Eamonn Fitzmaurice admits he took immense satisfaction from Kerry's victory over Donegal.

The Finuge man has joined an elite group to have won the Sam Maguire as a player and manager, doing so by delivering a tactical masterclass against the pre-match favourites.

"We knew it was going to be a tight game, there wasn't going to be much in it at the end, and thankfully we came out the right side," the Kerry manager said.

"It is a lot harder on the sideline. I was a selector with Jack O'Connor in 2009 and it wasn't as sweet as when I was a player but this is definitely as sweet. Nothing can replace playing but this is a sweet one."

Fitzmaurice caught Donegal by surprise with his decision to play goal-scorer Paul Geaney in the full forward line and hand top-scorer James O'Donoghue a withdrawn role.

"You have to try and have a surprise up your sleeve on the day of a final," he continued.

"Paul Geaney is very strong over his head as well, and we're fluid inside. It was something we had worked on over the past few weeks, not to be too predictable, that we would still maintain our fluid game that got us here all summer."

The manager always believed his system would work, even when Kerry squandered a number of scoring chances in the third quarter.

"We were creating the chances. We knew, after watching the Dublin game that we would get chances from distance. We had agreed that we would go for them, and if we got them, we got them, if we missed them, we weren't going to be too worried about it."

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