NO sooner had the good mood music around the Cork senior football team appeared than it disappeared again.

This one hurts, leaving a feeling of deflation after a very disappointing effort in the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final loss to a youthful Mayo outfit. More was expected from Cork, but it didn’t materialise.

Truthfully, after so much good work this season, this felt like a return to the bad old days of recent years. The majority of the players who took to the field on Saturday under-performed, and the old failings of poor shooting and an infuriating refusal to even consider kicking the ball into the forward line reared their ugly heads.

Those factors and the fact that Mayo’s full-forward line, including an 18- and a 19-year-old making their Croke Park debuts, showed class and quality that was sadly lacking at the other end, ensured the game ended in what was a relatively comfortable five-point success for the westerners.

This was a big chance missed for Cork. The failure to perform is made even more galling by the fact that a semi-final against Louth would have been next had Cork done the needful. There is very little between Cork and Louth, and Cork have prevailed in the most recent encounters, including a five-point win in Drogheda in February. The Wee County have improved since that game, but we thought Cork had too.

Louth’s performance against Monaghan with 14 men for 65 minutes on Sunday showed everything Cork lacked on Saturday. They played with courage, ambition, quality and character.

I know what it feels like to fail to perform in Croke Park. It isn’t nice, however, in my time most of our bad days came against one of the best teams of all time during the noughties, but this Mayo team falls a long way short of that standard.

Mayo were decent, and in Kobe McDonald and Darragh Beirne, they have two bright young stars. McDonald is a joy to watch. Sometimes players come along with a lot of hype, and when you finally do see them in the flesh, you can often be underwhelmed. That wasn’t the case here. The son of the great Ciarán McDonald was like a gazelle gliding across Croke Park, but I was just as impressed by the timing of his runs and his composure in possession.

Brian Hurley holds off the challenge of Mayo's Diarmaid Duffy. (Photo: George Hatchell)

Beirne gave Sean Meehan a torrid time, and applied the finishing touches expertly to a number of moves, but McDonald was consistently the instigator around midfield. More than once he burst onto the breaking ball to receive a short hand-pass and with a couple of strides was clear of the midfield mayhem, breaking in behind the Cork defence to take and create scores. A midfield mark and a first half two-pointer were among his afternoon’s highlights.

In tandem with Ryan O’Donoghue, the Mayo inside trio combined for 19 of their side’s 23 points, 12 of which came from play. Their counterparts in red and white tallied eight fewer and only four from play.

Putting on my inside forward hat, I would be immensely frustrated to play in that line for a team that just doesn't like to kick the ball in. Often, you will hear people who don’t know very much about football complain about a team not kicking the ball long and direct more, or suggesting a team ‘just never had a cut’. More often than not, these assertions are a gross over simplification of the complexities of a football match, however with Cork last Saturday the charge would be entirely justified.

Cork have long been a running team first and a kicking team second, however it now often seems we are a running team exclusively.

I hear criticism of the movement of the forwards, which isn’t unjustified, however it can seem pointless darting left and right if no one is even going to look for the option.

Cork’s inside trio now mostly drift outwards away from the goal and hope to get a pop pass on the loop for a shot. It’s very common now to look up and see no Cork player within the danger area when the team is attacking.

It’s too predictable and Mayo largely shut Cork down, with Donncha McHugh giving Steven Sherlock very little space after a bright start by the Barrs man. In fact, Cork will have many regrets about an opening period where they dominated possession, but could not convert on the scoreboard.

Dara Sheedy and Colm O’Callaghan both missed similar chances from good positions early on, and it seemed to affect both their own and the team’s confidence.

We asked last week what would happen to Cork if Sherlock was shut down, and we got our answer. Unfortunately, the rest of the forwards weren’t able to step up to carry the torch. Chris Óg Jones did cause problems for Mayo, but his finishing didn’t match his approach play, while Paul Walsh was Cork's best player over the 67 minutes he was on the pitch.

In truth, Cork’s sideline didn't emerge from this contest with any more credit than the players. Cork left it far too late to make changes to a misfiring starting line-up, with Ruairí Deane in for the ineffective Sean McDonnell with nearly 50 minutes on the clock. Cork needed more firepower up front and it was a surprise to see Conor Corbett come on ahead of the more experienced Brian Hurley minutes later.

Hurley might not have many more opportunities in the red jersey in Croke Park and you could see him chomping at the bit as he warmed up along the sideline for what seemed like most of the second half. Typically, he made an impact and kicked a point. Sean Brady replaced the cramping Rory Maguire and Sean Walsh got five minutes in place of his namesake, Paul. It was too little, too late.

To show how winnable this game was, Cork had more shots at goal than Mayo while nowhere near their best, 35 to 30. Cork doubled Mayo’s wide tally, 14 to seven. Cork’s conversion rate from play was 37 percent, 11 points from 29 point efforts. Mayo kicked 14 over the bar from 25 efforts (56 percent), but crucially this included five two-pointers against Cork’s two. Cork’s 30th effort at goal was a half chance for goal for Brian O’Driscoll late in the game that was saved.

Cork needed that goal and when it didn’t come, Mayo were able to celebrate before the final whistle with the game in the bag. Cork did not find the net once in the three games of the All-Ireland series since O’Driscoll’s solo effort in the Munster final, providing further evidence of Cork’s lack of creativity. Put it all together and it was never going to be enough to win an All-Ireland quarter-final in Croke Park.

The season had more wins than defeats for Cork (ten to four) with victories away to Louth, Tyrone and Donegal and two brilliant home wins over Meath being the main highlights.

Nonetheless, the two defeats in Croke Park and the one in Killarney overshadow much of the positive work.

The new format means it’s not as straightforward to get to an All-Ireland semi-final as it used to be, and the draw opened up for Cork this year after doing the hard part in Donegal. The failure to capitalise on that success will hurt.

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Good luck to Keith Ricken, Maurice Moore and the Cork minors on Sunday. We hope they can finish the Cork football season on a positive note.