The door springs open and in he strides, clasping his entire life in his hands at that moment. Graham Geraghty, blond hair soaked, holds the Sam Maguire outstretched before him, eyes lit upon his daughter Sophia who is curled up in the cup, unfazed by the commotion.

Fatherhood, captaincy; the past 12 months have done much to shape this pivotal Meath figure, a personality who so often in earlier years was painted as a moody and enigmatic kind of young fella, hard to get a measure of.

In this hectic aftermath, though, he makes for plain reading. Sunbeam of a smile shoots across his smile and he shakes his head as he tends to Sophia's attempts to examine the sturdiness of the recorders thrust in her father's face.

"This is unbelievable, very hard for me to put into words really. You know, it's always been a dream of mine to play for Meath, but to captain this team as well is something so special."

In the frenzied, heart-rushing seconds after the final whistle, things blurred for a while. He composed himself when he found himself standing on the platform and felt a chill during that golden sequence when he thrust the Sam Maguire towards the charcoal sky.

Then he was alone speaking aloud in the old stadium, tumbling words echoing around the continents.

The scale of that, the basic pride, is something he can return to and explore in days ahead. During the immediate aftermath, it was intimacy he sought.

"I honestly don't think it stuck home with me, that I realised what was after happening until my father and mother came up to me. This is such an honour for the whole family, something that will stay with us."

His mind turns to the game. He played Sean O hAilpin deep - early in the second half, the two were to be found more or less on Kevin O'Dwyer's goal-line, Geraghty pacing like a patient awaiting summoning from a dentist, Sean Og stalking him, head bowed.

"In the first half, I was having difficulty getting my hands on the ball - it wasn't coming in so well and Cork were breaking it well. Sean had a good game, it's been some year for him. I'm sure he is very disappointed at not doing the double, but he still has a lot to look back on. But, in fairness, the lads kept giving the ball in and eventually it told for us," he explains.

Geraghty's past sparkles with little cameos of improvised genius which he seemed to conjure from the blue, an ability to spend an afternoon in the wings only to explode in an instant and make a cod of the entire pattern of a game.

Like against Offaly, when he saw a half chink of space and broke free, smoothly burning ground before laying a perfect ball to Ollie Murphy. Issue settled in a second.

On this afternoon, however, his brilliance was of a more permanent kind.

Scoreless at half-time, he nonetheless leaped to palm a clean ball for Ollie Murphy (once more!) to bore home after 22 minutes.

"It was a move we had been trying a lot all year and thankfully it worked again this time. I just told Ollie to stay down and let the two Cork lads jump with me. Ollie finished it well."

Early in the second half, he was the source of nightmares again in front of O'Dwyer's goal, rescuing an ill-fated shot from the endline and spinning inside Sean Og, who found himself swinging his man to the ground.

Penalty. After the save, Geraghty trotted calmly back to the small square, as if unbothered by a shift that was potentially seismic.

"Well, these things happen in games. Trevor (Giles) was our freetaker all year and, fair play, it was a good save. But we kept going and weren't too worried, just got on with it."

And how. Even after Joe Kavanagh smashed the ball past Cormac O'Sullivan - a goal now eerily redolent of his last unhappy All-Ireland performance in 1993 - Meath didn't buckle.

"Even after that, it didn't look too bad," reflects Geraghty. "We were only one down and it was tit-for-tat for a while. I got a bit of ball and hit a couple of points and they came at the right time."

Wonderful understatement. With Meath down one point after 42 minutes, the Meath captain popped free in front of the New Stand and drilled a pressure point into the Hill end. Giles broke the deadlock with a free and then Geraghty stepped up again, firing another score with his left foot. Cork drew equal but would not lead again.

"We were concerned even when we went ahead because we never had that four-point cushion. The thought is always there . . . what if they get a goal."

The last minutes were raw and untamed, primal and absorbing. Cork blasted chances into oblivion and Meath, straining, held their composure. Giles, with possession in the 65th minute, pumped a ball towards the free-running Geraghty. Again, he nailed his score decisively.

"Graham wouldn't be noted for his left foot but what great points," chuckled Sean Boylan.

"Ah yeah, one of his finest days all right. I mean, it was a tough battle between Sean Og and himself, very honest. But Graham just kept on running and he won an awful lot of loose ball. Thought he was terrific out there today and what a day for him."

One that will never go away from him. Talking all done, he takes a second's rest and sits by his locker, taking it in. Meath boys, they don't get flitty too easily and the joy of this, the meaning, is mostly unspoken. Words are casual.

"How's the leg, Graham, did ye get a knock?" comes an inquiry.

"Ah, it's grand," he returns, laughing with no one in particular. "I won't be feeling it tonight anyway."

You wonder if he has ever before known such lightness of heart.