Barry O’Shea says Kerry’s mental toughness was vital in a great performance on Sunday, but there is still work to be done for the final…

I MENTIONED last week I wasn’t enticed by bookies with their spread of +4 and if you’d backed it, you would have lost your money.

It was always going to be close. The game was closer than four points because they were never really comfortable until Barry John Keane knocked over the last point in injury time. Tyrone needed two scores at that stage with time almost up.

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It went along the lines as we thought it would, but one thing I didn’t expect it to be is as good a game as it was, especially on Sunday morning as I drove into Dublin with the rain starting to pour down.

Kerry scored 18 points against a very defensive team. I thought that was excellent scoring. Tyrone will probably count themselves unlucky scoring 1-11 on a bad day and not winning.

Kerry had to be very patient, to try and get the ball moving over and back the field, spreading the defence. It took an awful lot of patience, calmness and coolness for them to get over the line. With eight minutes to go, Tyrone drew level, but Kerry went and pulled away again scoring four points without reply.

There were a lot of positives, but from Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s point of view he’ll have to look at the number of goal chances his side coughed up.

There were two factors why Kerry conceded five goal-scoring chances, one of them ending in a penalty.  All of the chances came from turnovers and there was a certain element of man-marking being adopted by the half back line.

When players stick rigidly to their man, it can cause a problem where they can be sucked out of position. Peter Crowley marked Sean Cavanagh and did a brilliant job, but because he was following Cavanagh this left gaps in the centre of the defence for them to exploit.

Once Tyrone turned Kerry over, they were running straight at them.

The decision to man-mark worked in the sense that key men for Tyrone – Peter Harte, Sean Cavanagh and Matty Donnelly – were largely ineffectual, but as soon as Kerry were turned over, a lot of the defence was out of position.

It’s something that can be worked on. Marc Ó Sé being black-carded early on was another factor. His experience, playing in his 14^th All-Ireland semi-final, would have probably marshalled the defence around him and closed up those gaps.

What impressed me the most was the guts they showed. When Tyrone came back and drew level the stadium was rocking, but Kerry kept the head and got the next for scores in a row.

That was the most pleasing thing about it.

They also showed hunger, because teams going for two in a row, can sometimes fall down when it comes to that, but they showed determination to get over the line.

Mental toughness is one of this team’s traits, you only have to look at the two Mayo semi-finals last year to see how tough they are.

I’ve been in teams like that where you feel you are never going to beaten. It’s not arrogance, it’s an inner confidence from getting results.

Great teams have had it down the years and it’s something the All-Blacks have now. No matter what’s thrown at them, they have the inner confidence to stick to the game plan, keep the scoreboard ticking over and the result will come. You could see that in the Kerry team the last day.

At no stage in the game did they panic. Of course there were mistakes made in bad conditions, but overall it was a great performance.

Looking at the potential finalists, Dublin and Mayo, who face off this weekend, both teams obviously will be very difficult to beat. I’ve a feeling Mayo will win that on Sunday, I’m basing that on their hunger.

They’re the only side left in it without All-Ireland medals in their back pocket, I think the sheer will to win an All-Ireland will get them over Dublin.

I suppose the punter on the street would say they’d love to get one over on Dublin, but at the end of the day if you win an All-Ireland it doesn’t matter who you beat.