It certainly took a while to catch the breath after this one. A fantastic game in terms of excitement and while a draw was probably a fair result on the day, I would presume that Armagh feel as if they let it slip away, especially when they look back on the scoring statistics.

Kerry will probably benefit more from the match, having not had a testing game in the Munster final, but both teams can look forward to the next day with realistic aims of winning it. Of course there was no better man for Kerry than Maurice Fitzgerald to slot over that final free, but you have to admire the ice-cool way in which he converted. He hadn't been on the frees all afternoon and he again showed his true class.

Kerry had appeared to be dead and buried. Armagh's possession was so impressive and dominant in the second half - probably around the 70 per cent mark. They certainly deserved their late goal, even if the build-up involved a somewhat harsh decision from the referee. It would have been appropriate in a way if Kieran McGeeney's point had won it for them, because he showed them the way in the second half.

Of course, Kerry got the start that every side dreams of. They looked to have yards on their opponents but there has to be some question marks over the penalty because the foul certainly looked to be outside the square. Having said that, there was an incident in the second half when John Crowley might well have had a penalty - which somewhat compensated for what happened in those first few minutes.

Once Armagh got into their familiar rhythm of closing down spaces and getting behind the ball, they took over for a long period and it took Kerry nearly 20 minutes to find their next score. Their forwards were proving very difficult to handle, especially the likes of Barry O'Hagan and Cathal O'Rourke.

By now, Kerry's defence was in real trouble, and even Seamus Moynihan was having a hard time. He made a magnificent recovery in the second half, but during that period a lot of Armagh's lesser known players were dominating. Having said that, it looked for a while as if Maurice Fitzgerald's goal had turned the tide but in fairness to this Armagh team they are never easy to put away.

After that opening blitz from Kerry, the game settled down into the pattern which we all had predicted. Armagh were picking off scores through the two inside players up front and their physical presence was very obvious. Crucial for Kerry at that stage were the few runs that Dara O Cinneide made on Ger Reid, helping to pick off the scores that gave them the cushion of a couple of points at half-time. And for the second year in a row, Oisin McConville was less effective than he could have been. He ended up with three points, but he missed a couple a goal chances as well, with one particularly noticeable one just before half-time.

In the second half Armagh quickly levelled it up and took over. At that stage, if it wasn't for Moynihan, Kerry would have been in terrible trouble. He made a number of crucial blocks as Armagh controlled so much of the possession. Armagh's half-back line were totally dominant. Mike Frank Russell and John Crowley were about the only Kerry players getting a run on their men at that stage.

It was significant as well that Armagh half back Andrew McCann eventually got up to snatch the goal. But the number of wides Armagh fired may well have cost them the game. They ended up with a dozen compared to Kerry's five, so despite that long period of dominance they looked to have kicked the game away. When they look back on this, they'll wonder how they allowed Kerry to start so well but also why they didn't make better use of their possession.

Fitzgerald's goal, buried beautifully into the net after his solo, looked at one stage to have decided the game. Before this, I wondered what Armagh would do if they were chasing the game. They had to change their style and come out for the ball, and they managed to do that successfully. In the end they threw caution to the wind and just got up there, with McGeeney in particular and the half-back line in general emphasising their dominance.

In an interview with Ian O'Riordan