Gaelic Games: Who knows what role the gods actually played but Croke Park has witnessed the birth of two new football immortals.

What Armagh and Monaghan did in winning yesterday's Allianz National Football League finals won't easily be forgotten, not in our lifetimes anyway, nor will the cruel twists of fate that went with them.

By winning their first Division One football title Armagh have taken perhaps their last step into greatness, and even if winning back their All-Ireland title is their main goal of the year, the style and execution of yesterday's victory was quite clearly the next best thing.

In inflicting the 1-21 to 1-14 defeat on Wexford they also brushed aside the hopes of a county who last reached this stage of the competition in 1946 and, like Armagh, had never won it. It was not a day for nostalgia - only mean, moody and powerful football from a team more determined than ever to shape their own destiny.

In the end Wexford were left wondering what they did to deserve this, because even defeat seemed like too kind a word. At times it was more like torture. But no matter what else unfolds by the end of September, this Armagh team has booked its place in the annals of GAA history. It was perhaps their most chilling display to date, and definitely the most chilling display of their full-forward line.

Steven McDonnell, Ronan Clarke and Brian Mallon scored 0-16 between them - including 10 truly astonishing points from McDonnell. There were 46,445 in attendance, but you would have had a hard time figuring out where any of the Wexford supporters were. They were there, but they had little to cheer about beyond a passing moment of hope in the second half following a Diarmuid Kinsella goal.

It was a game devoid of any true excitement, and instead blessed with a series of Armagh scores of unforgettable quality. In the end their supporters calmly applauded their heroes, but it wasn't so much a pitch invasion as a pitch inspection.

"I've been saying all along that this was a very important title for us to win," said manager Joe Kernan, who was a member of the Armagh team that lost league finals in 1983 and 1985. "Not just because we hadn't won it before, but because it sets us up perfectly for the championship, and it proved as well that we did learn from our mistakes against Wexford earlier this year."

Wexford manager Pat Roe spent most of the afternoon looking on in envy. Even his star player, Matty Forde, couldn't do anything about Armagh's onslaught.

"I can't have too many complaints after that," admitted Roe, "because Armagh were simply superb on the day. I mean that was just a master-class display from Steven McDonnell.

"Any loss is a setback, but this league has been another learning curve for us, and it's true the championship has been our goal all along. But still it's disappointing. I didn't think the situation was looking too bad at half-time, but their goal totally finished us off."

Meath were also finished off by a Monaghan goal in the Division Two final, but the difference there was it came in the last minute of injury time. Having battled bravely throughout the 70 minutes, it appeared Monaghan's hopes were over when Paul Finlay floated in his free at the end of time. Instead of safely clearing it, Meath substitute Mark Ward fisted the ball safely into his own net - and with that Monaghan secured their first national title of any kind in 20 years

"I knew they'd play until the bitter end," said their manager, Séamus McEnaney. "I felt it was going to come down to the last couple of minutes, and thankfully it fell the right way for us. But we did have a goal chance or two a few minutes earlier, so maybe we did deserve it."

Monaghan won 3-13 to 3-12, but whether they deserved it is really a question for the gods.