Messages

That was as good a final as I've seen. A great way to end a great year of football.

One of sport's greatest hoodoos getting consigned to history, to trigger an emotional outpouring the likes of which we've never seen...a truly fitting bookend  for a vintage championship season.

I was invested in that Mayo win almost as much as I would have been had it been my own county. It was nervier than it needed to be but with all the psychological baggage, that was understandable. For once the gods were with them.

Thought a very familiar story was unfolding there for a while, but Mayo dug their way back into it.

Kerry still finding the bread-and-butter scoring opportunities far easier to come by, though, and the game will only open up further for them as it goes on.

Mayo in with a shout but if it's tight and they desperately need scores in the last knockings, will they have the stuff to land them? Here's hoping.

When you take into account all of those relatively recent Mayo AI defeats, don't forget the replays. I count 12 failed attempts to win the final since the Meath final in 96.

2021 was a total shite the bed after finally getting over Dublin they thought all they had to do was turn up against Tyrone. Only really getting round to forgiving them now for that one lol

I'd always be rooting for Mayo in finals until after that day, when I realised they could be playing themselves in a decider and would somehow still contrive to lose, so weren't worth the effort. They're going to win one eventually, though, and of course most of the country will be behind them in a fortnight's time.

Even with all the goal calls going against them, the Dubs still engineered enough scoring chances to prosper but butchered way too many of them.

A few crumbs of encouragement for Mayo in the way Kerry were contained for spells of the match, but although they summoned a performance I didn't see coming against a Louth team with stage fright, I fear Mayo have once again peaked for their semifinal. Here's hoping we get a final contest worthy of the occasion. Would be some craic if every bit of bad luck they've had in prior 11 showpieces was rebalanced with a stupendously outrageous day out to finally claim Sam.

The stars are very unlikely to align like this again for Mayo in the final. I hope they make a game of it and don't have another choke. They did well against a very lacklustre opponent today but unless the fates stay with them and absolutely everything goes their way in the final, I can't see them doing it. They will be roundly written off though, and that'll help them.

Louth have fallen totally flat. Looks like the occasion completely got to them. The signs were there in the first half and they didn't stop the rot at half time. Unforced errors, poor handling, and any little break in front of goal that Mayo can get, they're getting it.

Clare shat the bed. They got Limerick on an off-day but despite being all heart and effort, they were nowhere near clinical or composed enough. When the fat was in the fire, a very off-colour Limerick found enough moments of quality to engineer the win.

Hurling refs are often too keen to seize any excuse not to enforce the letter of the law.

That refereeing was some cop out, saved by the fact Kelly buried the peno.

Cork were quite fumblesome and error-strewn for a lot of that but with so much possession in the second half they eventually made it count. Tyrone looked a lot sharper and better-coached early on but with the wind after the break, Cork eventually made hay. I wouldn't say Tyrone will fret too much having won a pile at underage already and plenty of evidence the pipeline isn't running dry any time soon.

I personally find repeat fixtures very anticlimactic, I have to say. But each to their own!

That's a fair slap in the mouth for Monaghan, who actually played ok but there was just no living with that Louth outfit there today. They just refused to lose. Unreal fielding at times and incredible, dead-eyed efficiency once they got a sniff of the posts at all.

Both counties can look forward to good years ahead, and offer a great lesson to Cavan on replacing rhetoric with results - Louth, in particular, whose rise over the last five years is a template for underdog counties everywhere.

No grá for Tyrone but lots to admire in that effort which might be the toughest game Kerry get en route to winning Sam. They had to work so hard for their scores and were ritually disembowelled on kickouts, but managed to hang in with Donnelly and McCurry leading the charge. A few inches lower by McElholm for a goal, a bit more composure in front of goal generally, those big calls that went Kerry's way...? That said, Kerry looked like any time they really needed scores they could get them.

Tyrone hanging in well enough but they're not engineering anything like the same number of bread-and-butter points that Kerry are. That'll be their undoing, if they're planning on continuing to walk the ball around the arc before shooting mammoth 2-pointers. Not a sustainable tactic. Good enough ould match though.