Kerry, at half-time in Croke Park yesterday afternoon, looked a beaten team . . . actually, they were a beaten team . . .but 35 minutes later they had marched into the All-Ireland semi-final in the most triumphant manner.

At half-time in their dressing-room there is no doubt that the team and its management had looked at something nasty . . . they were nearly gone, they were just about dead and buried.

Darragh O Se was looking strong in the middle of the field and Kerry were doing okay in that department.

Tommy Griffin was also getting through a ton of work.

But nearly everyone else was nervy, that bit twitchy on the ball, and that included Eoin Brosnan who had just scored his fourth goal in seven days.

It had really only taken Francie Bellew 15 minutes to get on top of the Kieran Donaghy proposition at full-forward and, in fact, Bellew at one end of the field and Ronan Clarke at the other were each a dominant force in that first-half.

Yeah, Kerry were rattled more than any Kerry team which has ever played in Croke Park, on the field and on the sideline. Decision making was not good.

Kerry allowed Sean O'Sullivan, one of their newcomers and one of their 'unknowns' to take a crucial free from inside the 45-metre line minutes before the half-time whistle. The ball went wide.

Yet, also in those closing minutes to the first half Cooper and Russell had quietly slipped over a point each. They were only two points behind at half-time, but they were lucky to be that close.

Then, all of a sudden, four minutes into the second-half Kerry were 2-7 to 17 in front . . . a seven-point turnaround in under seven minutes. Ten minutes later, with Marc and Tomas O Se adding three fantastic points, Kerry had outscored Armagh, incredibly, nine to one.

Incredible, because Kerry were never outstanding in this victory, and they scored a magnificent tally of 3-15 through sheer guts and desperation, more than the natural Kerry brilliance of older days. It also helped that Armagh, after all these years, actually ran out of fight.

Kieran Donaghy's brilliant individual goal was the single crucial difference between the teams. The young man rounded Bellew and buried the ball in the back of the net, but in that act he also buried the yellow-carded Armagh fullback. It was hard for every man in an Armagh shirt to stomach that sight.

The other great difference between the two teams, of course, was Darragh O Se who not only won the battle of the oldies in the middle of the field, but also showed that his desire to win a third All-Ireland title was equal to the hunger of almost the entire Armagh team to clinch their second crown.

Every man on the Kerry team, and in particular manager Jack O'Connor, can now smile for the first time in well over 12 months. And it's scary to think just how good they might be over the next two months if they keep this smile on their faces. Armagh, meanwhile, will wonder how they lost this game, how they lost it by a gigantic eight-points margin, and how they lost it so quickly?

Round three of Kerry v Cork this summer comes after Billy Morgan's nerves were tested in the second of the quarters at Croker. Cork were a little bit fortunate but, really, it was no great surprise that Nicholas Murphy and centre-back Ger Spillane combined for the winning point.

Both men have excelled in this championship, and while Graham Canty's early departure from the championship leaves Cork at a severe loss, these two will still look to grab resurgent Kerry by the scruff of the neck in the semi-final. The smart money . . . in fact, all the money . . . will be on Kerry, however.

Whoever takes the All-Ireland title this year is almost certainly going to have their great celebration disturbed (or 'crashed' might be a more accurate warning) by the suggestion that the 2006 Championship was a fairly dodgy summer of football.

This morning, despite the thrills and spills in Croker yesterday, this remains a painful fact.

Too many teams have failed to deliver over the last four months, and a great number of these teams have failed themselves. Yep, it's been a poor year folks. All four of the Round four qualifiers were sub-standard . . . and the Fermanagh and Donegal contest plumbed even greater depths than that description. What on earth was that supposed to be in Brewster Park last Sunday?

Actually, the most gob-smacking aspect of the season to date, is just how bad the nation's new clutch of referees really are . . . these guys have been trained and groomed at this level for four or five years in most cases and, God help us, but, you know what, they're disastrous.

This, naturally, has not been a great worry for Paul Caffrey this summer so far, who is the country's happiest and most contented manager . . . the only Bainisteoir who has not put a lip on him once in three games. Though I wonder if he secretly wishes that Galway had advanced from the fourth round of the qualifiers, and not next Saturday's opponents, Westmeath.

If Dublin were playing Galway in the quarter-finals then, physically and psychologically, Caffrey's lads would be in the process of taking their next step up in class. Galway's five or six outstanding footballers . . . and Galway still have that many despite their poor form this summer . . . would have helped Dublin and done Caffrey and his team the world of good in preparing for their final push towards Sam.

Westmeath have one such footballer in their ranks. But, ironically, Westmeath are a more worrying (rather than dangerous) opponent. They're plucky as the day is long and they have definitely proven themselves as honest-to-goodness fighters in 2006 . . . but, alas, Westmeath remain limited.

Dublin will win. There is no doubt whatsoever about that. But they will find themselves, most likely, in the All-Ireland semi-final in late August without having played a game at full belt since defeating Laois in mid-June.

That's the worry for Caffrey.

If Dublin ever run into a bus, or a train (if one ever comes down the tracks in 2006) how will this Dublin team react? How quickly will they all get up off their backsides? That's the big question that will probably remain unanswered after next weekend.

The team which Caffrey has on the field does look to have its game and its head together. There's a pattern and a style, and definitely a confidence about them, which makes us still believe that they are the only team in the country firmly on course for the All-Ireland title.

Equally, or more importantly perhaps, Dublin have men on the sideline who can fit in and maybe make a difference when the crunch time comes.

Mark Vaughan can still be a matchwinner up front, while Stephen O'Shaughnessy in the defence could also yet be the difference between victory and defeat.

And then there's the Dublin sideline.

I don't know for sure what Caffrey and his management team were at having the entire squad walking out onto the field and continue walking, slowly but determinedly, down to the Hill 16 end before the Leinster final?

Caffrey likes to keep his players calm in the dressing-room and clearly, in addition to stoking up the Hill, he sees this device as carrying the same sense of calmness and purpose onto the field.

Maybe.

Or maybe not. I think it's mostly codswallop and anyhow, by now, this Dublin football team should know in its head and in its heart, in the dressingroom and out on the field, whether it is made of the right stuff to win the All-Ireland this year, or not.