Mayo brought real intent from the throw-in at Croke Park on Saturday.The first passage of play said so much about them. They won possession and in the 60 seconds that followed, nine of their forward 11 touched the ball.It didn’t end with a score as Jack Carney kicked wide, but during the move nine Mayo players touched leather. It was almost as if they’d spoken beforehand about players getting an early touch to settle into the game.And from that slow attack it also allowed Mayo to set up their kick-out press on Niall McDonnell.Straight away we got on insight into what Mayo were going to be about – they would challenge Louth’s running power with a good team-focused press.There has been a bit of hullabaloo on the issue of hype in Mayo ahead of the final since Andy Moran’s comments, but on Saturday it actually looked like Louth got a bit spooked by the occasion.This was Louth’s first All-Ireland semi-final appearance since 1957, while Mayo have players in that dressingroom who know what it’s like to play in All-Ireland finals, including Paddy Durcan, Stephen Coen, Diarmuid O’Connor, Aidan O’Shea and Ryan O’Donoghue.Mayo got their matchups spot on, with Enda Hession marking Sam Mulroy and Sam Callinan pushing up on Craig Lennon. They were strategic too in choosing to play against the breeze in the first half.Mayo's Sam Callinan is tackled by Louth's Emmett Carolan. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Louth seemed nervy and couldn’t get any rhythm or momentum. Playing with the wind, it looked as if they felt pressure to take on long-range shots and all too often rushed or snatched at efforts.Mayo’s first goal came from a counterattack after intercepting Conor Early’s loose lateral pass. But just moments before, Darragh Beirne had a shot saved after another turnover further out the field. Louth were making too many mistakes.Gavin Devlin’s side gave away five turnovers in the first 13 minutes, most of them pretty unforced. At that rate, you are looking at 12 or 13 turnovers per half, up to 26 over the course of the game. That’s kamikaze stuff.There were plenty of examples of where Louth simply handed the initiative back to Mayo. In the 20th minute, Ciarán Keenan kicked a good score to put Louth 0-8 to 1-4 ahead. From the resulting kick-out, Dara McDonnell soared highest and won possession.But he immediately kicked the ball back inside, back to where it came and to no obvious target. The ball bounced harmlessly to Jack Livingstone like some sort of invite for him to have another go at the kick-out.Mayo then worked the ball up the field and Ryan O’Donoghue kicked a two-pointer.It seemed Louth peaked against Monaghan. Only twice on Saturday did they put two scores back-to-back.There was very little support play, their inside forward line malfunctioned, and Mayo were able to play the game on their terms. Put simply, Louth lost the game with their first-half performance.Louth manager Gavin Devlin consoles Ciaran Keenan after the game. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho There are plenty of positives for the Mayo management to take away, but the caveat is that there is also plenty of room for improvement.They have obviously done some work on their short kick-out, which was good to see, but their long kick-out remains an issue, still losing up to 50 per cent on that front.Mayo’s ability to switch between a kick-passing and running game was really good, and in the full-forward line they have three players all boasting an end product. A really encouraging aspect for Mayo, and a difficulty for their opposition, is that they are all dangerous players in different ways.Darragh Beirne is a ciotóg, very stylish and very accurate. Ryan O’Donoghue is your pocket rocket and could end up anywhere – I’d be interested to see his heat map from Saturday night. And then you have Kobe McDonald, who plays with a real freedom. A defender could end up trailing McDonald all the way down to Mayo’s half-back line, and that’s a treacherous place to be since there’s a real danger McDonald will burn his marker when turning to race forward again.Mayo's Kobe McDonald in action during the semi-final against Louth. Photograph: James Lawlor/Inpho I thought Paul Towey supported that forward line really well in the first half. He was energetic, a presence on breaking ball, got himself into attacking positions and looked to link the play by foot when the opportunity arose. Exhibit A was his ball into the full-forward line for Mayo’s first goal.On the three big talking points from Sunday’s game; firstly, I believe the penalty was correctly awarded. Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne’s tackle was unnecessary. It’s not even a marginal call, it’s more weighted towards you getting that tackle wrong than getting it right.He caught Joe O’Connor inside his shoulder. Regardless of whether the Kerry player went down holding his head or not, that’s a frontal hit rather than shoulder-to-shoulder. Therefore, it’s a penalty.The second one – it’s clearly a square ball. The umpires should not miss that. One of the umpires needs to be keeping an eye on the square, while the other watches the posts. It’s their responsibility to spot the infringement in that instance.As for the third talking point, was the ball over the line? I actually wouldn’t be too critical of the umpires on that one, because it happened in a split second. Even with stalled images and clips, there is no conclusive angle because the camera is slightly behind the line.Either way, it’s Mayo and Kerry in the final.Mayo have improved immensely from their first-half performance against Meath last month. Still, there is no question Kerry will enter the decider as massive favourites. That lends itself to the possibility of complacency creeping in – not in the Kerry camp, but in the county.If Mayo were to win, it would probably be the biggest upset in an All-Ireland final since Offaly triumphed in 1982. Anybody remember who they beat that day?