GAELIC GAMES:Not a vintage performance by the men from the Kingdom but it was enough to get them over the line, writes JOHN O'KEEFFE

THIS WAS far from a vintage performance by Kerry but it was enough to get them over the line and that’s all they’ll care about this morning.

You have to credit Mayo for making life incredibly difficult and for making Jack O’Connor and his side work hard to find a way to beat them.

But Kerry were patient and they switched emphasis at half-time, moving away from the route-one football that was getting them nowhere in the first half. For all that Mayo put them to the pin of their collar, I never felt the result was in doubt.

Kerry obviously came into this game with the intention of hitting Kieran Donaghy at every opportunity and taking it from there. But it just didn’t work in that first half. Ger Cafferkey played very well on him, breaking ball and doing enough to put him off.

The Mayo corner-backs did a great job of tidying up any loose ball that spilled from the tussles between Donaghy and Cafferkey, which made for a very frustrating half of football for Kerry.

Once they started to vary it after the break, however, they got a lot more joy. Kieran O’Leary was particularly crucial in this approach. He showed very well for the ball out around the half-forward line and then used it very cleverly to feed either Colm Cooper or Donaghy inside or players running off his shoulder.

Donaghy himself actually played much better when he was coming out to collect ball that was played in low or at chest-height. His first point came from out around the 45-metre line after he picked up a low ball and turned to kick it over the bar after half an hour. Kerry had worked out by that stage that they needed to vary their play.

Part of the reason route one didn’t work was that Mayo crowded their half-back line and put pressure on the Kerry players kicking the ball in.

Kevin McLoughlin played as an extra defender there and he covered every blade of grass in the role. But I felt at times they were robbing Peter to pay Paul by playing him there. Tomás Ó Sé was given the freedom of Croke Park to run into and Eoin Brosnan was left with a lot of space as well. It meant Kerry were given a lot of possession without having to work very hard for it.

After half-time, Kerry were a different proposition. They found each other with shorter passes and changed away totally from the high ball into Donaghy. Cooper came into his own and showed that he is back to his best, which was very important for Kerry because this was a day that neither Donaghy, Declan O’Sullivan or Darran O’Sullivan played up to their best form.

It just goes to show that when he’s in this sort of mood, the Gooch is nearly unmarkable.

That said, I thought one of the few mistakes James Horan made was not to switch Keith Higgins across onto him when he started to cut loose. Since Darran O’Sullivan was having a quiet game, the obvious thing to do would have been to get Higgins to do a man-marking job on Cooper.

With the form Cooper was in, it might not have stopped him but it would have been something different for him to think about. As it was, this was a much-needed return to form for the Kerry captain.

The other player who stood out was Paul Galvin when he came on. He definitely gave notice of his intention to try and force his way into a starting spot for the final with his performance. He was all over the breaking ball in around the middle of the field and when he got possession, he used it very intelligently. It’s often overlooked but Galvin is a great kick-passer of the ball and he directed matters here. Kerry will be delighted he has four weeks now to improve before the final. He’ll be very close to a starting place, that’s for certain.

Jack O’Connor will be delighted to have been given such a stiff test by Mayo. They thought their way around a very difficult opponent and came through thanks to being more economical when it came to their score-taking.

Mayo probably just lacked that bit of class in the forwards that Kerry were able to call upon. But it was no disgrace for Mayo to be beaten. This wasn’t like the Mayo of old, coming to Croke Park and going home with a hammering.

Even though there were nine points in it at the end, this wasn’t a hiding.

Mayo can take plenty away from it. They made Kerry’s full-back line look vulnerable at times and if they’d had a bit more mobility in the middle of the field, they could have run Kerry a little closer. Horan has them set up well and everybody knows their job. If they keep improving like they have this year, there’s a very good team in them.

Players like McLaughlin and Donal Vaughan and Cillian O’Connor are the future for Mayo. These players are young, they’re fit and they’re mobile.

Exactly the kind of athletes Horan wants for the style of play he’s after.

Give it another year and some good training over the winter and the two O’Sheas will surely get to that point as well. I felt at times yesterday they both lacked the bit of mobility and dynamism you need to succeed in Croke Park. They ran out of steam around the middle and it left Galvin to come in and clean up around that area.

But they’ll improve. And Mayo will improve. There’s nothing better for a team in development than to learn from competitive contests at the business end of the championship. Mayo have left Croke Park on days when there was only clouds and no silver linings.

Yesterday wasn’t one of those days.