Jack O'Connor cites Mayo in 2021 as tale of caution for Kerry before the All-Ireland final

Kerry have the monkey off their back.

After six matches without a win, they have finally beaten Dublin in the championship for the first time since 2009. And they could not have done it in more dramatic circumstances.

But an All-Ireland semi-final win over the Dubs will count for little if they go on to lose the final, as Mayo did to Tyrone last year after beating Dublin in the last four.

"Of course it's significant psychologically," Kerry manager Jack O'Connor said, "but Mayo were in this exact same position last year and I had the feeling that Mayo had made a huge breakthrough but they didn't get over the line in the final.

"You have to go the distance. Getting there isn't enough. That'll be a big, big incentive for us over the next two weeks to finish the job now. At Christmas this game will be forgotten about if we don't get over the line in the final.

"It's an ecstatic dressing room but we'll have to get the boys down to level ground again. You can imagine the Galway dressing room a couple of weeks ago when they beat Armagh in an epic. They've had a similar enough experience to us.

"We have to do a lot of work on the boys in the next couple of weeks to convince them that this job isn't done. This job is far from done."

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Given the drama which had just unfolded, O'Connor's heart was still racing in the post-match press conference. And he turned to the assembled media for a summation of events.

"Can I ask ye this question: was it the classic that we thought it was on the line? Like, as a battle. As two prize bulls going toe-to-toe," he asked.

"It felt on the line that it was two kind of heavyweights going at it, trading punches. That's the way it felt to me on the line. Not that I should have been getting those kinds of notions on the line!

"The old ticker was going fairly fast near the end, It felt on the line that it was a fantastic game, a great battle. Dublin threw everything at us like the great team they are and their big players came to the fore in the last 15 minutes. Just delighted with our fellas, with the resilience they showed."

It felt on the line that it was two kind of heavyweights going at it, trading punches.

Focus will now turn to Galway, but O'Connor has not forensically analysed the Tribesmen just yet.

"I watched maybe a half of it yesterday," he said of Saturday's semi-final.

"Obviously, Galway are a very good footballing side. I am not going to start building them up here because I have too much to think of from our own side.

"They obviously have one of the top full-forward lines in the country. [Damien] Comer is a seriously dangerous operator. They fairly demolished Derry who had a good system going. That will be a big ask, but we'll think of that tomorrow."

Nonetheless, this is not his first rodeo. And previous experience of leading Kerry into All-Ireland finals may count for something.

"Maybe I know some of the pitfalls in the build-up," he pondered.

"Especially in Kerry - they tend to get a bit carried away. But maybe my experience of being in a good share of finals - I was in a couple with Páidí Ó Sé as well, as a selector.

"So maybe I might be able to pass on a bit of advice to, you know, avoid all the noise, the outside noise, and just concentrate on getting a performance. If that's a help, so be it."