Midfield, half-backs - and Gooch - are Kingdom’s keys

1 Kerry’s midfield and half-back dominance

FOR Mayo to have come out of yesterday with a victory or at least a chance of fighting for one in the last quarter, they needed parity or better from kick-outs.

Indeed they probably needed to be more in the 70:30 category in the possession stakes. Instead they were cleaned out in the middle of the park and Kerry bossed the breaking ball.

Kerry won possession from nine of Mayo’s 13 kick-outs in the first half and collected six of Brendan Kealy’s eight restarts.

Kevin McLoughlin was removed from wing-forward as a defensive sweeper which meant that Kealy could find his spare defender with ease.

Anthony Maher had a fine game and did the simple things very well. He and Bryan Sheehan dominated against the O’Shea brothers.

Tomás Ó Sé was phenomenal in the first half. He is a masterful footballer and he invariably took the right option, including Kerry’s first score at a time they needed to raise a flag. Eoin Brosnan also got on the scoresheet in the first half and Mayo never really ran at him to check out his defensive credentials.

He was allowed a free role and linked play very effectively when in possession.

Allowing Kerry so much soft ball was a dangerous strategy. They are marvellous in possession and have the coolness, guile and ability to keep the ball with ease and go from defence to attack in seconds.

Mayo battled hard to stay in touch, but in doing so they expended a vast amount of energy tackling, chasing, putting in hits and trying to get the ball back. Kerry looked the fresher team in the second half and when they upped the gears, Mayo wilted.

2 The magnificence of Colm Cooper

SPECIAL players help their teams win All-Ireland titles: Peter Canavan, Henry Shefflin, Darragh Ó Sé, Eoin Kelly, Maurice Fitzgerald, Trevor Giles, Colm Cooper.

The Gooch was outstanding once again yesterday.

The Crokes man must really enjoy playing against Mayo. He has scored a combined 4-15 in their last four championship games (2004, 2005, 2006 and 2011).

Anytime Mayo threatened, Cooper was the man who doused their flames.

With six All Stars in the satchel (and another one probably on the way) nobody should have been surprised by the mayhem he caused.

The way he won a high ball, soloed away from goal and then sold Tom Cunniffe with a body swerve before lashing the ball past Robert Hennelly was special.

The timing of the strike was also brilliant as it quelled any hopes of a Mayo revolution after Cillian O’Connor’s goal moments earlier.

He is the consummate team player with a magnificent appreciation of what to do in possession. Mayo had a few goal chances in the second half and Andy Moran in particular found himself in good positions on a few occasions, but he could not hit the killer shot.What would have happened if Cooper was in those same situations?

Cooper has now played championship 63 times for Kerry and notched 17 goals and 213 points. Awesome.

3 Where can Kerry improve for the final?

WHEN nine different players score and your team hits 1-20 and wins by nine points it may be nit-picking to look for ways to improve. But Jack O’Connor will know that either Dublin or Donegal will provide a different type of test than yesterday in the final.

They will need to find Kieran Donaghy with better ball than they did in the first half yesterday. It took him a long time to get going and he seemed to benefit from being brought out the field and playing himself into the game.

Ger Cafferkey did well on him and Donaghy seemed to be getting frustrated with himself and the supply he was receiving. Declan O’Sullivan too won’t have been happy with his performance. He did not score, but Donal Vaughan did. Three times. And all from play.

On a few occasions the Kerry full-back line was left exposed and one-on-one against their direct opponent. Marc Ó Sé and Tom O’Sullivan had fine games yesterday but a Bernard Brogan or Michael Murphy would be dangerous men to leave in open country.

Mayo and James Horan will have learnt a lot over the past few months, but few teams can match Kerry’s overall ability and class. Their foot passing is excellent and they look incredibly comfortable on the ball.

No amount of tackling, harrying and hard work can compensate for being up against superior footballers.

If there is one crumb of comfort for other counties it is that men like the two Ó Sés, Tom O’Sullivan, Aidan O’Mahony and Eoin Brosnan can’t go on forever.