All-Ireland SFC Final / Tyrone 0-12 Armagh 0-9: The whistle went and Tyrone's supporters began to infiltrate the pitch, slowly at first but the trickle quickly became a torrent, writes Seán Moran.
Petitions from the public address that the integrity of the field be respected were summarily turned down. When you've waited 115 years for something, the well-being of the grass doesn't seem so important.
Peter Canavan, one of the modern game's icons, finally got to raise the Sam Maguire in the tableau that virtually everyone beyond the boundaries of Armagh wished to see; his first All-Ireland, Tyrone's first All-Ireland. He gave an emotional speech, especially when remembering his father, Seán, who passed away last July.
It was all so fitting and apparently pre-ordained, such was Tyrone's superiority, that anyone viewing the swaying hordes of red and white could easily forget how millimetre-close the Sam had been to spending another year in the neighbours' cupboard.
Sixty eight minutes gone - with three more to come for injury time - was surely enough opportunity for Armagh, kings of the run for the tape, to make up three points. It would have taken only seconds had Steven McDonnell buried the chance he had with those five minutes left.
The most significant action of the match became, however, not the goal the lethal corner forward would surely have scored but the magnificent flying block from defender Conor Gormley. Had Armagh equalised the momentum could well have swept them home. But the momentum yesterday, and this season, has been elsewhere.
Everything about yesterday's All-Ireland football final was hard; hard for Tyrone to cope with injury troubles, hard for champions Armagh to lose by a single score, physically hard and, for neutrals, hard to watch.
Finals are only a means to winning something and as Tyrone have been quick to point out, it's not their job to stage exhibition matches but even by such downbeat standards this was a forgettable match. It was a fractured affair, moving only in fits and starts, dominated by defences and conservative strategies.
Tyrone were considerably better. They tried to play their best football but too many things got in the way: injuries, jitters and Armagh's febrile desire. Victory confirmed the Ulster champions as the team of the year; like their hurling counterparts, Kilkenny, they took the league in the spring, added the provincial title and crowned their achievements with the All-Ireland.
But there was a buried tribute to Armagh in yesterday's exchanges. No side in the last decade has come as close to retaining the title. No manager has fanned the flames of possibility so far into a second year as Joe Kernan did in the past four and a half months.
Fatigue was the silent enemy waiting in the long grass and yesterday Armagh looked tired. Their key players were unable to orchestrate the drive necessary for a period of sustained pressure and they trailed for all but two minutes of the match.
They lost Diarmuid Marsden to a red card in the 57th minute for throwing a punch at Philip Jordan, who was running aggressively at him. Armagh had been forced to function without him anyway for most of the afternoon, as he had been off the field having a head wound stitched for half an hour either side of half-time.
His unavailability was a setback, as Marsden has been in fine form this championship although his sixth-minute miss-kick with a goal on had started his match on a downbeat note.
Yet the scales of misfortune were tilted far more heavily against Tyrone. After all the injury-driven rumours of the past week, Canavan lined out with the team but was withdrawn at half-time and reintroduced for the final few minutes. Ciarán Gourley played for nearly the whole 70 minutes, falling foul of a blood injury in the 64th minute.
Brian McGuigan had been battling flu for most of the week and took an extended interval, being replaced at the end of the first half but returning for the restart. Canavan never really got going in general play but his contribution from the dead ball was calm and reassuring for the team. Five first-half frees formed a solid foundation for his team's efforts to construct a winning position.
For all its stylistic shortcomings it was absorbing stuff. The match never drifted too far beyond Armagh on the scoreboard and their reputation for comebacks kept the verdict in doubt. But Tyrone played it their way. Uninhibited by the champions' physical challenge, Mickey Harte's side ran the ball out of defence and conjured enough openings to win in style.
Before the match, that would have appeared the hard part but on the day Tyrone's attack misfired. They had four goal chances and put up only one point as a result. Seán Cavanagh had an opportunity on a plate in the 20th minute but his left foot wasn't up to the challenge of the empty net.
Heads shook as the long-term implications of such a miss were pondered. They were still shaking in the second half when first Gerard Cavlan in the 40th minute and then Owen Mulligan - sent in by Cavlan in the 64th minute - put the ball wide when one-on-one with Paul Hearty, the Armagh goalkeeper.
Hearty had a good match. His kick-outs were good and long and he minded his goal well. In the last minute before the interval Enda McGinley carved through onto a pass from Stephen O'Neill only to see his low hard shot deflected over the bar by the spread-eagled goalkeeper.
At the start there were a few variations in Armagh's starting 15. Tony McEntee went to centrefield with Philip Loughran going to the wing and Ronan Clarke returning to the full-forward line. The configuration didn't last but McEntee played in a more forward role than previously in the championship.
Early trends were reliable. Referee Brian White acted in the second minute to award a free for an off-the-ball foul on Brian Dooher by Andrew McCann and 10 minutes later Francie Bellew was yellow carded for a similar foul on Mulligan.
The Crossmaglen full back moved corners - presumably to avoid the occasion of sin - but Mulligan never really blossomed, although the lack of a consistent supply was a factor.
Tyrone were also managing to penetrate the cover with the speed of their build-up. It's testimony to how hard Armagh made this for their opponents when you consider how Kerry were ripped asunder in the semi-final by the same tactics. But Tyrone got through even if their finish was disappointing and they weren't losing their bearings in the physical attrition.
The four-point half-time lead was probably at the lower end of the register that permitted a Tyrone win.
Armagh are a second-half team and had shown enough to suggest that this was within their reach. McDonnell was going comfortably even if Cormac McAnallen tracked him scrupulously. Two points from play could have been bettered had he not sent a gifted pass from Tyrone goalkeeper John Devine, whose kick outs were looking a bit rickety, wide.
Despite Tyrone's wasted opportunities Armagh couldn't get closer than two points and on each occasion their opponents hit back immediately with a free from Mulligan and well-worked points by O'Neill who proved again what a resource he is to bring on from the bench.
Yet the match wouldn't die as a contest and while Armagh were within a score the great crowd held its breath. But as a final tribute to the new champions they proved as unshakeable in what was supposed to be Armagh's domain, that of the tightly-poised endgame.
TYRONE: 1 John Devine 2 Ciarán Gourley 3 Cormac McAnallen 4 Ryan McMenamin 5 Conor Gormley 6 Gavin Devlin 7 Philip Jordan 8 Kevin Hughes 9 Seán Cavanagh 10 Brian Dooher 11 Brian McGuigan 12 Ger Cavlan 13 Enda McGinley 14 Peter Canavan 15 Owen Mulligan
ARMAGH: 1 Paul Hearty 2 Andy Mallon 3 Enda McNulty 4 Francie Bellew 5 Aidan O'Rourke 6 Kieran McGeeney 7 Andrew McCann 8 Paul Loughran 9 Paul McGrane 10 Ronan Clarke 11 John McEntee 12 Oisín McConville 13 Steven McDonnell 14 Diarmuid Marsden 15 Tony McEntee
SUBSTITUTES: Tyrone: 28. S O'Neill for McGuigan (34 mins), 11. B McGuigan for Canavan (half-time), 14. P Canavan for Cavlan (64 mins), 19. C Holmes for Gourley (64 mins – blood substitution but not replaced), 21. C Lawn for Gormley (71 mins). Armagh: 19. P McKeever for Clarke (50 mins – Marsden for Clarke, McKeever replaced Marsden blood substitution 25 mins), 21. K Hughes for Mallon (47 mins), 17. B O'Hagan for J McEntee (61 mins).
SCORERS: Tyrone: P Canavan 0-5, all frees, O Mulligan, two frees, S O'Neill 0-2 each, B McGuigan, G Cavlan, E McGinley 0-1 each. Armagh: O McConville 0-3, all frees, P McKeever 0-2, two frees, S McDonnell 0-2, D Marsden, J McEntee 0-1 each.
YELLOW CARDS: Tyrone: C McAnallen (31 mins), R McMenamin (42 mins), K Hughes (48 mins), B McGuigan (66 mins), O Mulligan (71 mins), P Canavan (72 mins). Armagh: F Bellew (12 mins), P Loughran (24 mins), P McKeever (45 mins), K McGeeney (59 mins).
RED CARDS: Armagh: D Marsden (57 mins). Tyrone: None.
REFEREE: B White (Wexford). ATTENDANCE: 79,391.
