Fuck knows what happened Kerry against Meath - and it was an appalling performance - but it was an aberration. Most of that team had already won two All-Irelands. It was a period when hunger was the defining factor in such matches and reigning All-Ireland champions tended to exit meekly. And they were up against the hardest team of the time.
Cork turned in a couple of dreadfully limp semi-final performances against Kerry but again they were up against a great team.
I think Mayo 1992 against Donegal is underrated as a terrible performance because they somehow only lost 0-13 to 0-9. However my main recollections of that were Donegal hitting 18 wides, many of them almost performatively bad, and Mayo’s almost total paucity of ambition.
Derry 1998 against Galway is underrated as a terrible performance too. They were abysmal. But they were worse today.
Meath against Cork in '07 might be a contender but Cork were warmish favourites going into that.
All things considered, especially after Derry had taken a 3-0 lead, in a match that had been considered very close to call beforehand, their performance from then on was as meek, unambitious and just plain dreadful as anything I’ve ever seen in an All-Ireland semi-final.
Its the same in cork though? I asked the auld Galway fella beside me at the hurling would he be back up next weekend for the football. No I’m hurling. And that was the end of that