Kerry reaction: First step into the Kerry dressing-room and suddenly the sound of silence. Just outside the door Croke Park is still humming in the aftermath of Armagh's momentous All-Ireland victory. Inside everyone is still stuck in the moment of defeat.

There's barely a whisper going around. Players packing bags, and probably want to pack themselves in there too. They said last week that if they didn't win the All-Ireland then they'd have nothing for the season except nine hard games and not one trophy. In Kerry this year there is no consolation.

Sitting on the bench is team captain Darragh Ó Sé, face in his hands both with disappointment and for a reason: the cut on his head is getting stitches. But it's a mere surface wound. The real hurt of the day runs much deeper.

Standing in a doorway is Páidí Ó Sé and it's he who must first relive those moments of defeat. Stone-faced and with a low voice he talks of that mysterious and all-powerful factor in sport called hunger.

"Those Armagh lads wanted it more, I felt that anyway. Especially in the second half. They got in for every breaking ball as if their lives depended on it and we just couldn't match them for that hunger.

"And they came in as well as outsiders. They had nothing to lose and they had very little pressure on them. We were coming in as raging hot favourites, and from that point of view I always felt they were in the better position.

"But I would say as well that we were possibly a little unlucky we didn't snatch a draw at the end. Just a little bit unlucky. But then they defended very well in the second half and really put it up to us."

Luck can go a long way in sport, and Ó Sé needs little reminding of Kerry's lick of it two years ago: "True. We stole an All-Ireland semi-final off them in 2000, and I suppose this was their payback time.

"All else I can say is that I wouldn't begrudge Armagh anything. I never like losing All-Irelands but to lose to Armagh and to Joe Kernan, well, I suppose you couldn't lose to a nicer team and a nicer guy. So the only consoling point for me today is that it is Armagh that beat us."

It was a narrow loss, too. One-point defeats are even harder to stomach when you know you had enough periods of domination to win the game.

"We did," agrees Ó Sé. "We opened them up fairly well in the first half and I'd say possibly that if we did put away a goal in the first half it could have been different. I don't know."

With that Ó Sé heads towards the winners' dressing-room. Outside he passes a huddle of journalists surrounding a player in an Armagh jersey. He looks and sees Kieran McGeeney, so he brushes everyone aside and graciously embraces the Armagh captain.

As the Kerry players slowly emerge the heads are still low. Tomás Ó Sé leans against the wall for a quick word and ponders on Armagh's superior will.

"They put us under huge pressure in the second half," he says. "So much so that our forwards were forced to kick some terrible wides. But they were hungry all over the field. Their forwards worked very hard off the ball, helping each other in a big way, and it came out on top for them in the end.

"I still feel if we had got a few early scores at the start of the second half instead of the misses then we could have had a chance. But when they weren't going over we were battling uphill all the time. But you have good days and bad days.

"It isn't the end of the world."