Kildare enter the dreamtime.

Half dressed and half delirious Mick O'Dwyer talks of this moment with the tribe who adopted him.

"One of the greatest days of my life," he says. "We played great football. They chased, they blocked, superb. Real hard tackling; a team that really wanted to win. They came at us at the finish, typical Meath, but we had the resolve to come and go again. We did what a lot of people didn't think we were capable of doing."

Today nobody wants nitty gritty. No forensics, no play by play. Micko is in his vest pulling a shirt over a grey head and life's wrinkles. Is this life better than your last life? Is this day better than all those other ones?

He draws himself up as if it is a novel question.

"It compares very favourably to the 1978 All-Ireland final when we had been beaten by Dublin in 1976 and 1977. I think it would stand out above all. A great achievement for everybody involved in the team. It's not just me. I'm getting the accolades because I'm the front man."

He lists all the heroes of the back room and the committee room but, as he says, he is the frontman and we scarcely want to hear the names of those who have been granted indulgences. We want to know what the frontman thought.

"I had a feeling after we drew with Meath last year. I had a feeling we could do it. I knew if we could bring them that close we could do it."

And the savoury thought of a semi-final between Kerry and Kildare with its maze full of newspaper angles?

"I'm not looking forward to that," he says, with a sleeveen smile. "Number one I'm a Kerryman and will always be a Kerryman. But my allegiance is to Kildare. They were outstanding today. Kildare were, with Kerry, in the early part of the century one of the teams that made the association what it is.

"The supporters have stuck with this team all through. It would make you put in the effort. I saw some fella in the paper this morning saying it was all about money for me. I would never even dream about money. This is about satisfaction. Today can't be bought. I'm thrilled and delighted."

And he closes his face, cautious again "We won't be saying too much. We set out to win a Leinster title and we've done it."

Niall Buckley may not be saying much in the next few weeks, but for now he is speaking fast and loose, the words coming tumbling out as his head still buzzes.

"Kildare teams in the past might have died down. In the previous games we'd have been dead and buried. We got the goal and knocked on a couple more points and really killed them off.

"We stuck at it. Meath are the yardstick by which every football team measures itself. They looked very dangerous every time they went up front. They do look dangerous but our lads played well. We got the goal and Martin Lynch played a superb ball across to Brian Murphy. Then we capitalised on it.

Brian Murphy, the big fellow from Cork who uncorked the whole frenzy with his late goal, was helping journalists with their inquiries. Details of what happened. When? Where? Who else was involved?

"From what I can recall there was a long ball played into the far corner and Martin Lynch moved across for it. Two Meath men went with him. I drifted off into the edge of the square and he gave an inch-perfect ball into my hands and luckily it went in. I wouldn't say it was my forte scoring goals, but I've been lucky enough to do it twice against Meath."

"I think that what we concentrated on is putting pressure at all stages. Once you lose possession you are back trying to get the hand in or whatever. That's the way, hopefully, we'll continue."

For Corkmen like Murphy self confidence is a birthright. The self-doubt which has gone shivering up Kildare spines so often in the past is a mysterious phenomenon. "People have been doubting Kildare. Since I've been involved anyway, for the past couple of years and before that. To be honest last year we were beaten by Meath by two points. That's football. You go behind by a point, you go ahead by a point."

Yesterday the music stopped at the right time.

Sos Dowling, the oldest soldier on the battlefield, was lost for a way to frame the context.

"Fourteen years," he said, blurting out his service record. "Oldest on the field today, I think. I'm still in shock. Unbelievable. I could hardly get my breath.

"It was hard to get across the field afterwards. The whistle went and there were people everywhere. "We beat the best teams in Leinster. The lads were brilliant. Near the end when they equalised I thought maybe it would be the same old story but we kept our heads and went ahead with the goal, then got another point.

"The three games last year were vital to us. We analysed our games, sat down, thought about it. The games with Dublin too, but those three games last year made the team. They came back and got us last time, but this year we got the luck, took our chances and we won it.

"Unbelievable. The first 10 or 15 minutes today were tough, all of a sudden I got a second wind, but those minutes were cat. Unbelievable."

In the Meath dressing-room the reality of defeat was all to digestible, too starkly believable. Sean Boylan's graciousness on these occasions is a blessing to sport. He absorbs defeat as part of his wide philosophy.

"The better team won on the day," said Boylan. "We lost it to them, we'd have liked to have won it but we certainly won't deny Kildare their day in the sun. Nobody deserved it more. They played well in defence, covered off all the angles. We had chances early on. But that's called Leinster championship. You have to be able to take the chances.

In the end there was detectable irony in the manner of their passing.

"There weren't many breaks going our way but when we got level we could see this movement breaking down the field and it had goal written all over it."

How many times have Meath finished games with precisely that inexorability.