KRRRY MANAGER Paidi O Se was in breezy form after his side's controlled win over Laois. His defence, in particular, pleased him.

"I felt our backs played tidy football today, clever football in the first 20 minutes. And I also felt that our forwards played very well, played for one another and threw it around quite well. As well as that they showed great aggression when they were beaten to the ball. They came back to their own half back line and took possession from the opposition, which I thought was very good as well."

He was aware, however, that progress to a National League final would not necessarily excite the natives back home. "Well, I suppose for a lot of the old stagers in Kerry, they've only one thing on their mind and that's the red jersey in a Munster final but It very good for the team to reach National League final".

Kerry's flying start was not unconnected, revealed wing back Seamus Moynihan to O Se's pre-match performance, "Paidi made a great speech before the game - well, he always does - but, basically, Kerry hadn't been in a League final for 10 years, we were hoping to change that today. And we did."

In the painful, and protracted, absence of Sam Maguire the League has acquired a significance it didn't have back in O Se's own playing days. "Kerry were winning All-Irelands in those times," said Moynihan. "We're not winning them at the moment so when you're building a team the League is very important."

Laois manager Michael Dempsey was quietly absorbing the lessons from this defeat in the dressing room. "Bad start," he reflected. "We played well afterwards but... bad start, you have to play for 60 minutes. There was a lot of bad passing, gave away a lot of possession. The game was in the balance with about 10 minutes to go - we brought it back to two points - but every time we got to within striking distance Kerry came back and got a score."

Corner forward Leo Turley felt they had enough possession to recover from their poor start but failed to use it well. "We kicked away an awful lot of possession. I'd say that's what lost it for us. We had a lot of possession that we just didn't get into the forward line.

"Every time we got near to Kerry they just seemed to be able to go down the field at their ease and get another point. We got the penalty after half-time and a couple of points but when we got to within two points they were always able to put a goal or four points between us and that was our undoing. But, definitely, the start didn't help either."

Disappointed at his team failing in their third League semi-final in four years, Turley's consolation was in the experience picked up by Laois along the way - especially by the team's teenagers. "The extra couple of games will have done them good. The biggest risk, you could say, is their inexperience and any game played in Croke Park has to be good for them."