Shane Ryan: Armagh win means nothing unless Kerry have Sam Maguire at the end of the year
'We actually had a poor start to the second half, and we just seemed to pin them in for about a 15-minute period there,' said Ryan.
'And more importantly, we took our chances when they came around. So, we're delighted but we're also very cognisant that it's a quarter-final and we won't be happy 'til the canister is sitting in the dressing room.'
A few minutes earlier about 50 yards away from where Ryan is speaking, Jack O'Connor had unleashed a powerful defence of his team after the negative commentary they had received in recent weeks.
Ryan takes the Rudyard Kipling approach, treating both criticism and acclaim as imposters. 'I suppose it's no more when you're getting praised, You have to block it out as well.
'We kind of know ourselves in the dressing room what we are capable of. And look, we were obviously disappointed a couple of weeks ago against Meath with our performance and we set about trying to rectify that and clean up a few areas and we've gone a long way to doing that. We've another few levels to go.'
The 29-year-old agreed with his manager's assessment that not enough credit was given to the teams like Cork that Kerry beat along the way in this championship.
'This in my seventh year being involved, and I don't think we've beaten Cark by more three or four points any year and they beat us in 2020 and they've come very close every time, so I suppose when it's a local rivalry too like that teams lift their game and look, it's always a tricky fixture for us.
'We try to be professional as we can. We try to treat every team with the respect, we do our due diligence in video and training and everything like that.
"But look, when you're playing every two weeks, you're going to have peaks and troughs in your form and it's just about trying to be peak at the right time and look, we had a good performance today, but, as I said, it absolutely means nothing unless we have the Sam Maguire at the end of the year.'
Four times Ryan was called on to make saves on Sunday and three times he was level to the shots that came his way, Rory Grugan scoring only the fourth goal against him in this competition.
The Rathmore man has become the best shot-stopper in the business. He puts a lot of it down to enduring what he has to face in training.
'I'm just trying to improve in all the basics of goalkeeping. I mean, goalkeeping is a simple enough game. Your kick-out, your high ball, your shot-stopping work.
Kerry goalkeeper Shane Ryan saves a shot from Rian O'Neill of Armagh during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship quarter-final match between Armagh and Kerry at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Daire Brennan/Sportsfile
"You try to take little bits from other keepers as well, but I face the best finishers in the country in training every night, so they' not long exposing any weakness that I have too and even talking to them helps me as well. It's something I'm constantly trying to constantly improve on.
'It's high-wire and any mistake I make is going to result in a score. So I look at it as best as possible. You'll try and put them out of your head straight away and just focus on the next play.
'But I think with the new rules, the games are so chaotic, there's so much happening in the game. There's so many mistakes. Teams are getting purple patches. They're losing them, there's two-pointers and the game goes on for so long as well that you just saw don't have a chance to dwell on the previous play.'
Kerry's All-Ireland semi-final opponents Tyrone, Ryan pointed out, are 'really battle-hardened and they're not going to fear us either. Likewise, us them, so it's going to be a huge battle.'
He added about the improved green and gold following: 'We had great Kerry support there today and we wanted to give them something to shout about and they were fantastic for us and hopefully we'll keep it going out for the next few weeks.'
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