On Mayo: "I honestly felt for Mayo. I was in their dressingroom and they were devastated. But they always tried to play football yesterday, never resorted to anything else, and despite how bleak it looks now I do believe there is an All-Ireland in that team. They've a lot of good footballers."

On Kieran Donaghy: "There's much more to him than people realise. He's very quick for a big fella, and just has phenomenal hands. Soft hands, and great feel for the ball.

"We'd a big man in there to belt the ball into, Mayo just ran the ball. And I think it's easier to counteract a running game than it is a kicking game, in my book anyway. And I think what he's done could transform Gaelic football. It's fairly obvious what he did for our season, and other managers will be thinking this is the way to go."

On recalling Declan O'Sullivan: "Too much was made of that, the press where homing in on that because it made a good story . . . the manager putting on his favourite son. It was never like that, because we've made some awful ruthless and hard calls over the last three years. One of them was in 2004, bringing in Johnny Crowley and dropping Mike Frank Russell. Declan just selected himself the way he was playing at training and when he came on against Armagh and Cork. So that wasn't a hard call at all."

On dropping Eoin Brosnan: "My policy is if you drop a player you take him aside and talk to him. Of course he was disappointed, but I mean I'd be disappointed if he wasn't. Who wants to be left off the team for an All-Ireland final? But he took it tremendously well. Even on Sunday morning he was very positive, and I was delighted with what he did when he came on."

On the future of Séamus Moynihan: "He's his own man, and can make up his own mind. But I remember talking to him in this hotel last year, and he said he was going. He made a huge effort to come back, and I'm delighted for him. He's such a great player that he deserves to go out on a high, if he does decide to go out."