The abiding lesson from this absorbing All-Ireland final is that the Sam Maguire is hard to win and harder still to hold on to, writes John O'Mahony, Football analyst.

Under enormous pressure, Tyrone deservedly won their first All-Ireland and confirmed their status as the pre-eminent team in the country.

Given their youth and the excellent underage programme, their future looks rich with promise and it is not unreasonable to foresee them feature in several of the next three or four All-Ireland finals. But such predictions have been made about other teams and they have unravelled over time.

Armagh have discovered just how capricious the All-Ireland is. We should acknowledge they were splendid champions and I felt they accepted yesterday's loss, galling as it was, with particular dignity. It will be scant consolation but the task Tyrone face is to emulate their rivals in trying to return to this stage next season.

Tyrone got things right tactically here. They dealt with the unfortunate injury to Peter Canavan with great economy. From a psychological perspective it was imperative he started and although I heard the opinion he was contributing little, his free-kicking was impeccable and he gave his team the vital cushion in that first half.

Two things surprised me.

Firstly, Tyrone opted to start with the three-man full-forward line, a move which I doubt Armagh envisaged. They pulled only Ger Cavlan back and Brian Dooher, as usual, just ran everywhere. So there were not quite so many bodies behind the ball as may have been envisaged.

Also, they withdrew Brian McGuigan late in the first half, just after he had won a free. I thought he skinned Kieran McGeeney once or twice and looked to have more to offer but in fairness, the side was equally as smooth after his departure.

Armagh gave it a gallant shot. At half-time, such was the nature of the game, I felt they would need a goal to win it. There was a period in the second half when their strength looked to be telling but Tyrone managed to preserve that three-point difference. Steven McDonnell was the obvious dangerman and although he clipped two superb points in the first half, he was well crowded.

I did not get a clear view of the incident that led to Diarmuid Marsden's sending-off. It appeared merited but I can't say that definitively. But his absence obviously made Armagh's task of getting a goal much more difficult.

Armagh went down bravely. I felt Paul McGrane was immense and Francie Bellew, so often criticised, was excellent in many ways, putting in a series of vital interceptions.

I suppose on reflection Tyrone might have won this game by three clear goals. They put some wonderful moves together but again did not express themselves as we know they can. But as anyone who has played in a final can tell you, getting the result is paramount and they were very assured in the way they did that. Peter Canavan was re-introduced at the perfect time and they soaked up the pressure, with Conor Gormley making an excellent stop at the death.

As a spectacle, it was not great but then expectations were not that high.

That won't matter to Tyrone.

Ultimately, the two best teams in the country contested the All-Ireland final and the enduring legacy of the championship will be that of the mass defence which both teams employed clinically and effectively.

And, as I stated here before, I think there will be a knock-on effect in that many other teams will try to adapt or improvise on that basic philosophy before next year's competitions resume.

So for the second year running, the Sam Maguire rests in Ulster. Obviously that suggests the strength of the game in the province but as for the whole debate about the fortress Ulster has become, it should be pointed out that neither Tyrone nor Armagh started it. It is not their preoccupation.

Maybe Ulster has moved on to another plateau but that will only be established if the province wins the next series of All-Irelands, as occurred at the beginning of the 1990s. Of course, Tyrone look to be the side now to set that ball rolling.

It will be hard for Armagh, a team that was written off after losing to Galway in 2001, to come back from this. But it would wrong to assume they will just fade after this, very wrong. It would be a little bit previous of me to suggest they can't bounce back next season.

And one thing is certain. The Ulster championship should be fun.