Donegal manager Jim McGuinness was naturally "delighted" as his team claimed the county's first National Football League title in 19 years and second overall with a thumping 3-20 to 2-10 win over Kerry at Croke Park.
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When the side's last met in a final, it was Kerry celebrating their 39th All-Ireland title last July, but the roles were emphatically reversed with Donegal out of sight long before the final hooter sounded.
Kerry's platform for victory last summer was laid around the middle of the field, but this time it was Donegal who won in that key area.
"Coming up the road you'd take any kind of a result, but the manner of it was great," McGuinness told BBC Sport NI's Odhran Crumley.
"Around the middle in particular gave us a foothold."
In last summer's All-Ireland final defeat, Donegal failed to land a two-pointer, but hit four this time around on top of an incredible three-goal blitz in the space of as many second half minutes.
"You have to get your hands on the ball to do those things," McGuinness continued.
"We were fortunate we got the ball away early on and did a good job in terms of putting pressure on the Kerry kick-out. That put us in those positions and if that's not happening, you're in real bother."
'The gamble on Clifford paid off'
David Clifford was a thorn in Donegal's side last summer and while many expected Brendan McCole to again pick up Kerry's star forward, instead it was Caolan McColgan who shadowed the Fossa club-man.
Clifford kicked the opening point of the game on Sunday, but was held scoreless until cracking home a consolation goal late on as McGuinness' gamble paid off.
"He [McColgan] did an excellent job and stuck to it which is what you want," the Donegal manager noted.
"In a game like this, you need to try things out and putting Max [Campbell] to centre-back was a gamble as well, but this was the day to do it."
Conor O'Donnell scores Donegal's first goal [Getty Images]While Donegal took a little while to get going on Sunday, they took charge after Keith Evans hit an early Kerry goal and their own three-goal salvo between they 42nd and 45th minutes put the game away.
Conor O'Donnell struck first with a goal of the season contender, followed by another beauty by Michael Murphy with Caolan McGonagle netting a third.
McGuinness was delighted with O'Donnell's in particular but was satisfied overall with the overall performance of his team which now has four week's to prepare for the Ulster Championship opener against Down in Letterkenny.
"Some of the goals were excellent and Conor's goal, he did great work and has been doing that all year for us.
"I'm delighted for him as he's had a really good league campaign.
"Jason [McGee], for a fella who has been out injured for so long, it's great for him to get so many games and the young lads [did well] so we'll take all of the positives and just try to wrap them up as we'll be back in a month's time in O'Donnell Park for a tough game against Down."