THE start of this Church & General National Football League semi-final's second half was delayed for a short while. Indeed, referee Michael Curley had to run into the dressing-rooms and encourage the teams to take the field.

Kildare, trailing 0-5 to 2-7, were presumably suffering from a mixture of embarrassment and apprehension whereas Cork would have been within their rights to wonder whether or not they should bother, given the improbability of Kildare scoring eight points even in the absence of opposition.

It was therefore a surprise when the teams took the field and within 10 minutes, Kildare had trimmed the deficit to two points by scoring 1-3 without reply. Their manager Mick O'Dwyer's agitation at the first-half performance may have been assuaged by the swift fightback but he and his selectors must have been nearly as dismayed by the failure to build on the revival.

At the heart of what was a poor performance was the dearth of firepower in attack. Between them, Kildare's forwards managed only 1-1 from play and the full forward line drew a complete blank. The team looked well swarming forward in the third quarter, running the ball well, but the lack of finish was crippling and with Cork vulnerable as their lead melted away, Kildare started shooting wides with nervous abandon.

Cork's almost casual playing-out of thee final quarter was sufficient to see them through to the final against old rivals Kerry in just under a fortnight. Parc Ui Chaoimh is expected to be confirmed as the venue by the GAC on Wednesday. Had this Munster carve-up not been the outcome, Cork would have had some serious questions to answer.

Before the throw-in, they made a bewildering nine positional switches and replaced Liam Honohan, who failed a fitness test, with Sean Og O hAilpin. The eventual line-up wasn't too surprising in that it closely resembled the side that started the quarter-final against Louth.

Chief amongst the moves was the switch of Steven O'Brien and Colin Corkery in the middle of the attack, the siting of Ciaran O'Sullivan at centrefield and the use of Martin Cronin as a third centrefielder.

Less than two minutes had elapsed when Cronin went careering down the wing, broke through two attempted tackles and put O'Brien in on goal. He drew out goalkeeper Christy Byrne and took the goal. After Damien O'Neill and Niall Buckley had exchanged points, Cork struck in the seventh minute for another goal.

Again O'Brien and Cronin were involved, with the latter driving a perfectly weighted pass through the defence for Aidan Dorgan to run on to and take the ball around the goalkeeper for a scoreline of 2-1 to 0-1.

The most noticeable thing about Cork during the first half when they were playing well and slicing Kildare open with nearly every attack was the team's physique. A good number of the players are quite tall and even those who are not, are tough and explosive on the ball. Tackling them is very difficult as they don't spill possession and are equipped to take a fair bit of buffeting.

Tactically, they crowded the middle third of the pitch and used O'Brien and Dorgan on the inside. O'Brien's size and footballing ability make him an awkward target man, even when not fully match-fit, as was the case yesterday, and Kildare's full back John Finn played very well to restrict the Nemo man's influence. Beside him, Dorgan looked the perfect foil. Quick and elusive, he played well off O'Brien for a first-half tally of 1-2, even if he slowed down in the second half.

At centrefield, O'Neill gave an immense performance. His ability in the air, and the power and purpose which he displayed going forward were complemented by hard work covering back, highlighted by his taking a ball off his own line in the 52nd minute. Together with the excellent Ciaran O'Sullivan, he ensured Cork had the better of Buckley and John Whelan.

Defence was equally accomplished. After a rocky start, Mark O'Connor settled well on Martin Lynch and coped despite coming out on the wrong side of a couple of refereeing decisions in the process. In front of O'Connor, the veteran Niall Cahalane was solid, if relatively undisturbed. His positional sense remains acute and, with the pace and athleticism of those beside him, his lack of pace wasn't a problem.

Manager Larry Tompkins will be disappointed by the second-half fade. Seconds after the restart, Dorgan hit the woodwork twice and nearly had his second goal. As if confirmed in their supremacy, Cork began to idle. There wasn't the same urgency to their game and Kildare mounted a spirited response. Lynch moved to the left corner and played as an auxiliary centrefielder. Ronan McCarthy found marking him difficult, even if the looser imperatives of the job enabled him to nick a point in the 49th minute.

In the 37th minute, Lynch moved on to a poor Cork clearance and released Eddie McCormack, whose shot was parried by goalkeeper Kevin O'Dwyer, only for Padraig Graven to bundle in the rebound.

Niall Buckley's free pushed Kildare to within two points, 1-8 to 2-7 in the 39th minute but that was virtually the end of the Leinster county's charge. O'Brien calmed Cork with a well-taken point and from then on, the match subsided a little, as a series of wides indicated that Kildare had lost momentum irretrievably as it turned out.

In retrospect, there was a possible watershed with Graven's missed free in the 42nd minute. This was a kickable opportunity and raised questions about why Buckley hadn't been entrusted with all the frees, although his own kicking hadn't been impeccable.

One area Kildare can be happy enough with, is their half-back line, where Anthony Rainbow did a fine job on Corkery, whose below-par performance led to a rap on the knuckles in the shape of a pointed last-minute substitution.

By the end, a final score from O'Neill had extended Cork's winning margin to a comfortable four points.