BEFORE this All Ireland quarter-final, the big screen in Croke Park featured a request from both Jack O'Connor and Joe Kernan that spectators refrain from going onto the field after the match. That plea was acceded and it was good that it was acceded.

Normally when we've seen and used the term 'deliverance' in Croke Park, the crowd swarm the field, and a cup is handed out. Yesterday there was no cup, no crowd, just players. And it was right. This Kerry team might have won All Irelands for the masses, but this was bigger than that.

This was one for themselves.

At last, the hoodoo has been put to rest.

Yesterday was vindication for many Kerry players. Eoin Brosnan finally got his goal through the middle against Armagh. Darragh O Se underlined just why he is the midfielder of a generation of great midfielders. His brother Marc, a raw youth in '02 who Diarmuid Marsden took to school, was also outstanding.

His other brother Tomas had his best game of the year. Seamus Moynihan, a caged lion on the edge of the square four years ago, was able to go forward, setting up moves like Brosnan's early goal.

It was also redemption for Sean O'Sullivan. He had been one of the young guns that had galvanised Kerry's summer of '02 before running into an orange roadblock in September, and suddenly a terrific future seemed in the past.

We saw it yesterday. He was involved in four key scores either side of half-time, and only for him the Kieran Donaghy experiment could have looked crude and aimless.

Above all though, it was vindication for Jack O'Connor. The Donaghy move worked a dream. So did his decision to merely sit, but not discard, his young South Kerry contingent.

Armagh? Great team, but too many average players; bar Aaron Kernan, what other Armagh back could have reeled off the points the O Ses did after half-time?

The full-back line's faultlines were shown up, leaving Armagh conceding three goals for the first time in over a decade in championship football.

From the start it was riveting stuff, with every marker set down returned in earnest. Paul McGrane pulled the first kickout of the game right out of the air to set up a point for Steven McDonnell.

Darragh came right back at him to win the next kickout and start a move which led to an Eoin Brosnan goal up the middle. Enda McNulty won the first ball that came between him and Gooch;

Gooch won the next to set up an O'Sullivan point to put Kerry 1-1 to 0-2 up. But then Tony McEntee thumped over a point. Mike McCarthy gave away two soft frees, and the majestic Clarke tipped down to the equally brilliant Stevie McDonnell for a goal which left Armagh 1-5 to 1-2 up.

Kerry now seemed like they had only one way to score . . .

through Donaghy. But O'Sullivan soon started playing in the right kind of ball from the wing, from which two key points before half-time, one from Gooch and another from Mike Frank Russell after Hearty saved well from Gooch, to leave it 1-7 to 1-5 at half-time.

Kerry took off where they left off. First O'Sullivan pointed from play, before Mike Frank tapped over a free to leave it 1-7 each. And then came the game's turning point. O'Sullivan played another brilliantly-flighted diagonal high ball in for Donaghy to pull down, and instead of just laying it back out to a teammate, the Tralee Tiger brushed Francie aside as if it was the easiest thing to do, buried it past Hearty and then told the Armagh goalkeeper all about it.

And from that, Kerry unleashed four years of fury.

Marc and Tomas O Se went up the field to kick three points to leave it Kerry 2-10, Armagh 1-8 with 20 minutes to go.

Armagh were never going to lie down. McDonnell flicked another wayward effort of Oisin McConville's over the bar. Another understated moment of brilliance from Clarke . . . a certain All Star, surely? . . . reduced the gap to a goal. And when Galvin got himself needlessly sent off for an altercation with an Armagh watercarrier, and Clarke scored shortly after play resumed, Armagh were breathing down Kerry's necks.

Kerry weathered the storm, thanks to Jack's lads unleashed from the bench.

Bryan Sheehan came on and curled over a massive free.

Donaghy came out to midfield to give Darragh badlyneeded support. And then on 66 minutes Darren O'Sullivan intercepted a stray McNulty pass and buried it to the net. And with that, this Armagh team and that 'Ulster' jinx was gone.

After that they were in dreamland. Declan O'Sullivan shaked and baked Francie before curling over a wondrous point. And then to wrap it up, Eamon Fitzmaurice came on to kick his point.

They haven't looked this irresistible since 2002. It'll take a team as great Armagh to beat them.

ARMAGH P Hearty; A Mallon, F Bellew, E McNulty; A Kernan (0-1, free), C McKeever, P Duffy; K McGeeney, P McGrane; M O'Rourke, J McEntee (0-1), M Mackin; S McDonnell (1-5), R Clarke (0-3), O McConville (0-3, all frees) Subs P Loughran for Mackin, 47 mins; B Mallon for McEntee, 49 mins; P McKeever for O'Rourke, 58 mins

KERRY D Murphy; M O Se (0-2), M McCarthy, T O'Sullivan; T O Se (0-1), S Moynihan, A O'Mahony; D O Se, T Grif"n; S O'Sullivan (02), E Brosnan (1-0), P Galvin (0-1); C Cooper (0-3, 0-1 free), K Donaghy (1-0), MF Russell (0-2, 1 free) Subs Darren O'Sullivan (1-0) for S O'Sullivan, 53 mins; Declan O'Sullivan (0-1) for Grif"n, 56 mins; B Sheehan (0-2, both frees) for Russell, 58 mins; E Fitzmaurice (0-1) for Brosnan, 67 mins Referee D Coldrick (Meath)