AS I made my way from Dungarvan to Thurles on what was a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon, I wondered just how many football aficionados from either Cork or Tipperary would do likewise.

When I hit traffic on my way into the town, I thought there might be more at the game than was expected. Alas, the traffic issue was caused not by thousands making their way to Semple Stadium, instead it was the lunchtime rush to Lidl and/or Aldi that slowed me down. Once I passed that bottle-neck, the coast was clear.

Given that more than 44,000 packed the same venue for the hurlers of the same county less than a week prior, the attendance of less than 2,000 spoke volumes for the lack of appetite for a Munster senior football semi-final.

The game that unfolded afterwards did little to suggest that many more would be inclined to change their mind next time around. Excluding Kerry v Cork in a Munster final, football really does come in at a distant second in the province.

Happily, we will have a big football occasion to look forward to now on Sunday week, as Cork will head to Killarney once more hoping to end Kerry’s streak of dominance in the province and on their home patch. As always, we will look ahead in detail in next week's edition, however for now we need to assess how Cork got there.

We said after the quarter-final against Limerick that Cork had performed in the second quarter of that tie, and that the rest had been decidedly underwhelming. Truthfully, Cork repeated that trick on Saturday in Thurles, this time waiting until the final 20 minutes to go through the gears and end the Tipperary resistance. For long periods of the game, a sizeable upset looked on the cards as a ponderous Cork dropped to the levels of their Division 4 opponents.

Cork had to wait 17 minutes for their first score, a point from Steven Sherlock. By that stage Tipp had a goal and a point on the board. The goal came from Premier talisman Sean O’Connor after a long, hopeful sideline kick bounced over Maurice Shanley. O’Connor was never going to miss and the underdogs had the fast start they needed to give themselves hope.

Sherlock’s opener came after a misplaced Shane Garland kickout, and Cork would punish more poor turnovers from their hosts with 1-2 inside the next four minutes. A misplaced defensive handpass saw Mark Cronin tee up Chris Óg Jones for Cork’s first goal, and the hope was that Cork would raise their game having taken the lead. They would fail to do so. Joe Higgins and O’Connor were the best players on the pitch in what can only be described as a very low standard first half of football.

Daniel O’Mahony did produce a couple of great blocks but found O’Connor a real handful all through. Beyond that and Jones’ goal, there was precious little to get enthused about for Cork supporters. Take out the four-minute spell that yielded the 1-3, the rest was pretty dreadful. The most glaring issue watching from the stand, for me at least, was the lack of creativity in the midfield and half-forward line. As you would expect, Tipperary retreated deep to defend the arc, allowing Cork possession around midfield.

Cork were shorn of the services of Colm O’Callaghan from the start, and he was sorely missed. However, that doesn’t excuse the lack of ideas from the midfield duo and the half-forward line. O’Callaghan was replaced by Sean Walsh in the starting line-up, and it meant Cork lined out with too many players of a similar ilk. Ian Maguire and Walsh at midfield, Conor Cahalane, Sean McDonnell and Paul Walsh in the half-forward line will give you a lot of graft and running power, but not a lot of guile or creativity.

In my book, David Buckley could do a lot of what the others can do but also provide a far greater kicking threat. Cork could have started Brian Hurley or Conor Corbett and allowed Mark Cronin or Hurley to play at 11 as a fulcrum for the attack. Cathail O’Mahony would be another option for the position to provide a degree of something different. It was a conservative team selection, and the management set about rectifying the problems at half-time with a pair of changes.

Experienced duo Brian Hurley and Ruairi Deane entered the fray at the expense of Cahalane and McDonnell. In truth, any one of the five I mentioned above could have been called ashore. Hurley’s introduction at least meant Cork had four natural scoring forwards on the pitch as we did during the better performances in the league. McDonnell on his day can be a threat, but is not in his best form.

Hurley and Deane both made impacts, however it took Cork some time to quench the Tipp challenge. The impressive Higgins continued to dominate the skies at midfield and O’Connor kept the scoreboard ticking. With better shooting from his fellow forwards, it would have been worse than level scores for the Rebels as the clock ticked towards the 50th minute with the score at 1-7 apiece. O’Callaghan was summoned from the bench for Sean Walsh on 48 minutes and he immediately broke the Tipp dominance.

Cork started to go through the gears and the scores came quickly as Tipperary legs started to tire. Hurley had three points before he injured himself in making a tackle, with Corbett taking his spot. Cork were rampant now, and as they did against Limerick, fired in a succession of quick-fire goals. O’Callaghan, Jones again and Corbett found the net as Cork outscored their beleaguered opponents 3-11 to 0-2 in the closing 20 minutes.

Cork deserve credit for the powerful finish, but the gulf in class that became so apparent in the final quarter should have been apparent much earlier than it was. This is two games in a row where Cork have played at the level of inferior opposition for three quarters of a game, and the performances have regressed from the excellent showings against the likes of Louth, Meath and Tyrone in the league.

Ultimately, qualification for the Munster final has been secured, and that was the primary goal. It never hurts to go into a final with plenty to work on, and Kerry didn’t set the world on fire against Clare either. Killarney now beckons on Sunday week – it may not be the height of summer as many would like, but it remains a fixture to relish.

With the Munster hurling championship off to a flyer, hopefully we can get a big ball game to compare favourably. Heck, if Cork were to come home with a win, it could be the worst game of all time for all we would care. There have been some surprise results across the provinces in the opening rounds, with Westmeath toppling their neighbours to the east, Roscommon comfortably seeing off Mayo and Down knocking Donegal out of Ulster. Let’s hope Cork can continue the trend on Sunday week. The serious business starts now.