Curry recalls in his piece: “They always said I was too small to play at the next level. Didn’t have what it takes.”

Damien Comer doesn’t reveal he was informed that he would never make it but his lack of height had been an issue right up until his early teens. Difficult as it is to believe given his 6ft frame now as a bulldozing forward, his Annaghdown and Galway team-mate Eoghan Kerin (5ft8in) earlier this year spoke about a time when Comer was smaller than him.

I would have been small up until Leaving Cert. I’d say it wasn’t until after Leaving Cert that I grew. I was probably the smallest in the Leaving Cert until later in the year — a late developer — and that’s probably when my football career kinda kicked off shortly after that.

Comer wasn’t deemed worthy of a place in the county minors and was also surplus to requirements in St Jarlath’s College in the 2011 Hogan Cup final when they lost to St Colman’s of Newry. “I was up in the stand under the drums. I’d be very good friends with Shane Walsh and the Varleys (Adrian and Paul) since a young age. Even watching them, you’d nearly be jealous of them getting to play in Croker.

“I never really expected it to happen. I was at a talk with Roy Keane lately and he was saying it’s amazing how, if luck is on your side you need it to kickstart some things. He got picked on different soccer teams, I was lucky enough that I got spotted by the U21 manager (Alan Flynn). If I hadn’t then, I possibly wouldn’t have blossomed. That’s the luck of the draw.”

Comer has no beef with any former mentors: his application back then left room for improvement. “I wouldn’t blame the coaches. I think I lost interest myself more so than anything. I played a bit, up until third year, juvenile, then didn’t bother playing in Leaving Cert. It wasn’t that I dedicated all my time to my studies. I just lost interest.

The lads say, ‘Imagine if we had you we would have won it’, but I don’t think it would have been the case because I was still relatively small. I don’t know would I have been as effective. I would have been alright. I probably would have been on the panel but I don’t think I’d have made the team.

Comer was a dab hand at hurling and Irish dancing too but football was his main focus even if he had to fulfil his potential in a different way. He knows he could be seen as an example to teenagers in that regard. “That’s the encouragement I would have given them. I wouldn’t be a big believer in the way trials operate. I went to minor trials but I wouldn’t have got picked.

“I remember on some show saying they aren’t the best method of picking players because I would have been, say, a 17-year-old going in to play with a load of randomers I would never have been involved with in a Galway set-up. I wouldn’t have known any of the Galway lads, other than the few fellas I was at school with which wasn’t many, maybe two or three.

“I might have been the only one from Annaghdown. Maybe there was one more. so there are different cliques from different clubs. You are playing there and you are trying to stand out with a load of randomers. I believe anyway you should be going around to different clubs and seeing them in their own set-up and seeing how they are adapting. To pick the best then from that.”

It wasn’t by being nice that Comer progressed and it’s not how Galway will now, he believes, as they have lost that tag. Even if it has meant they have shipped criticism for their more defensively-minded style, it’s been worth it.

For years they have been talking about how nice Galway football teams were and where has that got us? You hear pundits all the time giving out about defensive systems but the Dubs are as defensive as any other team but its just that they are that bit quicker in attack.

"That is what we are trying to get to. We have our defensive structure in place but we are just trying to get our attacking play flowing. Once you get that balance right, you are in a good place.

“You have to stick up for yourself as well. There were probably times in the past where we got bullied by other teams. There are two ways: you can either lie down and get bullied or stand up for yourself. That is what we have tried to do but it is all about bringing that work-rate and intensity.

“Division 1 has helped us with that, because it has that physical aspect to it and the intensity has been upped and we just upped that in every game.”

Kerry have won all five of the counties’ last five SFC matches and it’s 10 years since the deluge All-Ireland quarter-final when despite Micheál Meehan’s efforts Kerry claimed the win.

“I was in Rossaveal at the Gaeltacht,” recalls Comer. “I remember I was popping into the Fear an Tí for score updates.”

The margin in last year’s quarter-final was eight points but the 24-year-old regards it as a closer game.

“People would say that we were a bit off them but we had four very good goal chances and if we had taken one or two of them that could have been a different game.

“We didn’t bring the intensity that we wanted to the game and it is something we would want to.

“We have seen Kerry in the Munster championship, obviously that is something they are targeting, their tackling, their intensity and that is something we must match.”