OH Mayo, God help us. And as for Cork? God help the rest of us. On the paint-drying evidence of yesterday's top-flight 'finale', the men from the south are the real deal and the men from the west are dealing with delusion if they think their All- Ireland famine is about to end any year soon.

We can also expect an urgent Croke Park inquiry into how the CCCC got the Allianz NFL showpiece schedule so disastrously wrong.

What in hell's name were they thinking of putting the Division Two final on as the curtain-raiser? Did they honestly think that Mayo, whose penchant for collapsing on the Croker stage is the stuff of mortifying legend, were going to front up on this occasion?

We're being flippant, of course, but glib humour is about the only recourse after this non-event of a league final.

Cork won in an eight-point canter and afterwards admitted they were well off the intensity required for the championship. Goalkeeper Paddy O'Shea even inferred -- in response to a leading question, it must be said -- that there was more cut-and-thrust at Cork's training session the previous Tuesday night.

Afterwards, there was no hiding place for Mayo and, to be fair, manager John O'Mahony and players David Clarke and Alan Dillon didn't tried to dress up this abject showing with idle excuses.

All three were at a loss to explain why Mayo were so lacking in the feisty basics to even make Cork break sweat for their first Division One title since 1999. "Maybe we're getting used to coming up to Croke Park and getting 'bet'," Clarke speculated at one point.

O'Mahony, answering in hushed tones, only once displayed a hint of defiance when asked if all these cumulative reversals -- their last HQ victory was a league semi-final against Galway three years ago -- indicated a psychological issue with Mayo teams playing big finals in Croke Park.

Alarm

"What you're saying in your question is that ... you're presuming that these lads lost all the other games in Croke Park as well," he replied. "I would say that we'll put our hands up for today's performance but they won't put their hands up for the past 40 years or 50 years of performances here."

Fair point, but what will alarm Mayo die-hards is that the current team still looks 40 or 50 years away from the finished All-Ireland article.

Outsiders will wonder how they could win six of their seven league outings -- including four notable victories on the road -- and still fail so dismally here. The answer, perhaps, can be gleaned from perusing the line-up. For all the talk of transition, several players who have been tried and found wanting -- at the most exacting championship standard -- are still making the Mayo team.

Perhaps it was no coincidence that Mayo's best player -- when the game was relatively competitive in the first half -- was their dynamic wing-back Kevin McLoughlin, who just so happens to be still under 21.

Not enough young turks are bursting into O'Mahony's team. Of those already there, Aidan O'Shea had a fruitless day at full-forward -- but he wasn't the worst Mayo player.

Their attacking malaise could be summed up by the fact skipper Trevor Mortimer was their second player hauled ashore after 51 minutes, undermined by poor use of the ball.

Their starting six forwards managed just four points from play -- three coming from Conor Mortimer.

Yet their problems extended far beyond that malfunctioning attack: Seamus O'Shea battled manfully but couldn't prevent Cork's near-total midfield dominance, with Tom Parsons anonymous and Ronan McGarrity unable to make any difference in the second half.

Defensively, too, some predictable problems came home to roost. Liam O'Malley wasn't overly exposed in the first half, but once Daniel Goulding started receiving a steady supply of ball, he went for the jugular.

Alarm

Last year's All Star finished with 1-5, all bar one point from play, although the last remnants of suspense had long been sucked from the contest by the time of his 63rd goal -- a handy shimmy onto his left and routine finish after a wonderfully inviting pass from newcomer Ciaran Sheehan.

"They (Mayo) definitely didn't play as well as two weeks ago (in Pairc Ui Chaoimh) and didn't reach their potential. They just didn't turn up," Goulding suggested afterwards.

And what about Cork? "We played well but I don't think we ever really took off," their top-scorer reasoned. "I think we'll have to hit another level for (the) championship. Parts of the game we fell flat when we should have been pushing on. In the first half, especially, there wasn't much pace to it. We base ourselves on fast ball and we weren't doing that."

Yet, for all that, Cork still led by 0-9 to 0-5 at the end of a soporific first half. If Mayo are in the market for excuses, they can cite a trilogy of spurned goal chances in the space of two minutes, midway through the half.

They trailed by four points at the time and maybe -- just maybe -- this final would have ignited if they found the net even once. Instead, Aidan O'Shea's fisted effort crashed off the crossbar; an off-balanced Mark Ronaldson skewed his chance wide; and then O'Shea's second opening was blocked by his perennial shadow, Jamie O'Sullivan.

This brief period of Leeside panic was perhaps indicative of the rearguard problems they have endured this spring, in the absence of such seasoned campaigners as Graham Canty, John Miskella, Anthony Lynch and, more recently, the younger Eoin Cadogan. Yet Mayo's defensive frailties look far more worrying, and they have less alternatives too, as that banana skin in waiting -- otherwise known as Sligo, Markievicz Park, June 5 -- looms into view.

Centre-back Trevor Howley endured a torrid first half against the hugely influential Donncha O'Connor, begging the question why he wasn't switched off the Ballydesmond man. Defensive bench options, though, were thin on the ground. Suffice to say, Keith Higgins' knee can't heal quickly enough. On the resumption, Mortimer raised a flicker of western hope with the first two points (cutting the deficit to two), but Mayo didn't score for another 18 minutes as Cork eased through the gears.

In the media briefing that followed, Conor Counihan manfully tried to dampen the mounting perception that his team is the one to beat this summer.

"How many league winners have won an All-Ireland? The reality is that teams that win the league invariably don't perform in the All-Ireland," the Cork boss suggested. Unless, of course, you happen to be Kerry in 2004, 2006 and again last year.

Counihan, quite rightly, won't look beyond that Munster semi-final on June 6 -- in all likelihood (and with apologies to Tipp) against Kerry. And Mayo, even more rightly, can't look beyond Sligo, the newly crowned Division Three kingpins.

"At 4pm on Saturday we were raging hot favourites for the game, but now I'd say that it'd be pretty even," Alan Dillon conceded. "It's part of sport, you have to bounce back as best you can."

- Frank Roche