Crossmaglen caught Clontibret cold with a suckerpunch goal early on. The second half allowed Clontibret to play a more considered brand of football, but there still wasn't enough cut to edge out Cross.

The frustration a year on still bites deeply as far as O'Dowd is concerned. "At the very least the worst we should have taken from that game was a draw. But against Crossmaglen you have to accept that there are times when you have to take on board that you are not going to be allowed to play the beautiful game. They have brought the concept of physical play to a new level. The way that they tackle is totally ferocious.

"Against us, as it has been down the years with other opposition, the Cross gameplan is to squeeze the time and space available to the other team. Their personnel obviously changes but the fundamentals never fluctuate.

They appear to have a conveyor of talent that just keeps rolling players off the production line and straight into the same team formation."

He is a man who does not go in for trying to give the guarded comment. The admiration for what Crossmaglen have achieved is totally genuine.

The way that the club has set the standard that others can only dream about is the yardstick. Equally however Mick O'Dowd is convinced that the dynasty can be toppled.

"Of course you can always be accused of lacking a certain amount of objectivity when you try to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of your own team. There is no way that anybody with any knowledge of football, no matter how limited, could fail to be impressed with Crossmaglen.

They play for the percentages. A huge amount of their scores come from frees. Oisin McConville, Stephen and Aaron Kernan are all superb dead-ball specialists. But Clontibret, while we play a completely different style of football, would represent a problem for any level of opposition. We have an attitude and an approach to the game that has benefited from our experiences of the past few seasons. This is a bunch of lads that have come through together from underage."

Compared with the relentless winning groove that Crossmaglen have enjoyed for more than a decade, the achievement of Clontibret winning back-to-back Monaghan titles for the first time in 50 years is less than earth shattering. But for O'Dowd and his fellow management set-up it was the confirmation that this particular set of Clontibret players had a special set of qualities.

Three seasons ago O'Dowd, along with Damien Mone, set out to try and attract a new manager to the Monaghan club. The proven potential that was there, the two men believed, should have made the job on offer an attractive option. The option however wasn't taken up.

Eventually they were the pairing left with the challenge of changing Clontibret into champions.

Two successive championships have repaid the conviction of O'Dowd and Mone.

It still needs however further confirmation at provincial and ultimately national level. But the emergence of Monaghan as a rapidly maturing force on the wider county football front is a positive factor.

"We have five players now in the Monaghan squad, guys like Vinny Corey and PJ Mone. There are huge crowds following the game. The county got to an All Ireland quarter-final last season." The message is clear. "Our aim as a club is to at least match that kind of run."

This afternoon the replay is one that Mick O'Dowd is determined will have a positive rewrite when it comes to Clontibert's final scoreline.