Kerry turned on the power in the second half to book their place in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final at the expense of Mayo in Croke Park.
The Kingdom were expecting a serious test from the Connacht champions, and Mayo did press them for long stretches of an entertaining tie, but Kerry’s class came to the fore in the second half, and they executed some superb scores to set up a Sam Maguire Cup decider against either Donegal or Dublin.
Colm Cooper’s return to form was one of the highlights, the Gooch finishing with a 1-07 tally, including a superb goal.
In front of a crowd of 50,643, Darran O’Sullivan was just wide with a goal chance after just 20 seconds, and Colm Cooper struck a post as Kerry pressed throughout the opening five minutes.
It was Mayo who opened the scoring through Enda Varley’s excellent point.
O’Sullivan was sent through again by Kieran Donaghy, but this time he was denied by a superb Robert Hennelly save, before Tomas O Se finally got their first score in the eighth minute.
Having succeeded in prevented their opponents from blitzing them in the opening stages, Mayo grew in confidence, and when Varley and Cillian O’Connor both steered over frees, they led by two.
And they needed a good response from goalkeeper Brendan Kealy to keep out a snapshot from Andy Moran.
The Connacht champions continued to do well in the key areas, particularly at full back, where Ger Cafferkey won his aerial battle with Kieran Donaghy, nad where he failed to win clean possession, Keith Higgins picked up the loose pieces.
Cillian O’Connor’s second free made it 0-05 to 0-03 with 22 minutes played, but as mistakes began to creep into the westerners’ game, Kerry took up the baton and struck the final five points of the half.
Eoin Brosnan pushed forward to sweep over a point, Donaghy drifted deep to launch a ling range effort, and Cooper converted a couple of frees.
Kerry led by 0-08 to 0-06 at half-time, and stretched the advantage with Kieran O’Leary’s fisted point and a Bryan Sheehan free
Mayo struggled to stay in touch with a Kingdom side performing with a growing assurance, although they did narrow the gap to two points with scores from Vaughan and Moran.
But Kerry opened up, and shot five on the spin, including Paul Galvin’s first touch, and a Gooch gem.
But in the 52nd minute, Cillian O’Connor drilled home a brilliant goal after Kealy had saved from Andy Moran.
Two minutes later, Cooper cancelled the score out with an equally sensational effort, an unstoppable rocket to the roof of the net.
It was all over for Mayo, and Vaughan could only manage a point from another goal chance, before the Munster champions finished the job off with scores from Cooper, Seamus Scanlon and Galvin.
Kerry: B Kealy, K Young, M O Se, T O'Sullivan, T O Se (0-01), E Brosnan (0-01), A O'Mahony, A Maher, B Sheehan (0-04, 4f), Darran O'Sullivan (0-01), Declan O'Sullivan, D Walsh, C Cooper (1-07, 0-04f), K Donaghy (0-02), K O'Leary (0-01).
Subs: P Galvin (0-02) for Walsh, S Scanlon (0-01) for Maher, D Bohane for Young, BJ Keane for Declan O’Sullivan.
Mayo: R Hennelly, T Cunniffe, G Cafferkey, K Higgins, R Feeney, D Vaughan (0-03), T Mortimer, A O'Shea, S O'Shea, K McLoughlin, A Dillon, A Moran (0-02), E Varley (0-02, 2f), A Freeman, C O'Connor (1-03 (0-3f).
Subs: R McGarrity for S O’Shea, L Keegan (0-01) for Feeney, A Campbell for Freeman.
