It was a case of constantly changing headlines at Croke Park yesterday. Kerry started the All-Ireland semi-final as if they meant to devour Ulster champions Armagh. As they streaked into a 1-3 to nil lead by the sixth minute, this was Kerry's sublime forwards making it count against the more defensive northerners.
Ten minutes later with the scores level, the story changed to Armagh's tight, controlled tactics squeezing the life out of Kerry's delicate forwards. The competing analyses toed and froed until celebrated Kerry substitute Maurice Fitzgerald's elegantly dispatched goal seemed to copperfasten the original theory.
Instead Armagh rallied late and with 1-1 in the space of a minute, actually first hit the front in injury-time at the end of the match. With Armagh supporters screaming for the whistle, there was enough time in the four minutes added on for Fitzgerald to equalise with a last-gasp free.
Fitzgerald won the battle of the high-profile replacements. His goal set up Kerry for a win and his free saved them for another day. Armagh's Diarmuid Marsden also entered the fray early in the second half but his goal attempt was well saved by Declan O'Keeffe although he played a role in the build-up to Andrew McCann's sensational equalising goal in the 70th minute.
"I was very proud the way they brought the ball up the field to salvage the oul' draw," was Kerry manager Paidi O Se's response. "There's an amount of work for Kerry to look at and we will do that in the next day or two. But we're delighted to be still left in the championship."
On the subject of referee John Bannon's hugely disproportionate award of frees in the second half - 16 to four by one account - O Se was diplomatic. "I have nothing whatsoever to say about the referee. He has a job to do and I won't be making any comment."
The Armagh joint-manager, Brian Canavan, was more forthright and unsurprisingly upbeat despite the lengthy bout of injury-time which eventually yielded the Kerry equaliser.
"I think John Bannon refereed it very well. I couldn't see a bad challenge in the whole match. I was hoping he'd blow it up when we had the lead but he's the man with the stop watch."
Like his Kerry counterpart, Canavan could see the positive side of the rollercoaster journey. "We pushed [Andrew] McCann and [Kieran] McGeeney forward and they actually got the scores. In front, we had the chance to kill the game but at least we're still in the competition. With five minutes to go, it looked like we were out of it. "We knew there were a couple of minutes injury-time and if we could keep hold of possession and not give away a free . . . but Kerry were always going to get a chance and they equalised when they got that chance."
Both teams get their second chance next Saturday week. The official replay date was listed as a week earlier but after consultations with the counties and the Garda, the GAA decided to push it back a week.
The minor semi-final ended in a narrow win for Cork against Derry, 0-15 to 0-14, but the matter may not be disposed of that simply. Cork centrefielder Kieran Murphy appeared to be shown two yellow cards by Roscommon referee Gerry Kinneavy - in the 11th and 54th minute. But the Cork player was not shown the mandatory red card after his two bookings.
The teams were level at the time of the alleged second yellow but sources close to Kinneavy say he only cautioned Murphy in the first instance.
Finally RTE have announced that Kildare's footballers have withdrawn co-operation from the broadcaster in the wake of Sunday Game analyst Pat Spillane's severe criticism of the team's first-half performance in last week's Leinster football final replay. Kildare face Galway in next Sunday's second All-Ireland semi-final.
