I predicted/gauged that Mayo would beat Tipperary by four, at one stage it looked like it could be 44, it ended up being 13 in what was as bizarre an All-Ireland semi final as we are likely to see.
The final scoreline of 5-20 to 3-13 tells you all you need to know. Lethal at one end and leaky at the other. The main thing is though, Mayo are back in an All-Ireland final against the six-in-a-row chasing Dublin.
There are so many talking points after the weekend's two semi finals but let's cut to the chase and start with the main one. Cillian O Connors 4-9 haul is likely never to be matched again in a game of this magnitude, maybe even in any game.
I didn't bother looking through archives but surely this is the highest score ever accumulated by a single player in one game (and he was taken off ).
I have been in Parnell Park and Croke Park covering pretty much every Dublin game since football resumed in October and for the Leinster final in Croker everyone in the media area was wallowing about the impressive 3-4 Jordan Morris got for Meath against lowly Wicklow in the Leinster championship.
Without taking the opposition into account, 3-4 is very impressive no matter who you're playing I was told, I agreed. I just wonder what they were saying last Sunday evening about Cillian O Connor, who achieved his haul against the Munster champions in an All-Ireland semi final in Croke Park.
It was some going and the best ever performance put in by a Mayo player at any level. He was even kind enough to drop a 45 short so his brother Diarmuid could get in on the goal scoring act as well.
I'm not sure which of his scores was my favourite but the way he pounced on a careless back pass to Tipperary goal keeper Evan Comerford was impressive. This was not an accident, this was premeditated.
O'Connor would have watched Tipp closely, realising that on their third play after a short kick out Tipp normally kick the ball back to Comerford to maintain possession and start their attack from deep.
He took a gamble, leaving his own man free to pursue Comerford. I bet he couldn't believe his luck when Tipp' midfielder Liam Casey undercooked his pass. It was a brilliant poacher's goal and goes to show you the level at which he studied the opposition looking for weakness.
He can thank Aidan O'Shea and especially Tommy Conroy for his first which was a tap in. Conroy showing all the maturity of a seasoned campaigner by hand passing the ball across the goal to O'Connor instead of taking on the shot himself.
Conroy too had a fine Croke Park début showing no fear and helping himself to 0-4. For his second strike O'Connor used all his strength and guile to floor his marker Colm O'Shaughnessy with a flick of the hips before unleashing a daisy cutter past a helpless Comerford.
The penetrating run by Eoghan McLoughlin and deft lay off by Aidan O'Shea was top drawer. With the heavy fog we almost didn't see his fourth goal but it was a skill set of the highest level.
A super pass from Kevin Mcloughlin found O'Connor with his back to goal on the 14 yard line. In one movement he pivoted and spun to finish high into the Tipp net with his left foot.
When you hear a person scores four goals there is normally always a fluke and a penalty or two making up the list but these were four peaches by O'Connor who scored a 10/10 for his performance and deservedly won the Footballer of the Week accolade.
I hope he has saved one or two for the final. Another hard to believe fact about this game from an attacking point of view is that Mayo didn't register their first wide until the 59th minute, I can all but presume that is another record.
The concerns
Mayo conceded a whopping 3-13 which would normally win any team 95 per cent of matches they play. We were opened up time after time and there is debate as to whether Tipp had 10 or 11 gaping goal chances. I counted 10.
With the exception of Cillian O'Connor, David Clarke was Mayo's man of the match in the first half. He executed some brilliant saves. Tipp could have found themselves eight points up only for Clarke.
Cillian O'Connor's first goal came directly from Clarke’s point blank save from Conor Sweeney, a six point swing if you like. Another huge facet of the modern game is the kick outs. David Clarke took 23 kick outs, nine went short and nine retained, but of the 14 that went long only six were retained which is a poor 43 per cent return from long kick outs.
Tipp gobbled up possession when Clarke kicked the ball long. Compare that to Tipperary who took 19 kick outs long and they retained 16 of them which is an 84 per cent return. Mayo's percentage of kick out retention was the lowest return of any of the four teams in semi final action last week. Even Cavan took 13 from 22 of their own long kick outs against Dublin which constitutes 59 per cent. Normally it's our forward division getting all the flak and our defence getting all the plaudits, not this time around but plenty to work on for the final. It's great to be back there.
The lengths we will go to
A customer that calls into our shop every other day has told me she has penned and posted a letter to Dean Rock asking him to have a heart, take it easy on us and to miss as many frees as possible in the final so that her 84-year-old husband will die a happy man if he sees Mayo winning Sam. She wondered if I had his address. Dean Rock, Dublin will get him I replied. Just wondering if you got the letter Deano?
