In the decade between his first and second stints as Donegal manager, Jim McGuinness claimed there was barely a day when the 2014 All-Ireland final defeat didn't flash across his mind.
This time around, he's urging a different response on his players.
"I said to the players in the dressing room, it's not a game you should think about for a long time," McGuinness told RTÉ Sport afterwards.
"We didn't deserve to win the game. That's the reality of it.
"We didn't do enough to win the game. You have to let it slide. Sometimes you just have to let performances slide. And this is one of them."
Afterwards, the Donegal manager was unsurprisingly resistant to the idea of conducting an in-depth post-mortem in public.
The question of how the Ulster champions under-performed on the big stage will linger for a while though.
They certainly seemed to be rocked by the force and intensity of Kerry's quick opening to the game, alongside the hammer-blow of David Clifford's succession of two-pointers.
Many of the strengths that characterised the side in previous games - their ability to mind the ball and avoid turnovers and their capacity for gathering breaking ball in midfield - deserted them in the first half in particular.
It was only their decent scoring efficiency that kept them in touch in an opening 35 minutes where they struggled to get their hands on ball.
"We didn't perform, Kerry did perform, that's the bottom line," he said.
"They started very early in the game and they got a foothold in the game.
"I thought we responded quite well in the first half on our attack. We were good, we were clinical, but I think they might have scored in the first six attacks, so we were struggling to deal with them in that period.
"They went for a lot of twos and they hit a lot of them as well and that was big.
"David Clifford coming on to those balls on a loop. We did a lot of work on him and we did a lot of work in terms of managing him.
"I thought Brendan (McCole) did actually quite well on him for periods, but obviously it does take more than one person to try and close down David and he kicked some brilliant twos.
"Was it six or seven scorers we had? I think we've have 12 in the last two games.
"Why did we not get the same traction in terms of threats all over the pitch and different people popping up at different times? That's all things that probably come into the mix.
"Kerry had a very aggressive press on. We were trying to do the same. They won a lot of breaking ball.
"We would pride ourselves on that aspect of it. They won a huge amount of breaking ball. Gavin White, in particular, won a huge amount of breaking ball. Every possession was crucial.
"Getting the hands on the ball from our own kick-out was crucial. Both kick-outs and turnovers, that's what shapes attacks. We didn't get enough."
One moment which McGuinness did cite - and one which clearly annoyed him on the sideline - occurred late in the first half, when Donegal had brought the game back to a five-point margin after points from Conor and Shane O'Donnell.
Daire Ó Baoill sought to float a ball into Michael Murphy at full-forward but it was mis-directed and the Glenswilly player wasn't even in a position to contest it.
Kerry came away and nursed possession themsevles until the hooter, the Cliffords combining for a two-point score to push the lead out to seven again as the teams raced down the tunnel.
"We did things that we don't normally do," says McGuinness.
"We made decisions that we don't normally do and we had just too many turnovers, that's the bottom line.
"We had too many turnovers and some of them were clutch moments. We were chasing our tails, a couple of moments before half-time.
"A five-point game and then we lose possession, we give possession away and then it ends up a seven-point game. That was a tough one to take.
"Had we been able to work that and got a score, we would have probably ended up going in at four down at half-time.
"I think it might have been a very different dressing-room at that stage, very different dynamic in terms of going out for the second half."
After 2014, McGuinness spoke of the flatness he sensed among the squad on the day of the final.
He detected none of that this time around, insisting that the mood was good and relaxed on the weekend of the game.
Rather it was just a case that Kerry came hard and they came hard early.
"They set the terms of the game," he added.
"Then you're trying to manage that and you're trying to claw your way back in. We tried to respond to that, but at the end of the day, they were still keeping the scoreboard ticking over.
"We were pushing a boulder up a hill for large parts of it."
Among those who fancied Donegal to win, McGuinness's reputation as a managerial savant was a significant factor.
However, Donegal's defence struggled to cope with the range of options in Kerry's attack, with Paudie Clifford given relatively free reign.
"I suppose no more than the Cork hurlers. It'll be a fairly heavy post-mortem after this one," he said.
"We'll go in, we'll think about the game, we'll reflect on the game. You try to get as many things right as you can.
"Sometimes you just have to take your hat off and say, the better team won and we made too many mistakes to win the game.
"Just make peace with that. Over the coming weeks, those types of conversations will probably start."
