Another Mayo Kerry All-Ireland Semi Final. Another instant classic. Another draw.
There was a lot to talk about as former Kerry midfielder Micheál Quirke joined us for this week's epsiode of Talking Points.
A lot of the analysis in the Sky Sports studio after the game focused on Mayo, and if they missed their chance, as Peter Canavan seemed to think. There was also a lot of discussion about the controversial decision to play Aidan O'Shea in defence as Kieran Donaghy's man-marker.
From Kerry's point of view, there is a lot to work on ahead of the next Saturday's replay. Their full-back line was exposed regularly by Mayo, as it has been all season. In the forwards though, Quirke is concerned with the lack of movement from the half-forward line and believes that the absence of Donnchadh Walsh had a massive impact on the game.
Walsh is a character who isn't often talked about, but is crucial to everything Kerry do around the field, and there's an argument to be made that he's been Kerry most important player of the last four or five years.
Because of his understated presence on the team, his absence was perhaps undersold in the build up but had a huge impact on the game, as Quirke outlines:
I thought the full-back line was your big issue, but the second one was your half half-forward line, I thought was really dysfunctional yesterday. For me, it highlighted the importance of a guy like Donnchadh Walsh, who was obviously out through a hamstring injury.
I just thought Kerry were so pedestrian at times coming out with the ball. They'd get out past their half back line, guys like David Moran or (Paul) Murphy were looking up to move the ball with their foot, but there was no target working across that line to try to speed up the game and hit it with a kick pass and move it on.
Because of that, they were forced to take the ball into contact and into tackled, and it slowed Kerry down.
If Donnchadh Walsh is available next week, I think he's actually a big piece of the Kerry puzzle to try to quicken up their attack. But if not, they need a guy, whether it's Stephen O'Brien or somebody else, to just fulfill that role of Donnchadh, and give them an outlet every time they're coming out with the ball because I thought that really hurt Kerry yesterday.
The 33 year old picked up a hamstring injury in training last Tuesday, and is probably unlikely to make next Saturday's replay despite it being "nothing too major", according to Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice.
