Reaction/Keith Duggan Welcome to the Promised Land. Big Joe said this day would arrive back when few were listening. He has tapped into the secret that has long eluded Armagh. Joe knows the path towards All-Ireland glory and now they are edging closer. Sorry if he has spoiled the Dublin-Kerry dream final. Joe has his own sepia memories and his own business to take care of.

"That was nerve wracking," he says. "In any walk of life, if people keep criticising you, if you have any heart at all and you know you have the ability, you're going to answer those questions. We really wanted to be here. We had some highs and lows over the year, some lucky days and great days and today was no exception. It was end-to-end stuff."

And the Croke Park voodoo on Armagh, it doesn't matter any more.

"See, the Croke Park thing, it is all down to hype," says Kernan. "We have only played five times, drew one and we have won one now. So we lost three matches in Croke Park and it was the end of the world then, but it is not the end of the world now."

Instead, it is only a beginning.

Kieran McGeeney, the Armagh captain and one of the few modern sportsmen capable of matching Roy Keane for passion and intensity, considers an All-Ireland final that he might have felt had passed him by.

"I suppose it is a different feeling," he says with a grin. "I'm just thankful that Oisín stood up and stuck one over the bar. Things didn't bounce well for him and still, at the end, he took on three players and fisted it over the bar.

"And Diarmuid (Marsden), like, he mightn't have scored, but the tackling he did, people don't realise. Like, I don't think we played exceptionally well - we hit 14 wides and scored what, 1-13. We are happy, we got a bit of luck at the end.

"But we have a massive day now. Kerry, sure you don't even have to build them up. But we'll probably start worrying about that tomorrow."

Tomorrow. In 1999 and 2000, Armagh left Croke Park feeling that they had left their tomorrows behind them. What was different this year?

"There was no real plan, just for everyone to work hard," says Paul McGrane. "It is just an effort all around the field, so we just wanted to win the ball and get it into the forwards. There was no big plan, you know. I suppose in the past we didn't keep playing to the final whistle.

"No doubt about it, our experience helped. It was disappointing to lose those (other matches), but you have to forget about it and move on. We know now that the hard work still has to be done."

Down the hallway, Tommy Lyons' last act of summer is to sit in a box room and explain the close of a Gaelic season that somehow made the sprawling capital small and intimate and brimming with pride again. A village, as he fondly referred to it. That strange mix of grace and chutzpah with which he has enlivened the championship does not desert him at the end.

With a deep breath, he delivers one of the most perfect valedictories of this or any summer.

"Shattered is always the word you have to use in these circumstances. We are shattered. I think we gave it a great last try out there. At the end of the day, the law of averages apply and we were worried about that.

"Armagh couldn't keep coming down without some element of luck and maybe they got the bounce of the ball that we got in other games this year. And we are not afraid to take our beating, we are well able to take our beating and we would be delighted now at half-past five that Armagh go on. They have had four awful bad days down here and we have had some good days. Dublin will have a lot more good days here in Croke Park. We have learned a lot this year but, above all, this evening we want to wish Armagh well. To be delighted for them as a GAA man. You can't but be happy for Armagh when you take the Dublin factor out. Good luck to them, they have had their day in the sun."

You sense when he is old, he will look back to 2002.

"Your first year is always your best year. I'm bitterly disappointed we didn't win the All-Ireland. The minute we beat Meath, we changed ours sights. We just went out and played football with swagger. We are proud of them, awful proud of them.

"We will put our shoulders out, we'll be proud to be Dublin because we will fill Croke Park again. There is no hiding the bitterness of defeat, it's a horrible, horrible feeling. We will get to the Promised Land, I have no doubt at all about it."