When they got together on Saturday night they knew there might be something exceptional inside themselves. Training had gone well. What needed to be tightened had been screwed down.

There was hunger in the faces and in the words. Seβn Boylan assigned the tasks. To Mark O'Reilly the job of marking Johnny Crowley. Darren Fay was visibly and audibly disappointed. Like any great back he wanted the bounty hunter job.

In the end, he "settled" for Dara O Cinneide, a conventional posting on an extraordinary afternoon, but Fay is one of those barometers on the team, when he is right and ready the team usually is too.

And, looking back, it's very seldom that Meath haven't been right and ready. His work would earn him a man of the match award and should nose him in front at All-Star time probably. This epic summer he has faced down some of the best forward lines in the business. None more vaunted than yesterday's when Kerry left goalless.

And plaudits all round on a day when no less an eminence than SΘamus Moynihan was playing at the opposite end.

"Darren Fay? what can I say," rhymed Seβn Boylan. "We've known for years who's the best full back in the country," said Cormac Sullivan." It's Darren Fay and it hasn't changed.

Fay himself is a study in modesty. This was an afternoon of work. Not a time for showboating. He discusses it all in nut and bolts terms. His job first.

"We thought Dara would go out but he stayed in. Maurice came on early which was a bit of a panic for them, they usually keep him. They played a lot of early ball but it didn't seem to be great ball. Maybe myself and Johnny might play on each other another year."

For a full back on a team winning by fifteen points, Fay saw what he reckons was more ball than in any other championship game. Simple tactics he says. "There was nobody near me for the last while. We used the tactic we used against Westmeath.

"I stayed as close to the goal as possible and let somebody else pick up the full forward when he wandered. The midfield and the full forwards were keeping the ball down their end anyway.

"I was standing on me own a lot of the time. I don't think I've got as much ball in a game. I was standing there on my own.

"They were leaving Mike Frank and Johnny in and pumping ball into them. We were able to get a hand to them. Our half backs have been slated in the past but they have come in to their own."

From the cockpit of the full back position, he could measure the extent of Kerry's discomfort. As Meath took in the luxury of playing to tactics which worked with rolls royce smoothness, Kerry were spluttering and improvising desperately.

"I saw when they brought SΘamus Moynihan out to the centre back, midfield area that they were trying to run at us, maybe get in behind, but we knew that once we never leaked goals they wouldn't come back. We stuck to what we were doing."

Fay, whose uncle Mickey Fay played on the Meath team beaten by Kerry in the 1970 All Ireland, was, like his team-mates, slightly fazed by the manner of victory.

When one dreams of beating Kerry one doesn't see them folding the tents in the course of the game. "It was a bit surreal alright. We were kind of going through the motions at the end. We never dreamed of this. Winning today would have been exceptional. It was a freak the way it turned out.

"The first half, well we thought it was tight, when you are five points ahead playing Kerry you never know.

"For a while in the second half it was the same. It was nip and tuck but we kept getting the scores. The last quarter was exhibition stuff I suppose, but at the same time I'd really hope we didn't make it out to be too disrespectful to them, That would be my only worry.

"They are worthy champions and what happened them could have happened us."

He is dressed and ready to go but casts his full backs eye about the place to see if any more questions need mopping up. None. It was an afternoon when Darren Fay and Meath answered everything.