Now it emerges that the rising lake levels around the Iveragh Peninsula have ferried the great man back into football’s spotlight long after his retirement from the game.

Temporarily, at least.

Famous as Waterville is in football’s circles, playing it has never been straightforward in a corner of the island where the ebb and flow of the waters conspire to leave the club’s field unplayable for anything up to eight months a year.

How nobody ever thought to address it until now is something of a mystery. But then it occured to a bunch of the members earlier this year that no-one had thought to do anything to mark their famous son’s contribution to the club either.

Both boxes are finally being ticked.

A celebration of ‘Dwyer’ will take place over three days in Killarney and Waterville on the weekend of October 26-28 with the funds to be ploughed into the raising of the local pitch up to the higher water levels. A running track will be added around it for good measure.

Now in his 80s, O’Dwyer remains ageless. So too his achievements, even if Jim Gavin’s Dublin team sits on the cusp of going somewhere even Micko’s great Kerry sides couldn’t by claiming a first-ever five-in-a-row of All-Ireland senior titles.

What, you wonder, would he make of that were it to come about?

“Well, records, in general, I like seeing being broken,” he laughed yesterday.

“When Roger Bannister broke the (four-minute barrier) for the mile, everybody went through it after that. Sure if they do, the best of luck to them.

“They’re good enough, they deserve to do it. I tell you what, the more I’m looking at the situation, they seem to be. I hope that Kerry can put a team together to tackle them. That’s most important from a Kerryman’s point of view.”

O’Dwyer sounded like a man who has already seen the future come to pass when he spoke of Dublin putting a sixth title on top of the fifth, all but dismissing the suggestion that the weight of history would sit heavily on the team’s shoulders in this age of social media.

Retain Sam next August and this Dublin team won’t have just claimed the quintet: they will have emulated O’Dwyer’s era when Kerry were masters seven times across nine seasons. It’s no wonder nostalgia for his own boys is so in vogue, even if he considers comparisons an empty pursuit.

“If you think of it, we could have won nine All-Ireland titles in a row at that time. We were beaten in ’82 by Offaly by a point and in ’83, Cork beat us by a point. Had we won the two of them, we would have won nine All-Ireland titles in a row. That was on at the time.

“So Dublin have a bit of work to do yet, you know. It looks very much like they will do the five-in-a-row and maybe the six-in-a-row.

“The other counties will have to do a lot of work to catch up with Dublin. They are playing wonderful football. They can play the short game and the long game.

“They have it all and a wonderful panel of players.”

O’Dwyer doesn’t share the doom and gloom that shrouds football right now. His one bugbear is the surfeit of short passing but this is a man who experienced the convulsions felt in Kerry as far back as the 1960s when Down and Galway prompted cold, hard stares in the mirror.

This too, like Dublin’s dominance, shall pass but what will Kerry’s role prove to be?

“Well, you know, it doesn’t always follow from having good minor teams. Kerry have won five-in-a-row at that level but, still, the next two years will tell you exactly whether it’s a good thing to be winning minor All-Ireland titles. We’ll know quickly if they can make the present team.

“There are plenty of good footballers still in Kerry but they’ll have to be motivated. They’ll have to be worked harder, to put in more work, and if they do that then they’ll be able to compete. But it’s going to take a lot of hard work.”

Finding a senior manager to co-ordinate that will be the first significant step: a considerable task given the ESRI report last week which put at over 50 the numbers of hours required per week for the men required for such posts.

Has the time come to put such men on the county pay rolls?

“There are still plenty of great people in the Association that are willing to manage teams so I don’t know if there is any need for change there. Pay them proper expenses, they seem quite happy with that. If the day comes that you have to pay them, then I wouldn’t see anything wrong with it.”