"We haven't seen them since February, they haven't been on our radar at all. We need to review this game and take what we can from it. They were obviously here today looking at us. It's going to be a big challenge for us but our boys will knuckle down when the time comes."

Jim Gavin and Dublin will renew acquaintances with Mayo in the Sam Maguire decider on Sunday, September 18.

"I made a decision coming down the corridor I'm going to bite my lip because if I say anything that becomes our reaction - which isn't the reaction. The reaction is that Dublin are an outstanding team and I don't want to be looking at the paper tomorrow or Tuesday and it saying 'Fitzmaurice said this about the ref'. I'm going to bite my lip on it."

Eamonn Fitzmaurice sidestepped a question on the performance of referee David Gough.

"That was another lung buster and every time we play each other it's nip and tuck. That was a fantastic game out there, a fantastic game to play in and win and I'd say for the spectators as well a fantastic game to watch. We're glad to come out the right side of it. Trailing by five at half-time, we had a lot of work to do but we kept our composure, we showed some great resilience there in the second-half to crawl back into the lead and finish out the game."

It was a tough day at the office for Cian O'Sullivan & Co but their perseverance was rewarded.

"Mayo are absolutely flying at the moment and we've played them a good few times over the last few years. Last year's game could have gone either way, the first game especially. The momentum was with them in the last few minutes. They could have won the game that day. The second day we were lucky to get a goal or two to pull away toward the end. I'm expecting another really, really competitive game of football."

Despite what many people think, the All-Ireland final isn't a forgone conclusion according to Ciaran Kilkenny.

"They were very fit, technically they were really good, you could see it in their foot-passing, their catching and score-taking."

Defeated Kildare minor manager Brendan Hackett took his hat off to Kerry.

"The big factor for us in the first half was - we were happy in how we were playing but we had 20 opportunities and only kicked 11. We've a nice bit of work done. They are good players and they brought their 'A' game and we were happy with that. But we have nothing won, it's only a semi-final to win to get to a final."

Galway will be aiming to throw a spanner in the works of Peter Keane's bid to guide the Kingdom to a third All-Ireland MFC success in-a-row.

"In the first-half we didn't play bad but I suppose we kind of struggled to pull away from them. We knew in the second-half that the first 10 minutes were very important. Dara Moynihan stepped up to the plate, he had an absolutely storming first 10 minutes so that kind of lit it for us then we were coasting then for the rest of the half."

Right corner-forward David Clifford was one of many stars for the Kingdom.

"I thought every time Cora got on the ball she was fouled."

Mayo manager Frank Browne was critical of Dublin's approach to dealing with Cora Staunton in Saturday's All-Ireland Ladies SFC semi-final.

"I've been in five All-Ireland finals and sometimes decisions haven't…I'm not coming out with swings and roundabouts but they had 11 personal fouls in the first half, we had four. The stats don't lie."

Gregory McGonigle took exception to his Mayo counterpart's comments.

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