Why Kerry have a lot more to do to reclaim Sam - and a few home truths for delusional Cork fans

And, of course, they were more than delighted to share the good news that, in their not so humble opinion, Kerry wouldn’t get within an ass’s roar of Sam this summer.

So please forgive me while I spell out a few home truths to these delusional Rebels fans.

Cork lost by 12 points. They never looked like winning. Their game-plan was based primarily on damage limitation. No trophies are handed out for moral victories.

One of my lifelong bugbears is how we celebrate gallant defeats in Irish sport.

Katie Taylor and Kellie Harrington are winners. But one of the reasons Irish team sports have been mired in mediocrity for decades is because we take too much pride in being talented losers.

Still, I can see why Cork fans got a bit overexcited about their team’s performance.

The players backed up their ‘Páirc Uí Rinn or Nowhere’ campaign with their actions on the field.

We saw some brilliant individual displays – especially in defence from Sean Powter, Kevin O’Mahony, and, in particular, Kevin Flahive, who did an excellent man-marking job on David Clifford. And all this without their first-choice full-back, Sean Meehan.

Unfortunately, Flahive picked up a cruciate ligament injury, ruling him out for the rest of the season.

I don’t know what’s wrong with my Sunday Game colleague Sean Cavanagh these days. He seemed to be getting out the wrong side of the bed, and has taken on the mantle of the angry young man.

His assertion that Cork don’t deserve to be playing in the Sam Maguire Championship is complete nonsense. They earned that right by staying in Division 2.

Cork’s defensive set-up, which featured everybody retreating en masse, troubled Kerry. But it is physically impossible to keep this up for an entire championship match.

Like a marathon runner, Cork hit the wall around the 48th minute – and in the closing 26 minutes they were outscored 12 points to one.

The best-laid defensive plans can become unstuck by indiscipline – and Cork were guilty of a lot of rash fouling, with Kerry hitting 0-10 from frees.

Cork succeeded in turning the first 50 minutes into a stop-start disjointed contest, which prevented Kerry from settling into any kind of rhythm.

But let’s be brutally honest, Kerry never looked like losing – even when Cork drew level in the second half.

Still, for the first 48 minutes or so their performance was very average. Jack O’Connor won’t be too worried. It means he has things to work on ahead of the Munster final at the end of the month.

And after a five-week break there was an element of ‘burning the dirty petrol’ about their performance.

There were positive moments to take away, too; such as Kerry’s work-rate, turnovers won and general defensive play.

Again, they didn’t concede a goal, which means they have let in only one goal from open play in 12 matches.

Kerry also restricted Cork to four points from play in the second half, and they didn’t concede one scoreable free in that time.

I have two quibbles: one minor, one major. Playing on the edge is grand, but sometimes Kerry strayed over it. In the key championship games to come they cannot to afford to lose a man.

But it is their inability to break down a blanket defence which bothers me. In the first half, Kerry’s build-up play was slow.

They had to move the ball through the hand and their kicking game into David Clifford and his colleagues – which had been so good during the Allianz League – was marked absent. Instead, too often, the Kingdom’s players took the ball into contact and were turned-over.

They failed to score a goal and only created one such chance – and, despite all their forward talent on display, they only scored 11 points from play.

Kerry’s impact substitutes left a big mark on the game, and this could be their trump card going forward.

When you can introduce three former All-Stars, David Moran, Paul Murphy and Paul Geaney, it is a potential game-changer – and Kerry’s performance did improve when they were on the field.

Moran, in particular, impressed me with his ball-winning skills. His role this season will be to manage games in the last 20 minutes.

Kerry’s performance reminded me of the Fianna Fail slogan from the 2002 General Election: ‘A lot done. More to do.’

The first half of the Donegal v Cavan Ulster semi-final was most enjoyable.

It featured great individual displays from Cavan’s Paddy Lynch, James Smith and Thomas Galligan.

Their team’s work rate was excellent, and they played some lovely, direct football.

But, just like Kerry-Cork, there was an inevitability about the outcome.

Cavan did last longer in the contest than the Rebels, to be fair.

But in the last 17 minutes of playing time they were outscored 2-2 to 0-2, and failed to score from play. They simply ran out of steam.

Donegal’s consistency has to be admired. They reached their tenth Ulster final in 12 seasons last weekend.

Their running game, particularly when done at high tempo, was impressive.

They brought variety to their play, particularly when switching Michael Murphy to the edge of the square and kicking directly towards him.

I know there is an argument that Murphy should stay in the full-forward position for the entire game.

There was an American firefighter called Red Adair who gained fame by travelling around the world, extinguishing fires on oil fields.

Michael Murphy is Donegal’s Red Adair. At times he is required around the field.

Donegal used wing-backs Peadar Mogan and Eoghán Bán Gallagher to punch holes in the Cavan defence with their penetrating runs. This tactic is becoming a trend in this year’s championship.

Mayo have long used it and Armagh, for example, deploy Jarly Óg Burns, a natural midfielder, in this role as well.

Donegal don’t convince me, though. They struggled to put away a team which had been operating in Division 4, and were turned-over for seven points.

I rate them as a top-six rather than a top-four side in terms of the race for Sam.

Analysing the Galway v Leitrim is pointless.

What has been striking for several seasons now is the difference in the conditioning of the top teams compared to the rest.

We saw it in the other two matches on the weekend before last as well, but it was pretty stark in Salthill.

Leitrim were only a point behind after 20 minutes, but then the difference in conditioning kicked in. It was 12-5 to Galway at the break, and they won the second half 4-8 to 0-5.

The gulf had little enough to do with skill but everything to do with fitness, strength and conditioning.

The draw for the Tailteann Cup has been made, but already the misgivings about the new competition are growing.

I agree 100 per cent with Leitrim manager Andy Moran, who expressed disappointment that this year’s competition will not be organised on a round-robin basis.

What teams like Leitrim need at this time of the year are more guaranteed competitive games.

It worries me, as well, how long teams have been hanging around waiting for the competition to start. Fermanagh, London and New York all exited the provincial series four weeks ago.

The preliminary round of the new competition is scheduled for next weekend; the first round is two weeks away, while New York won’t be involved until the quarter-final stage.

Will players and managers stay committed, and, more importantly, will County Boards continue to finance full-scale training?