And so it ends, in the corridors of Croke Park with Kilmacud Crokes being ‘formally awarded’ the AIB Club Football Championship 18 days after they lifted the Andy Merrigan Cup at Croke Park.

The smoke from the fireworks that lit up the South Dublin night has long cleared but finally, the club, management, and players can relax into being All Ireland Champions.

It could be said that they never doubted it but given that the rules were clearly broken, it had to run its course of an appeal.

This was David and Goliath on and off the field and while there were (almost) the same number of players on the pitch for both times there was considerably more heft in the wings for Crokes.

Glen never seemed comfortable with the idea of winning in the Committee Room and it was never black and white over what should happen and who wanted it to.

When Kilmacud made the decision to lodge an appeal against the original decision to replay the fixture, which was technically the right decision, the great areas became a little greyer for Glen and the prospect of a long drawn out process and keeping the players on edge was felt to be too much.

So they withdrew their original appeal and yesterday the GAA Central Competition Controls Committee issued a formal statement bringing the matter to a close.

“Representatives of Kilmacud Crokes and the C.C.C.C. met today to consider the implications of the decision on Friday of Watty Graham’s Glen to withdraw from the process initiated around the 2023 AIB All-Ireland Club Football Final.”

“The C.C.C.C, arising from an objection on behalf of Watty Graham’s Glen, had ordered a replay of the game on the basis that in excess of the number of players permitted were on the field for the last play of the game.”

“The C.C.C.C Decision – communicated to the two Clubs on Tuesday of last week – had made it clear that this was not a deliberate action and that no fault was attributed to Kilmacud Crokes for the situation they found themselves in.”

“Upon a request from the C.C.C.C., Kilmacud Crokes, in the interests of fully resolving the matter, today agreed to withdraw their Appeal to the Central Appeals Committee.”

“A subsequent meeting of the C.C.C.C has formally awarded the 2023 All Ireland Club Championship to Kilmacud Crokes.

The rules were broken but with no deliberate intent, setting an interesting precedent for that to now enter the mix in any future appeals.

We can be sure that substitutions will be monitored very closely from now on, until such time as it gets a little looser again.

Perhaps we will see a greater role for the umpire and lines persons but that will only ever be at the highest level of the game.

It makes the referee’s job just a little bit harder at a time when we want to make it easier but that is that as regards the destiny of this year’s AIB Club title.  The show rolls on.