweeter. In January and February every year we felt like we were going to go and win the All-Ireland.
"I’d say this year was probably the first year that we didn’t mention winning the All-Ireland - until today, really. I think that was important for us.
"Maybe we were building it up too much in other years, I don’t know. As I say, it’s easy to say you’re going to win it in January and February. Then you actually have to go and do it. It’s class."
Since his days with Kerry minors in 2016 and '17, Clifford was seen as the messiah who would, hopefully sooner rather than later, lead the Kingdom to the promised land of more senior All-Ireland titles.
Given the famine experienced by the county at that level as they played second fiddle to Dublin over the last decade, Clifford's elevation took on even greater import.
Even if the captaincy - at 22 - seemed to weigh on him last year, the Fossa man still delivered on his rich promise, and then some. And now he has delivered on the biggest stage of all, winning his first Celtic Cross.
"Look, he's a remarkable man and that weight of expectation has been on him since he was 18 and he has jumped every hurdle he has come across," said O'Connor.
"He jumped another big one today. I went down there to the corner under Hill 16, at the angle where David Clifford kicked that last free, and I will tell you something that is some kick. That is some kick.
"There was a tricky wind going in there and he did not have much to aim at and he stuck it over. So, hats off to him."
Clifford scored eight points in yesterday's victory over Galway, four in each half.
His aerial process in the first half helped to keep Kerry in touch as, all around him, team-mates were uncharacteristically hitting wides and two Clifford marks that he converted lifted the Kingdom.
It was close and it was open and that made it entertaining for the neutral watching in. But Clifford himself enjoyed the ride, too.
"It was brilliant," said Clifford. "We just couldn’t get a handle on them, we struggled to shake them off. It’s a testament to them, McDaid and Walsh were absolutely outstanding.
"When we went three or four up in added time, we started to maybe feel like we were over the line. It’s unbelievable in fairness. It’s strange when it’s so over and back. Thankfully, we expected that. We were 100 per cent sure that it was going to be like that.
"Maybe there was talk that we were going to win handy but we never thought that. There was a real realisation in the second half that we either do it now or we’re in trouble again. You just had to really go for it."
O'Connor admits that he was "quite animated" at half-time as Kerry trailed by a point.
"I felt that we weren’t playing to our potential out there. There were players who had more to give," he explained.
"We’ve always been pretty composed in the dressing room at half-time. But I think today was one where we needed a bit of a jolt. And we left a couple of yahoos alright."
Clifford described the mood as "general disappointment" at the break.
"It wasn't about anything we brought – we just weren’t ourselves," he recalled.
"We didn’t nail our shots. We didn’t bring any sense of want or need out there.
"There was no intensity from us. So I think it was disappointment, really, because we knew there was so much more in us. You have those days sometimes but thankfully it came right for us."
Read next:
Kerry vs Galway: Player ratings from 2022 All-Ireland senior football final
RTE pundit Pat Spillane breaks down in tears during his final Sunday Game appearance
- Tributes pour in for Brian Cody as he announces Kilkenny retirement
Declan Bonner laments 'inconsistent' Donegal as his departure is confirmed
Kevin Brady backing new Antrim manager Andy McEntee to be a success
For all the latest sport news, visit the Belfast Live Sport homepage here. Sign up to our free sports newsletter here.
