An awful lot happened in the 1998 football season but for all that it was strangely low-key in comparison to the sweeping melodrama which unfolded throughout the hurling championship. On Monday at lunch-time, the reaction to Galway's win was sustaining its giddy momentum.

At the Burlington Hotel the crowds were about four times the number which had gathered for the post-final hurling lunch a fortnight previously. There was a striking scene as Kildare's bus arrived at the hotel and the thronged lobby, packed with supporters from the two counties, divided to create a channel for the players to file through into the lunch.

All present, regardless of county, gave the defeated finalists a prolonged ovation as they trooped by. This occasion must be a trial for the team which loses an All-Ireland. The players have to suppress their disappointment and be on their best behaviour although they would prefer to be anywhere else.

Despite all this, Kildare arrived punctually and embraced the etiquette of the occasion, only wavering in the aftermath of the meal when the gods of bonhomie had to be assuaged by the ritual of the sing-song.

Before Carraroe clubmates Sean O Domhnaill and Kevin Terry McDonagh had been guided through an exuberant version of Peigin Leitir Mor by GAA president Joe McDonagh, Kildare were asked to offer up a singer.

Martin Lynch reluctantly obliged with captain Glen Ryan for moral support. Curragh of Kildare was tuned up but its wistful melancholy combined with the regret of the occasion and seemed to upset Lynch and the duo tailed off after one verse.

Although the mood in Kildare was defiantly upbeat on Monday and celebrated the Leinster win, the uncomfortable thought that hovered on most people's minds was that Kildare would have to struggle to get out of the province all over again.

At such moments, it's always instructive to think of Dublin in the first half of the decade climbing the mountain every year for four years and being knocked off close to the summit at each of the first three attempts.

But the story of the year has been Galway. It hasn't impacted as sensation because of the steady improvement all during the League and the fine win over Mayo, All-Ireland finalists for the previous two years, back in May.

It's a tribute to the team - as well as a reflection on Kildare's even longer wait for an All-Ireland - that Galway's victory is being celebrated now not merely for its novelty value but for the quality of the football they have played all summer.

Some of the jubilating is a little harsh on Kildare who were guilty of nothing more than adopting the gameplan which best suited the players at their disposal. But even Mick O'Dwyer's men showed in the second quarter that they could benefit from injecting some more directness into their play.

Nothing underlines more emphatically the precarious nature of football than the frequent interventions deemed necessary to guide the game's future. In the absence of simplicity, the rules have become prescriptive rather than regulatory as each generation seeks to redefine the way the game should be played.

The current belief of the Football Development Committee - well-based in this view - that football is more attractive the more often the ball is in dispute has received a significant boost from Galway's victory. Coaches and young players will presumably be influenced by the emphasis on kicking and quick release.

It has always been a puzzle that football has valued the short game as intrinsically more cerebral than direct play. Whereas hurling applauds the team which clears the ball a distance and moves play quickly on, football has seen such play - exemplified by Galway centre back John Divilly - as unsophisticated and crude.

The new All-Ireland champions have elevated brain above brawn with a clever, lively defence and attack. Only at centrefield does the team indulge in power play, largely because of the size of Kevin Walsh and Sean O Domhnaill, and even here the skill quotient has been high.

Gauging a team's evolution can be haphazard but the environment in the west has been improving since football in Connacht reached its nadir with Cork's 20-point demolition of Mayo five years ago.

When John O'Mahony brought Leitrim to Croke Park in 1994, they showed a determination that mocked the county's slight resources and even if hopelessly outgunned by Dublin, they still set an example to better appointed Connacht counties as regards maximising potential.

A year later, further improvement was shown when Galway arrived for a first All-Ireland semi-final in seven years - a gap unequalled since the 1950s. By running Tyrone so close, the team demonstrated that Connacht had gradually closed the gap on the rest of the country and could at least compete.

It was symptomatic of the less-than-confident attitude prevalent in the country at large that two years ago, when Mayo beat Galway in the Connacht final, it was seen as a disaster for football in the province. The perception was that Galway's experience would have been a prerequisite if anything was to be achieved in the All-Ireland series.

Mayo's contribution over two years was the most significant of all. There was a consensus amongst Galway players that Mayo's achievement was their big motivation. Not alone did John Maughan's team progress to All-Ireland finals but they beat Munster and Leinster champions en route.

They also created a sense of anarchy in the championship. Two years ago, having marched out of Division Three in the spring, the team developed into a formidable force which was only a scoring forward or two away from the jackpot. All that in the space of a year and within 12 months Cavan and Offaly had followed suit in Ulster and Leinster. The old order was changing.

It's easy to read the runes in retrospect but again the Sigerson Cup has proved a vital breeding ground for champions. Over six years ago, having watched Sean de Paor lead UCG to triumph, anyone would have more easily associated Galway with last Sunday's success than the pitfalls which were to follow immediately - a hammering from Mayo and two successive defeats by Leitrim.

Anyone watching recent champions UCD and IT Tralee would have noticed John Divilly and later Derek Savage making their way with the former while Padraig Joyce and Michael Donnellan made their mark with the latter.

After the 1991 All-Ireland club final, Jim Carney and John Tobin stood on the Croke Park pitch ruefully reflecting on Salthill's defeat by Lavey. "A long journey home," said Tobin. "Another one," replied Carney.

Monday's triumphant progress home could hardly have been more protracted but the journey probably never seemed so short.