Kerry's victory certainly makes for an All-Ireland final of the true football tradition. To be honest, I hadn't thought too much about who Galway would prefer to play in the final but I suppose from the general supporters' point of view, Kerry will definitely make it a better spectacle.

And they certainly deserved to win through. They handled everything that Armagh threw at them, and having gone through periods when they were badly stretched, they certainly displayed tremendous resilience in the closing periods. Armagh have shown great mental steel this summer but Kerry had that bit more when it counted.

It's not necessarily that Armagh play negative tactics, because they do play in a very methodical way, but what you now have in the final are two teams with the more free-flowing approach to the game and from that point of view I expect a very interesting final.

Having said that, even the Kerry team of the 1970s would have had a hard time to overcome this tested and organised Armagh tactic of getting behind the ball. That Kerry have overcome that now will be a huge psychological boost. They also displayed great character, especially as they looked to be in some trouble at half-time.

But the period of extra time was nearly all about Kerry, especially the first five or six minutes which more or less decided the game. It was heart-throbbing stuff throughout, and by the end, there were a lot of tired legs and cramping.

Still, they had their chances. Kerry didn't get near as good a start as the last day. Armagh were soon wearing them down with their typical game plan of squeezing the forwards out of much of the action. They also finished very strongly just before the break, especially after all their switching up front. Kieran Hughes was pressing forward on a few overlaps, but eventually they ended up reproducing that twin scoring threat of Oisin McConville and Diarmaid Marsden for the opening goal.

So they ended the first half very well, and then started the second with the first point from John McEntee. That put them into a five-point lead and I felt at that stage Kerry appeared increasingly ragged.

Quite soon, however, Kerry produced a tremendous rally. They hit a succession of points and if they hadn't missed so many chances at that stage, I don't think the game would have gone to extra time at all.

Armagh had Kerry on the cliff when they went five points ahead, but they couldn't quite push them over. Whether they had the belief or not isn't easy to say but they definitely lacked a bit of shape in their game from there on.

Their forwards were very dispersed and there were huge spaces inside and at times it was very hard to analyse what was happening with the game. At times, for instance, Marsden was in front of the full forward and other times was back behind. In fact, that period before half-time was the only stage that Armagh had their clear two-man attack.

But back on the field, a few players who did very well in the drawn game didn't quite click. Cathal O'Rourke certainly had a quieter game, although Dara O Se's much improved performance at midfield had a lot to do with that, especially in the second half. He was catching a lot of high ball, right into the full back line.

Of all the substitutions made, Liam Hassett probably had the biggest impact. He picked off one of the points when they needed them most, and seemed to settle a lot of nerves as well. The reports of Maurice Fitzgerald's injury were obviously true because he didn't have quite the same influence as the last day. Of course, he still produced a couple of great pressure kicks as well as that superb delivery to Mike Francis Russell to set up their first goal.

To me, Russell has matured superbly this year and is now the real powerhouse in this Kerry team. He is very dangerous inside with the ball and even when Kerry were going through that period of missing a lot of scores, you always expected something from him when he got the ball.

But if you had to pick out the key players for them, then Seamus Moynihan would definitely be one. His defensive work was absolutely outstanding although Mike Hassett and Michael McCarthy also improved the full back line significantly from the last day. Declan O'Keeffe also played a major role in extra time with a couple of crucial saves.

To be honest, however, I don't think we saw the true worth of this Kerry team on Saturday. I've now seen them a number times this year and they are capable of outstanding football but the Armagh tactics stifled the Kerry style to a certain extent. The fact that they had to adapt and overcome Armagh's ring of steel at the back just shows how strong they are and how determined they are to make it back to the big stage.