GAELIC GAMES: Seán Moran finds former star John Egan appreciated the merits of Kerry's display but he stresses the need for discipline in the final

Kerry's exceptional display in Sunday's All-Ireland semi-final lashing of Cork evoked comparisons with the past. In the 1970s and '80s the county hardly broke sweat in semi-finals - with the notable exception of the 1977 defeat by Dublin.

Like those golden years, which yielded eight titles in 12 seasons, Sunday featured some exceptional attacking displays from corner forwards Colm Cooper and Michael Russell.

One of their distinguished forebears from Mick O'Dwyer's team, John Egan, was in a good position to appreciate the victory as he now lives in Cork.

"It was an outstanding performance by Kerry," he said. "I haven't seen them playing as well for a long, long time. Cork appeared very poor. Their forwards weren't closing down the Kerry backs.

"Kerry's corner forwards were extraordinary, kicking scores and finding space but looking back the problem for Cork was that they weren't closing things down out the field.

"Cork got frustrated when things weren't happening for them. The Cork forwards were playing as individuals, going for their own scores all the time. I never saw such a difference between the counties. It's hard for Cork to pinpoint what went wrong but they just weren't able to compete."

As someone with an extensive knowledge of Cork club football, he was as surprised as anyone with Cork captain Colin Corkery's enraged behaviour that culminated in a sending-off. "I've seen him play a lot down here with Nemo and I've never seen him so frustrated. But the way he reacted was totally out of character."

Egan is critical of Cork's strategy for the game.

"The Kerry half backs were running free and not being challenged. If a team doesn't get tight on them when playing Kerry, they're in trouble because of the forwards the team has. I think Cork were over-tactical when the only way to play Kerry is to play football."

The question is whether either Armagh or Dublin, who play for the second final place this weekend, will be capable of producing the football to match Kerry.

Since coming through the qualifiers in July, Páidí Ó Sé's team have improved greatly with a couple of additions and enhanced confidence. No team, not even defending champions Galway and Cork who beat them earlier this summer, have been able to give them a testing match in that time.

A big semi-final victory isn't however a guarantee of success in the final. Only a year ago the Meath side that destroyed Kerry were themselves convincingly beaten by Galway.

Drawing on the experience of his own playing days, Egan cautions against reading too much into Sunday's victory.

"I think the All-Ireland final will be a different matter whoever Kerry are playing. Semi-finals are always different to finals. There's more tension and teams don't perform as easily.

"There's awful hype, especially for players who haven't been in one before. If things go wrong and the opposition hit a good day - and that's not unusual on the day of a final, things can happen.

"We went up to Dublin in 1976 thinking there'd be no problem to beat them. We were nearly caught by Roscommon in 1980 and Offaly the next year. Yet we used to think that the teams we played in semi-finals must hardly have trained because we beat them so easily."

But he is upbeat about the team's chances. A relatively young side they are still evolving and should be able to guard against complacency. Egan picks out one area of potential improvement.

"This team seem to have found consistency now. The way they've improved is unreal. But discipline is very important and the lesson against Cork was not to get involved."