Tyrone 1-15 Kerry 0-14: Tyrone have denied Kerry the three-in row in front of 82,204 spectators at Croke Park in one of the closest ever All-Ireland finals. Mickey Harte has now guided the county to three All-Irelands since taking over in 2003.
Neither team was able to pull more than a point clear for much of the contest with many of the hotly anticipated individual battles largely cancelling each other out. The McMahon brothers, Justin and Joe, did an excellent job curtailing the influence of Kerry's so called twin towers of Kieran Donaghy and Tommy Walsh. Colm Cooper, however, was picking up plenty of frees and finished the first half with a fourth point to leave Kerry in front, 0-8 to 0-7.
Declan O'Sullivan and Sean Cavanagh both made notable contributions from play registering two early points each. The score of the game, and perhaps the championship, belongs to Tyrone captain Brian Dooher as he rode the challenges of Killian Young and Darragh Ó Sé before a pure strike with the outside of his right boot.
Tyrone were unfortunate to lose Colm McCullagh to injury but Harte was able to introduce the recently returned 2005 footballer of the year Stephen O'Neill after 24 minutes. Marc Ó Sé immediately became his shadow for the afternoon.
Darragh Ó Sé was excelling in midfield but Tyrone finally dragged them into trench warfare and on the stroke of half-time Aidan O'Mahony and then Ó Sé were fortunate to only receive yellow cards from referee Maurice Deegan after both men knocked Cavanagh to the ground. Kieran Donaghy also found his way into Deegan's notebook for a late hit on Joe McMahon with tensions simmering as the teams disappeared under the Hogan Stand.
Harte's men had a perfect start to the second-half. Tommy McGuigan was presented with a simple tap-in after Padraig Reidy lost his balance as the pair scrambled for possession when Diarmuid Murphy saved substitute Kevin Hughes' shot.
Ryan Mellon immediately followed this up with a point and it took almost 20 minutes before a marvellous Darragh Ó Sé score, while falling off his left foot, brought matters level at 0-13 to 1-10.
Cooper put the defending champions back in front but thereafter the contest belonged to Tyrone. Within a minute Cavanagh drew matters level and the noise decibels must have broken new ground moments later as Paul Galvin came in for Walsh.
The returning captain had little impact, however, as Cavanagh put Tyrone back in front and they rattled off three further points in the final minute to secure a famous victory.
Kerry: D Murphy; M Ó Sé, T Sullivan, P Reidy; T Ó Sé (0-1), A O'Mahony, K Young; D Ó Sé (0-1), S Scanlon; B Sheehan (0-2, two frees), D O'Sullivan (0-2), E Brosnan; C Cooper (0-6, three frees), K Donaghy, T Walsh (0-1). Substitutions: D O'Sullivan (0-1) for E Brosnan (42 mins), T Griffin for S Scanlon (50 mins), P Galvin for Walsh (58 mins), D Moran for B Sheehan (66 mins).
Tyrone: P McConnell; Joe McMahon, Justin McMahon, C Gormley; D Harte (0-1), P Jordan, R McMenamin; C Holmes, E McGinley (0-1); B Dooher (0-2), R Mellon (0-1), M Penrose (0-1); T McGuigan (1-1, one free), S Cavanagh (0-5), C McCullagh (0-1, free). Substitutions: S O'Neill for C McCullagh (21 mins), K Hughes (0-1) for C Holmes (half-time), B McGuigan for M Penrose (50 mins), O Mulligan for R Mellon (56 mins), C Cavanagh (0-1) for T McGuigan (66 mins)