The better team won. The strength of Cork was their defence, which was magnificent, particularly in the latter part of the match when Mayo were trying to have a final throw of the dice.

Ciaran O'Sullivan and Anthony Lynch certainly were good, but as a group Cork were brilliant in this area.

The old weaknesses came back to Mayo, where during that period of dominance early on they had a few wides and also lobbed a few into the goalkeeper's hand. They also gave away some ball which illustrated the old failings of rushing and not keeping possession.

Cork basically hung in during that early period, went for the kill before half-time and got the reward with the goal.

The dominance of Cork came before half-time. They got one goal and they could have got another. Cork began to pick up everything from around the middle of the field. Nicholas Murphy was doing a fair bit of catching and there were a lot of breaks coming in. Mayo, in that phase of the game, didn't seem to be getting any of the breaks.

Cork, quite suddenly, then started to take over everywhere.

I don't, however, think Cork are yet the finished product but their work ethic, which has gotten them so far this year, again prevailed.

There are areas where they are not working so well, but they can cover up. Mark O'Sullivan didn't have a good game. He was unlucky, I suppose, for the goal at the end of the first half, but that work rate covered up a lot for them.

In the middle of the second half, when there was only a point or two in it, I said to a person sitting beside me that neither team appeared to want to win it. They were finding it so hard to break loose from each other, and there were a few balls given away on both sides.

From a Cork perspective, they will need to start much brighter in an All-Ireland final or Meath or Armagh would put them away. They simply would not beat either of those teams with that kind of a start.

But that is something they can work on. Semi-finals are about winning, not about putting on the finished product. Sometimes it can be an advantage when a team are written off after a semi-final and have a lot of work to do. An example would be the way we were last year and Donegal in the early '90s.

There are still question marks over some of the Cork forwards. Padraig O'Mahony was their top man and he was taken off, so I believe they are not a well-oiled machine up front. Again Don Davis did a lot of work, but they are not as slick as they need to be to win an All-Ireland. But that's in the future and they won't worry about it.

One of the great positives for Cork in the second half was that they put a lot of pressure on the corner backs. Philip Clifford was getting a lot of possession there as Cork sprayed a lot of ball out to that part of the pitch.

The Cork substitutions were good. Fionan Murray came in with a goal and a point, and that was significant. Also Fachtna Collins came in and caught a few balls. They seemed to be able to do the trick when they came on.

I would see Cork as a team who are capable of buckling down. Perhaps there is some of the work ethic of Larry Tompkins there, but wins don't have to be pretty. I'd see that ethic as a tribute to Cork.

They maintained the same team for most of the winter, they've won a league and are now in the final with not so much flair. They'll be going in now as underdogs no matter who wins the other match.

But giving the ball away and not converting scores certainly came back to haunt Mayo. Some of their players are a long time on the road. A couple of months off might invigorate them again. I detected a lack of hype during the week and I saw it as a fear of Mayo not doing the business again. It's disheartening.

Certainly they haven't been able to keep a structure on games as they go on. For one period there seems to be good method in what they are doing, and when it unravels it looks terrible. The defence wasn't as tight as it needs to be at this level.

But Cork are in the final. I'm quite sure that's all they care about now.

(In an interview with Johnny Watterson)