GAA: What must it have been like to have been one of the Washington Generals? For eighteen years after their formation in 1953 the Washington Generals played the Harlem Globetrotters almost 2,500 times. And they lost every night. They won a game in New Jersey in 1971 and then went back to a losing streak which ran into many thousands of games. Night after night they went out and played the straight guy as the crowd lapped up the Globetrotters.

Billy Morgan must sometimes know how the Generals felt. He has lived an epic football career in the shadow of Kerry's empire. Billy captained perhaps the greatest team ever to come out of Cork. They won a solitary All Ireland in 1973 and watched Kerry win eight in the next decade and a half. Billy sat in the losing dressing-room for seven consecutive Munster finals as Mick O'Dwyer came in and gave them benediction. Second-best team in the land, lads.

Billy masterminded Cork's revival when Kerry subsided and wrung another couple of All-Irelands out of it. Kerry are ceaseless though, remorseless. Eternal as the sea. Yesterday was the third semi-final this decade in which they have used Cork as a vaulting pad to reach the final.

This summer was Billy's career in microcosm. He put together a young team which first held Kerry and then beat Kerry. A Munster championship. He watched as Kerry put themselves back together only to re-emerge yesterday as sprightly as ever. Surprise! They only looked dead! Yesterday was another chapter in Kerry's season of resurrections.

Darragh Ó Sé had an epic tussle at midfield with Nicholas Murphy. The rumour mill had it earlier this summer that Darragh was done with all this, washed out. Séamus Moynihan was another beaten docket. Too old, too slow. He was magnificent yesterday. Nothing less.

There was a moment early in the second half when Cork were three points down and should have goaled. Conor McCarthy had the ball on the edge of the square and looked for the handpass to Kevin McMahon, wide open and screaming for the ball. Sadly for Cork the ball never got there. Moynihan burst out of nowhere, clutched the ball to his gut and provoked a great roar of satisfaction from a Kerry congregation which hasn't known quite what to make of this year or this team.

Everywhere Kerry are rolling back the rock and walking out into the light. The corner forwards Mike Frank Russell and Colm Gooch Cooper had 10 points between them yesterday. A while ago you couldn't have given away share options in either. Declan O'Sullivan, jeered as he came off the field in the Munster final replay, came on and made a significant impact at centre forward. So it goes. Kerry are a different team.

The Gooch has his own ideas.

"We've been on the road for a while and fellas found it hard to keep lifting themselves. We got a kick in the ass against Cork and fellas have lifted it ever since. We did well then against Longford and came up as underdogs to play Armagh. We just kept working harder."

And as for himself? Is he not pre-eminent among the miracles of resuscitation? "Not really. Some days things work. Other days they don't. The last day we played Cork I had a nightmare down there. I missed seven shots I think. Today as well I missed a number of scores but some things came off. Lucky enough."

When Kerrymen start playing things down as lucky enough you know they are back in business. Jack O'Connor feels that there has been one huge difference: Kieran Donaghy.

"He has lit us all up. He has an infectious enthusiasm about him. Outside of the way he is playing he has a fantastic effect on the morale of the whole squad. We've needed that."

Yesterday Donaghy completed his third championship game at full forward. O'Connor won't like the hype growing but Donaghy is what the game has needed. Big and open and exuberant in an era of caution and paranoia, he has been a breath of fresh air.

The record books will show Donaghy scored one point yesterday. There is no file for the points he created merely by being fouled by desperate defenders or the catches he took down and just palmed off. Seven points in all, we reckon, there.

When he destroyed Longford it was said Francie Bellew would tame him. When Bellew was seen off, Derek Kavanagh was the man for the job. Left now are two full backs one of whom will see Donaghy in the final.

Donaghy remains the story but of equal significance is the improved form of the Kerry defence. In the euphoria over beating Armagh the management looked at the 1-13 they conceded that day and decided it was too much. Kerry gave themselves a target of holding Cork to around 10 points and worked hard on defence for the past fortnight. Ten points was Cork's lot yesterday.

"I'm looking forward to the month down in Killarney preparing for an All-Ireland final," said O'Connor, whose three-year management career has brought three such months.

"We went into an All-Ireland final last year without being tested. We were tested this year. Hopefully it will stand to us."

Who they test themselves against remains to be seen.

Mayo beat Laois in a disappointing quarter-final and play Dublin next Sunday. It is the first meeting of Mayo and Dublin at this stage since the infamous semi-final of 1985 when John Finn's jaw got broken in a two-match saga which saw Dublin through to the final. Against Kerry of course.