IT may have been the passion rather than passing that impressed in yesterday's Munster and Connacht football finals, but, on days like this sometimes it seems that knocking the ball around neatly is for chumps while the ability to grind your opponents down with a display of sheer determination can mark you out as worthy champions.
For Kerry and Mayo such displays brought unrestrained joy on the final whistle as they put an end to poor runs against great rivals in their respective finals against Cork and Galway and earned a meeting with each other in an All Ireland semi final that is scheduled to take place at Croke Park on August 11th.
Both matches were scrappy but closely fought affairs, with Kerry leading Cork by six points to five at the interval and going on to win by 14 points to 11 at the end. Mayo scored their first win over Galway in a Connacht final since 1969 by 3-9 to 1-11.
At Pairc Ui Chaoimh 36,405 people watched as Paidi O Se's Kerry team won a very tight game in which the visitors generally held the edge, but in which they only killed off the challenge of Cork in the dying minutes.
A couple of points from frees by Maurice Fitzgerald, who kicked more reliably on the day than Cork's Colin Corkery, helped to steady his side's nerves late in the game.
In Castlebar, meanwhile, goals from Maurice Sheridan, John Casey and Ray Dempsey provided the backbone of a hard earned Mayo victory against a Galway side that fought bravely in defeat.
