MAYO must have felt that they had a real chance of extending Kerry in last Sunday's opening All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-final providing that a number of things went their way.
Pretty close to top of their list was keeping Colm Cooper reasonably quiet. The "Gooch," after all, had really not been at his beat in the All-Ireland campaign, failing to register a goal.
Unfortunately, from Mayo's point of view, all of that was to change on Sunday. Cooper gave a sublime performance scoring 1-7 in Kerry's 1-20 to 1-11 victory.
Everything he did, off left foot or right, was sheer class. Like all great footballers he had time, or at least appeared to have time, to pick off some great scores.
There simply was no other contender for the man of the match award in front of the 50,643 attendance. Unbelievably, prior to the semi-final, there were some who were beginning to doubt Cooper, particularly now that he had the weight of the captaincy on his shoulders.
Not Kerry. "No. We were never worried about Gooch, because we know what he can do," answered manager Jack O'Connor. "We felt that this game was in him.
"He's looked very sharp in training over the past fortnight. Anyway, this is his theatre, his happy hunting ground. He's a genius on the ball"
Absolutely right. Cooper rarely fails to deliver at Croke Park and, to be fair, neither do Kerry. Okay, there was that shock loss to Down last year but the defeat only seems to have made them more determined to regain the trophy.
Mayo, to give them their due, competed well for a long period. They were in front of much of the first half and only two points behind (0-10 to 0-8) early in the second period but, once Kerry moved up a gear, there was only one team in it.
The Connacht champions did exactly what they had to do by combining a tremendous workrate with a physical approach. For a long time in the first half, that had Kerry worried.
The pity was that that Mayo could not have managed more scores instead of trailing by 0-8 to 0-6 at the interval. Ger McCafferkey was coping well with the long balls into Kieran Donaghy while the impressive Andy Moran was providing the Kerry defence with problems.
It required a fine save from Kerry goalkeeper Brendan Kealy to stop Moran from scoring a goal. Somehow though you sensed that Kerry were beginning to find their rhythm.
They showed signs of it before half time, and then exploded into action in the second half. Mayo couldn't cope with their slick passing game as Kerry scored six points without reply.
Cooper was at the heart of matters, his efforts helping to leave Kerry 0-16 to 0-8 clear. Mayo, desperate for a goal, got one when Cillian O'Connor shot home after Kealy had initially made a fine save from Moran.
But, no sooner had the cheering died down, than Kerry replied with a goal. It didn't help Mayo's cause that the Mayo defence got in a hopeless mess under a dropping ball.
Not the sort of thing to be doing with the ever alert Cooper around. He took possession and then turned his man inside out before calmly planting a shot into the net.
Game over. Significantly, Paul Galvin came off the substitutes bench to put in a worthwhile stint, landing two well taken points.
The only real worrying aspect from Kerry's point of view before facing either Dublin or Donegal in the final is that they conceded far too many goalscoring chances to Mayo. They had up to five and, on another day, would have had a better return.
As it was, you would have to have had some sympathy for Moran who found Kealy impossible to beat and also saw a shot hit an upright. Moran finished with 0-2 but free-taker and goalscorer O'Connor was Mayo's main contributer with 1-3.
But that hardly compared to the efforts of Cooper. He hardly seemed to miss his intended target all day, scoring 1-3 from play and the remainder from frees.
Quite an effort when you consider that he wasn't really that involved when Kerry were hitting high balls into Donaghy for much of the first half. But once the Munster champions resorted to their more normal passing game, Cooper came into his own.
Mayo manager James Horan put his hands up and admitted that the defeat simply demonstrated that his side has to work harder if they are to match up to a team of Kerry's quality. The big disappointment for him was that his team gave away possession far too often.
"You can't do that with a player like Cooper around," stressed Horan. "We had a few guys on him at various stages of the game, but if Gooch gets good quality ball there's going to be a problem.
"We were getting beat in the middle of the field and Kerry were getting a lot of breaking ball. We can have no complaints, we were beaten by a better team who are going to take a lot of stopping in the final."
Astonishingly, Kerry will now be competing in their seventh All-Ireland final in eight years with potentially a fifth title in that period. Needless to say, Jack O'Connor is not getting ahead of himself.
He said: "We needed a good physical match like that but the final will be a different challenge. Mayo tackled ferociously and that should stand us in good stead for the final, as Donegal and Dublin aren't exactly shrinking violets."
Tipp through to football final
TIPPERARY are still in with a chance of an unusual double following their hard-earned 1-11 to 0-12 victory over Roscommon in the All-Ireland Minor Football semi-final at Croke Park on Sunday.
No doubt inspired by their senior hurlers, they overcame the difficulty of playing the last 10 minutes with 14 men following the sending off of their influential midfielder Ian Fahey for a second bookable offence. It all adds up to their first All-Ireland final since 1984.
After leading by 0-8 to 0-4 at the interval, Michael Quinlivan scored the all-important goal for Tipperary. Roscommon responded with a tremendous rally, Donie Smith finishing with 0-4, but they simply ran out of time.
Dubs to face U-21 Tribesmen
GALWAY and Dublin will contest the All-Ireland Hurling Under 21 final after contrasting semi-final victories on the weekend.
Whereas Dublin overran Antrim by 3-23 to 0-6 in Newry, Galway had to battle all the way to see off the challenge of Limerick by 0-22 to 2-14 at Semple Stadium. Niall Burke was very much the hero of the day, scoring seven points from play.
Dublin simply outclassed Antrim, picking off scores at will. While the opposition was very poor, Dublin again looked the part and had many impressive performances, notably from Mark Schutte who netted a superb individual goal.
World Cup squad named
TOMAS O'LEARY and Luke Fitzgerald were the main casualities when the 30-strong Irish squad for the Rugby World Cup was named.
Both, it seems, lost out because of a dip in their form, although wing Fitzgerald can feel unfortunate on that count. His appearance as a substitute was one of the few highlights of Ireland's latest warm-up defeat to France by 26-22 at the Aviva Stadium last Saturday.
O'Leary, by contrast, had something of a nightmare at scrum-half before being withdrawn 13 minutes into the second half. His place in the squad, that of the third scrum-half along with Diarmuid Reddan and Isaac Boss, goes to the promising young Garryowen player Conor Murray.
Murray has had a rapid rise, making his first appearance for Ireland in Ireland's defeat by France in Bordeaux on Saturday week last. He is tall and strong but does lack experience at this level.
Veteran prop John Hayes is another notable absentee but at 37 is is undeniably past his best. Instead, Tony Buckey gets the nod ahead of his former Munster colleagues Hayes and Marcus Horan.
Ireland World Cup squad: Forwards - R Best (Ulster), T Buckley (Sale), T Court (Ulster), S Cronin (Leinster), L Cullen (Leinster), S Ferris (Ulster), J Flannery (Munster), C Healy (Leinster), J Heaslip (Leinster), D Leamy (Munster), s O'Brien (Leinster), D O'Callaghan (Munster), P O'Connell (Munster), M Ross (Leinster), D Ryan (Munster), D Wallace (Munster).
Backs - I Boss (Leinster), T Bowe (Ospreys), G D'Arcy (Leinster), K Earls (Munster), R Kearney (Leinster), F McFadden (Leinster), G Murphy (Leicester Tigers), C Murray (Munster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster) (Capt), R O'Gara (Munster), E Reddan (Leinster), J Sexton (Leinster), A Trimble (Ulster), P Wallace (Ulster).
