Cosgrove's free: Keith Duggan talks to a number of the closest observers about that last-minute near thing

All through the fantastic azure revival, Ray Cosgrove has been about motion and joy. Cosgrove meant goals, simple and perfect strikes, and flamboyant celebrations that somehow complemented the Lyons administration and the great blue wall of Hill 16.

He could have been a cautionary tale, Ray Cosgrove, the forgotten man of Dublin football, but over six Sundays of extraordinary hype and passion, he became the poster boy of the suburbs, the Keaveney to a slim-line generation.

In a season when goals were a rarity, Cosrgrove was a natural. And he loved it. He scored and smiled and scored again and smiled even wider. He looked around the shimmering magnificence of the new Croke Park and felt at home. One Sunday against Meath, he began running and never stopped.

So it looked strange, in the climactic and unforgettable seconds of yesterday's semi-final, to see the eternal finisher, the serial scorer, standing so still. Forty yards out from goal and a free kick to keep the dream alive.

Let us remember the build-up to it. Armagh, a point up and tantalisingly close, had begun to clear their line with the match deep into injury time. A hand pass was floated towards Kieran McGeeney, the soul of this northern side, the safest pair of hands in the world. Once he grabbed it, that would be curtains. But somehow, the captain couldn't control it, the ball came loose, he had fallen or slipped.

"I wouldn't exactly say slipped," McGeeney would offer later. "Maybe I was helped along. Ach, it was just, well, let's just say that I am glad and I don't have to gripe about it now."

But the ball went free and Dublin scrambled possession and the Armagh defence collapsed and fouled. McGeeney just put his hands on his hips and walked away, wrestling all kinds of internal demons. Armagh know what it is to draw an All-Ireland semi-final.

The masses on the Hill watched on, pensive. It was not supposed to be this heart-wrenching. After the avalanche of scores they witnessed against Donegal, they had not expected to find themselves on the brink of elimination.

But that is what it came down to. Forty metres out the field, Ray Cosgrove held the ball in his hands under a fierce sun and the stares of almost 80,000 people. He had delivered six goals and 17 points before this game and landed another six over the course of the game. His rate was as phenomenal as the home-run streaks that grip America each summer. And now, here he was, faced with this monumental kick.

"I actually thought he looked nervous," Armagh's Enda McNulty said later. "Some of the lads were trying to distract him and with the ball in his hands, I thought he looked nervous. Couldn't blame him for that, though. It was just unlucky."

Down the far end, Coman Goggins, Dublin's captain had his mind half turned to a replay. So did Oisín McConville, Armagh's dead-eyed free taker.

"Yeah, he has been doing it all year and I thought it would go over. I have been in that situation myself, missed a few crucial ones over the years. Fair play to him for having the balls to go up and hit it. I said to him afterwards to keep the head up. It wasn't a bad free, normally those ones curl in off the post and go over the bar. This just came straight out and really it wasn't even the width of a post, it was less than that between us and a replay."

Tommy Lyons remained fixed on the sideline as Cosgrove prepared to kick. Through the winter, he nurtured Cosrgove's confidence and self-belief, believing there was a thoroughbred there. Maybe he would have preferred if Cosgrove had the ball in flight with three to beat.

Cosgrove was born to score, but he was never too enamoured with the drudgery of free kicks. Cosgrove was about expression and invention. He kicked frees simply because he was better at it than the other forwards. Sometimes they went over, other times not. Tom Lyons knew that. This time was one of the not.

"I didn't f***in' see it come back off the post because I just turned away when it left his foot. I was surprised it hit the post because it looked like it was going three foot wide, but it kept coming in.

"At the end of the day, it is a cruel way to lose a game and for a team that had expressed themselves and filled Croke Park four or five times and just played football with swagger."

And what do you say to a young player who has had the season of a lifetime but is forced to leave the stage with one haunting miss?

Tom Lyons laughs low and long.

"Ah, well lads, as I always say, the ould dog always gives you a good bite to bring you back to reality. I think Ray Cosgrove's performance out there today was the best he has given us all year. Ray is shattered, of course he is, but that kick is not what won it or lost it today.

"And Ray Cosgrove showed to everyone in Dublin that he is a hell of a good footballer and he did it again in an All-Ireland semi-final today."

So Ray Cosgrove's last shot of 2002 rapped the post. No cheers from the Hill, Armagh scamper clear and then the final whistle.

A tough finish for the best finisher of the summer. And far from the end of the Cosgrove story.