The marked improvement in the players since the league campaign, which included their Munster final demolition of Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, also surprised the Kerry legend.

“It’s been an amazing journey for the two years that Eamonn Fitzmaurice has been in charge. Go back to the first league game against Mayo – no score in the first half against Mayo, beaten; go back to the second league game against Dublin in Killarney – four points from play in the entire 60 minutes, two points from play in the first half. Twelve of that team that started those two matches played in the All-Ireland semi-final and brought Kerry to a final,” Spillane said on RTÉ’s ‘The Sunday Game’.

Spillane also highlighted the adversity that the Kerry team and management overcame in the past 12 months as further proof of the scale of their achievement – referencing the retirements of a number of key personnel and the injury sustained by marquee forward Colm Cooper, specifically.

“Going back to this year, [the] last league game in Tralee – beaten by 10 points by Cork, 13 of tha15 played in the semi-final played in the semi-final, along with four subs. Throw into the equation, over the winter, the retirement of Paul Galvin, Eoin Brosnan, Tomás Ó Sé; throw in that black Saturday when Gooch [got injured] – what he has achieved with a mixture of old and new... it’s been an amazing journey [and] an amazing transformation.

I didn’t see this coming and most other people in Kerry probably didn’t see this coming but the closer it came to today’s final, the more I believed that this was going to be Kerry’s day... All year long they were coming in under the radar. A last eight, maybe a semi-final – that was the hope for Kerry so there was no pressure on them. “

Over the course of the season, the team’s tactical and physical improvements, allied to a lack of pressure allowed Fitzmaurice’s men to flourish, Spillane added.

“When a Kerry team arrives into Croke Park as underdogs, boy they’re dangerous animals because a Kerry team brings tradition, a Kerry team brings belief. They believed they could win today and they were building momentum and building belief. What you saw were three things: tactically, they were getting much cuter; physically, they were getting much stronger; and the momentum was there. It’s an absolutely amazing year for Kerry,” he explained.

His sentiments were echoed by a magnanimous Martin McHugh, whose son Ryan was part of the losing Donegal team, who also lauded the Kerry set-up and Fitzmaurice in particular.

“First of all, I’d like to congratulate Kerry,” he said. “The best team wins the All-Ireland; it’s a results game and fair play to them. I think this has been one of the greatest achievements by a manager ever... For the first time ever maybe, Kerry played the way they played today but they got it right for one game where maybe we talk about other teams in the country [and] it take them a long time to get that system right so great credit to Kerry and great credit to Eamonn Fitzmaurice,” the Donegal man said.