"We nearly lost it twice, came back twice, then nearly won it, and ended up with a draw."

That, says John O'Mahony, more or less sums up the rhythmless pendulum of yesterday's All-Ireland football final. The chances lost and the opportunities gained may have added up to an even number but as the 70 minutes wore down, the Galway manager could sense his team smelling victory and yet not quite licking it.

"Of course Kerry missed some chances as well but we did have more of the ball in that last 15-minute period, so maybe we should have won the game. But I think it probably will bring us on a fair bit for the next day, because we needed to get something like that out of our system. But then it should bring Kerry on as well."

One of the more immediate talking points surrounds the amount of injury time played by referee Pat McEnaney (no more than half a minute by most people's watches), although O'Mahony is not about to add fuel to any unnecessary controversy.

"Well it seemed to stop after about 30 seconds alright, and there seemed to be more injury time, but that's a decision which is always at the referee's discretion. But I felt the game was going for us at that stage and we might have put it away had he played on a little longer."

Still, having been down 0-8 to 0-1 at one stage in the first half, it's not just a question of looking back. Time to look forward as well. A replay is better than nothing.

"It was very important that we reduced the gap to three points at half-time. But then a lot of things didn't work for us early on in the second half as well and we had to come back twice really. Overall, though, I think we performed more or less like I expected. Some of our men didn't play up to form so they'll obviously be delighted to get another chance."

The reasons they were able to reduce the almost disastrous margin, he says, were wide-ranging. "Padraig Joyce definitely picked up a lot of breaks when he came out to centre forward," he emphasises, "and Kevin Walsh also came in to win a lot more ball in the middle of the field.

"But you'll always have periods in games when you are up and down, and that last 20-minute period was definitely a time when we were up. There was one point as well from Paul Clancy that looked to me to have gone over, but of course I'll have to see the replay of that particular one."

Like his opponents, there are lessons to take back and absorb before the next outing: "At times, we were in some trouble in the defence but the type of ball that was coming in during the second half was way better for us because it was pressurised from outside. It was a worrying start, and so from that point of view, I suppose we are lucky to have drawn the match."

The vacant stares among the players, however, seems to suggest a battle lost rather than won, and Derek Savage doesn't hold back when revealing his first reaction to the final whistle. "It was pure disgust, to be honest," he says. "I had a great chance at the end with my right foot, but I think the legs were a bit tired and Padraig (Joyce) ran by me, but I just saw him as I kicked the ball. I half hesitated and didn't hit it well. And it dropped into the goalkeeper, which is the worst thing you can do.

"But Denis O'Dwyer had a chance to kick it over the bar at the end as well, and that would have been the ultimate downer. But when it's level in an All-Ireland final with the last kick of the ball, you're always going to be so careful not to give the ball away. But it always seems to be calmness in the last five minutes than wins these big games and maybe we didn't show that today."

"So you have to be happy in the end and now we live to fight another day. Even when we were seven points down we just kept plugging away, and once we started shutting down the hatches around midfield their scores started to dry up."

Adding to the feelings of disappointment is Sean de Paor. "I suppose it is a bit disappointing but that's just the way it goes," he says. "We all had our chances to steal it but you have to accept the good with the bad. And you can look at it a few ways and say we will benefit even more from the extra game but the bottom line is that the next day is a brand new game."

And so it's back to those training nights in Tuam for another two weeks. "It's funny because we had a bit of a slag in training last Wednesday night," says Derek Savage. "Paul Clancy said to me that if I get a penalty in the last minute and we're three points down, still kick it over the bar because he couldn't face another two weeks of hard training. But we'll just have to try and rise it mentally again and get up again for the next day."