Feargal Logan hailed his players' resilience after an "horrendous" month and wasn't slow in offering his appreciation to Kerry for facilitating the re-fixture after his Tyrone side stunned the Munster champions in Saturday's All-Ireland semi-final.
Two weeks after risking ejection from the championship with their announcement that they couldn't fulfil this semi-final fixture last weekend, Tyrone arrived in Croke Park and proceeded to deliver a resilient, energetic and tactically astute performance, smothering the Kerry attack and edging the contest in extra-time by a single point.
Logan, more loquacious than his co-manager, handled the bulk of the questions in the aftermath and wasted little time offering his thanks to Kerry for intervening and offering to play the semi-final when Tyrone were ready to do so.
"It was quite a game! I thought it was going to go to penalties almost," Logan told reporters afterwards.
"The reaction is that we were treated very fairly by the Association, by Kerry and we were appreciative - more than appreciative - of all that we got when ill-health struck our camp.
"We're more than thankful for that. If we say too much in that sense it sounds as though you’re patronising.
"It’s very sore. All-Ireland semi-finals are very sore defeats but we thank everybody that stood with us and gave us a fair go at this because two weeks ago we were potentially out of the competition.
"And that’s the relief that I feel but I have to commend everybody, the association, Kerry and everybody that bore with us.
"And I have to commend the Tyrone players who represented the county today with distinction."
Logan described the past month, from before the Ulster final, as "horrendous", though didn't elaborate too much on the absent players and the degree to which members of the squad were hit.
He also alluded to the "slants" that had been put on things over the past while, saying they had caused upset.
"Resilience is born out of adversity and, as I sit here, I sit here and say absolutely sincerely that the last month - from the week before the Ulster final - has been horrendous.
"And, of course, that brings with it a narrative. Different slants are put on things and that can cause all sorts of different upset and emotion.
"There were staggered introductions and some guys went with different levels of symptoms and hits in different ways.
"That is a debate for another day, that whole issue. We're just happy we’ve got over the line and, as I say, we were treated very fairly.
"We appreciated the opportunity and we managed to grasp it there today. We're just delighted to be heading to an All-Ireland final."
