Yesterday's AIB Leinster club championship was finally won by Rathnew after a blazing extra-time performance engulfed weary Dublin champions Na Fianna. But it may still run for a while in committee once the Leinster Council has had an opportunity to discuss the brawl that erupted on the final whistle at Newbridge.
Although unnoticed by the majority of the crowd, which by then was leaving the venue, the incident was clearly picked up by the cameras of TG4 who broadcast the match.
Television pictures show Na Fianna's Stephen McGlinchy and Rathnew's Richard Dignam getting involved with each other and an unidentified supporter joining the fray and kicking Dignam.
Leinster chairman Seamus Aldridge said that he hadn't seen the incident, as he had been preparing to present the trophy to Rathnew captain and man of the match Trevor Doyle.
"I didn't see what happened but someone close to me said that a spectator had kicked a Rathnew player. We'll wait for the report of the match officials and if there's anything untoward, we'll have to look at it."
Asked would the matter be pursued if not mentioned in the referee's report, Aldridge replied: "We probably will look at the video footage. You can't sweep things under the carpet."
It was an unfortunate conclusion to an historic day for Rathnew who demonstrated great conviction in pulling the match out of the fire in the closing 20 minutes.
The match had started badly for them when Darren Coffey had to be stretchered off straight from the throw-in. He returned but couldn't avert a sizeable interval deficit, 0-1 to 0-5. A 37th-minute Jason Sherlock goal then helped Na Fianna to a six-point lead with little over quarter of an hour left.
By this stage, Rathnew were dominating possession but wasting it in equally impressive measure. It's a yardstick of their territorial advantage that they could win by nine points and outkick their opponents' wides total by 14-3.
In Dessie Farrell's absence, suspended after his straight red card in the first game, the one promising tactic at Na Fianna's disposal was the high ball into Karl Donnelly, repositioned at full forward, but he had to revert to centrefield to try and generate possession.
A crisply-taken goal from Ronan Coffey, set up by Trevor Doyle, broke the back of Na Fianna's lead, but it still needed a Tommy Gill free in injury-time to send the final into overtime.
It wasn't until the third minute of extra time that the Wicklow side actually took the lead. Once in front, they always looked likely winners, despite a game response by the exhausted Dubliners in the first period of extra time.
Ronan Coffey, Tommy Gill and Trevor Doyle ran the Na Fianna defence ragged all afternoon, with Coffey and Gill contributing a weighty 2-12 - all but four points of the winners' total.
In extra time Rathnew were unstoppable, moving the ball intelligently and finding their range in an inspired additional half-hour during which they more than doubled their tally after an hour to outscore their opponents 1-9 to 0-3.
Gill's goal on 75 minutes was the tie-breaker. He knocked a dropping ball into the net, although goalkeeper Stephen Gray appeared to have possession.
Other referees might have disallowed it, but then Na Fianna's goal should definitely have been disallowed for Donnelly's push on Mark Coffey - not by any means the only erratic decisions made by referee Pat Fox, who had a poor afternoon.
Tommy Gill was jubilant afterwards: "It came down to heart and who wanted it and we really did want it and proved it out there. There'll be celebrating I'll tell ya, well into the New Year. I think they might cancel Christmas at this rate. I can't wait to go home because I'll be in the absolute horrors for about three or four weeks. It's great lads, what a feeling. What a village!"
Manager Harry Murphy explained how he had steadied nerves at half-time.
"We were there before. We were there against Dunshaughlin, against this crowd before, but we always got back into it. We got a few good scores and maybe one or two referee's decisions went in our favour as well, but it was 50-50 overall.
"I thought we looked like winning in normal time but it was a great game to be involved with. That Na Fianna team is a great side but probably the old legs began to tell in the end. But we played good football."
His counterpart Mick Galvin has watched his sleek limousine turned into a banger through miscalculation, overuse and poor surfaces but he bore it all with resignation.
"We've no complaints. They were better on the day. People talk about tiredness and long roads but you still have to win Leinster finals out there and they were better than us. It's been as hard for them as it's been for us. I'd say the free count would be interesting but there's no point in crying over spilt milk. I don't have any complaints; it's not the time or the place anyway."
RATHNEW: T Murphy; D Power, M Coffey, B Mernagh; S Byrne, L Glynn, E Franey; D Coffey (0-1, a free), D Byrne (0-1); T Doyle (0-1), T Gill (1-9, seven frees), A Mernagh; K Gill, R Coffey (1-3), M Doyle. Subs: P Dignam for D Coffey (1 min), D Coffey for Dignam (18 mins), E White for E Franey (42 mins), P Dignam (0-1) for M Doyle (88 mins), S Kavanagh for K Gill (88 mins)
NA FIANNA: S Gray; N O Murch·, B McManus, P McCarthy; T Lynch, S McGlinchey, M Foley (0-2); N Clancy, K McGeeney (0-1); D Mackin (0-1), P McGeeney (0-1), S Connell (0-2); I Foley (0-1, a free), K Donnelly (0-2), J Sherlock (1-0). Subs: B Newman for P McGeeney (50 mins), A Shearer for Clancy (75 mins), P McGeeney for Newman (75 mins).
Referee: P Fox (Westmeath).
