It started as a muggy August afternoon and finished with relentless rain pouring from the evening sky.

The Croke Park floodlights had to be switched on, but between the white lines a gripping game unfolded.

Just over a decade later Killian Young recalls the madness of it all at the Jones Road venue.

“Reflecting on it, thinking back to that time it was a very strange and eerie day,” Young says.

“Take the football out of it, just the weather conditions, the way the whole place really darkened. You could get that sense on the field, that a strike of lightning was going to happen.

“There was something different happening, when the heavens opened it was still played at such a rampant pace, it never affected anyone.

“It didn't affect the game, it was played as if it was on a summer day. The quality of football I still remember was exceptional, the standard of it. The finishes and the scoreline on the day, that was reflective of it.”

It was a Kerry outfit flecked with stars and winners. Ultimately that counted in the dying embers when Kerry had the guile to shrug off Galway’s spirited challenge.

“That was a phenomenal Kerry team, there were guys being held on the bench who were phenomenal players,” Young states.

“That era in Kerry football with the likes of the O Se's, Delcan O'Sullivan, Gooch, Tom O'Sullivan. You had exceptional players, who won All Irelands on the back of it and could have won more. It was an exceptional team and a hard team to break into.

“It isn't decades ago, but it was a different type of football in the sense that the way the bench was used. You didn't have the black card and different elements to it. You didn't rely on the full panel itself. So it was actually harder to get on the first 15 and certainly times have changed.”

There were scores and drama, but it ultimately ended in a Kerry victory. That was what counted, but so much happened.

Michael Meehan enjoyed his most productive outing in a maroon and white jersey, causing bother kicking 0-10. Tom O’Sullivan and Marc Ó Sé’s credentials as Kerry legends is most certainly cemented, but that day Meehan was in wizard mode.

“For two or three years after we still spoke about that game as a group of players, just having a bit of banter together,” Young laughs.

“I always remember Marc and Tom they'd be arguing about who scored most off them that particular day. There was always a battle about what he scored, about how much Michael Meehan scored off you.

“They had a lot of banter between themselves about who came out the worst. It just shows if that happened today you'd have one or two players protecting you, and you'd never be exposed.

“You'd always make it difficult to break that down, but that was the fun and enjoyment of the game when there was no real tactical element to it.

“He was phenomenal, it is funny thinking back to it. I can't remember who took him first, but Tom O'Sullivan and Marc Ó Sé both marked him. I can't remember who was switched off him, but he could do no wrong on that day. He was an incredible player.

“When that man was fully fit he was one to watch. It showed the time and the game at that stage. It was one on one football. No matter how good that player was, you were on your own, and you had to figure it out on your own.”

Galway's mixture of emerging and established players agitated Kerry with Joe Bergin's introduction inside supplying further questions.

Kerry, though, found a way to survive carrying out their own little switches. Prompted by the splendid Declan O'Sullivan the Kingdom advanced to a clash at the penultimate stage against Cork, who had trumped them in the Munster decider.

“It must be one of the last type of games played that was basically 15 on 15, open football,” Young remarks. “It was just a shootout reflective of the time and the way the games were played. How open and expansive they were, how exciting they were.

“You could see a change and different tactical approaches from that point on. They were exciting times. That is the one thing it was literally a complete shootout. The uncertainty, excitement, and edge of your seat stuff. When you add in the weather conditions and what was brought in there.

“The floodlights came on, that was the first time it ever happened in a Championship game. So all these things were happening, it was so different in that sense, but yet the standard of football and quality of finishing was second to none.

“When you think about it, that sense of madness and excitement - both teams were taking a gamble. That was the way the game was played, a gamble of who will be the most accurate on the day.

“It was a shootout of football, the tactical approach wasn't really there to shut out a team. That made it exciting times in the noughties when you were playing Championship football.”

A wild occasion at GAA headquarters illustrated Kerry’s class with Young a central figure throughout a memorable match.