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The Mayo footballers will have received a huge boost from last Sunday’s narrow victory over Kerry in the National League semi-final.

I discovered last Sunday that football does occasionally work to Hollywood endings and rose-red sunsets. Last Sunday’s game was a big occasion for Mayo football. Our reputation as a team of being able to compete with the big boys was under threat. However we should not have worried ourselves as Mayo delivered a fearless determined display which ranks up there with the very best we have witnessed heretofore and in doing so ensured that the integrity of Mayo football is back where it belongs after a disappointing couple of years.

From the frying pan into the fire would appear to be the Galway footballers’ lot this Sunday.

A week, they say, is a long time in politics. A week in football can be an eternity. Wee James McCartan was being championed as the Messiah last week before the final, the man who resurrected the fortunes of a Down side whose season was full of mediocrity up until the back door stage. He was being hailed as the man who re-energised his troops after they were beaten in the Ulster championship by Tyrone. In fairness, his Down side were liberated once they went in through the back door to begin their tour of the country and there was an incremental improvement in each and every performance as they progressed towards last Sunday’s final. This week McCartan’s performance as manager is being scrutinised in great detail with many in his native county questioning some of his decision-making on the line. I can understand why, as a narrow defeat normally means a huge post-mortem of the losing team’s performance. Before last Sunday’s match everyone suggested that the midfield sector was going to be crucial. It was generally perceived that if Down could manage a supply of decent ball into their pacey forwards, they would be in with a mighty chance of success. Last Sunday they were annihilated in this crucial sector. Cork won 70 per cent of the kick outs and the scale of their dominance was key to their triumph. The Down goalkeeper, Brendan McVeigh, on the other hand, never varied his kickouts throughout the afternoon and it does beg the question why he persisted in making heroes out of both Nicholas Murphy and Aidan Walsh. A more puzzling decision was the substitution of Paul McComiskey with 15 minutes remaining on the clock. He was playing brilliantly all afternoon, kicking three points and giving his opponent the run around. That decision left many perplexed.

It was an afternoon where nothing changed, or where everything changed. Mayo went to Dublin full of hope and expectation and once again headed west with a lot more questions than answers in their pocket. Is it Croke Park? Are Mayo just not good enough? Is it history? These are all questions that John O'Mahony will hope to have the right answers for come the end of the year. But for now, the only way is forward as he sees it, and what's done is done and it's now about the next challenge.

Mayo will definitely be with out the services of both Keith Higgins and Enda Varley for Sunday's National Football League final against Cork it was reveled on Saturday afternoon. Both men who won u21 All Ireland titles against Cork back in 2006 underwent fitness tests on Saturday morning before Mayo departed for Dublin. Higgins picked up a knee injury in Mayo's win over Monaghan in the penultimate round of games in the league stages of the competition, while Varley aggravated a hamstring injury while playing for his club Garrymore in the opening round of league games at the start of the month. The UL student did make a cameo appearance for his club last weekend, but failed to make the grade for Sunday's game.

Mayo 0-16

Last Sunday’s clash between Cork and Kerry reminded me so much of Mayo’s All-Ireland final versus Meath in 1996. Mayo could and should have won in 1996. Cork could and should have won last Sunday. Cork were ahead by five points with 15 minutes remaining but were clinging on in those final minutes when Kerry came storming back into the game in typical bullish fashion. Cork have only themselves to blame as they should have been out of sight, notwithstanding the fact that referee Maurice Deegan stands accused of leaning very much in favour of Kerry in the closing stages of the match. He had indicated two minutes of additional time to be played in the second half, but left the clock running. Cork managed to edge in front with a converted 45 within those two minutes and appeared to have pulled off a sensational victory. But inexplicably Deegan managed to extend playing time by a further two minutes and, to add insult to injury, advanced the last free awarded to Kerry by 20 metres, giving Bryan Sheehan the easiest of chances to convert and level the game. The additional time played created a lot of debate after the game and Mick Curley, the chairman of the National Referees’ Association, was invited by RTÉ Radio 1 to discuss the matter. Curley, himself a former referee, understandably wasn’t ever going to land his former referee colleagues in the manure and went on to defend Deegan stoutly. I was on the same radio show and decided that I should come to the defence of both Deegan and Marty Duffy (Croke Park referee), reminding listeners that a young Pat McEneaney, who refereed the All Ireland in 1996, had a terrible game and we here in Mayo managed to forgive him for some of his bizarre decisions in both the drawn and replayed final of that year. Mick Curley did go on to suggest that he would be personally in favour of a countdown clock similar to that used so effectively in ladies football, rugby, and basketball, that would make life so much easier for referees. You know I’m not so sure about this at all. I never minded a draw in football, as long as I wasn’t involved in any way with a participating team. A drawn game creates great debate afterwards. Also I am delighted to have the opportunity to see these two teams have another go at progressing to a Munster final tomorrow evening. TV3 has again decided to televise the match at 5pm, and with a live Leinster championship encounter involving Kildare and Wexford also beamed into our living rooms at 7pm, we can have no complaints about our national broadcaster. If Cork do manage to prevail next Saturday evening, they will advance with great confidence and it will take a very good performance to beat them later in the year.