Tyrone may have left their spears, bows and arrows at home this week, as the Rossies were in no mood from running away from any big Red Hands.
Let’s not forget Roscommon had already gone to Castlebar and beaten Mayo, before winning the Connacht title against Galway in Salthill.
So inviting Tyrone to their cauldron at Hyde Park would not have fazed them one little bit.
This was a fantastic result for Mickey Harte's men.
Unlike their previous games, this performance was built very much on a sound defensive display, rather than the swashbuckling football of the last few weeks. Conor Cox, Diarmuid Murtagh and Enda Smith are all fantastic footballers and form an extremely formidable full forward line.
So how Tyrone would handle this trio was always going to be crucial. In the first half they caused a fair degree of problems and Enda Smith was particularly dangerous.
Roscommon had two really good goal chances in the first half and had they taken even one of them Tyrone would have under a lot more pressure to get the result.
Niall Morgan produced two really smart saves from Smith and Cathal Cregg which were big moments.
The Tyrone goalie stayed big and remained on his feet to thwart both efforts.
In fairness as the game wore on Rory Brennan, Ronan McNamee and Hugh Pat McGeary got the measure of the three Rossies danger men. With the wind in the second half, a two- or three-point lead for Roscommon would have been huge as Tyrone couldn’t have relied solely on a conservative counter-attacking game.
But with a two-point advantage Tyrone were able to use all their game management experience to dictate matters.
Every time I see Cathal McShane play I come away more and more impressed.
I felt that Roscommon set up well to try and limit his influence.
With a sweeper in front and pressure on the ball coming in they handled him reasonably well in the first half as he failed to score from play.
But that didn’t seem to dent his confidence in the slightest as he came out a different animal in the second half. Eight points, three from play and five frees, once again he was unplayable.
When he takes the ball in the air it’s almost like he does a 360 degrees turn before his feet have even touched the grass again.
At this stage he has to be already nailed on for an All-Star.
On a night when Darren McCurry was kept fairly quiet, Niall Sludden continued his great form.
He has a brilliant knack of getting into shooting positions coming in from the left side onto his right foot.
His three points from play and his great take and lay-off for Frank Burns made him a key contributor on the night.
With the Rebels up next, I’d expect Tyrone to march on to the All-Ireland semi-final without too much trouble.
Dublin showed us all on Saturday night why they are the best team in the country by quite some distance.
It never ceases to amaze me how they can go from looking a little vulnerable to all of a sudden being this slick ruthless well oiled machine that can put your lights out in minutes.
Cork got the dream start hitting an impressive six points from their first six shots.
But if there is one player in the country right now that is simply unmarkable then it has to be Jack McCaffrey.
I sometimes wonder is he the quickest player the game has ever seen? His ability to go through the gears leaving people trailing in his wake is frightening.
The goal that he scored actually started with him taking the short kickout but you’d have serious questions about how Cork defended the move.
The Rebel’s left half-back Marty Taylor had been detailed to mark him.
But when the ball went back out to Paul Mannion on the sideline, Taylor took the totally unnecessary step of leaving McCaffrey to double up on him.
It was one of those moments of madness that few would have noticed at the time, but equally that rush of blood paved a clear path in behind for the Dublin speedster to exploit.
You would have to question how he managed to go from ground with three cork players around him to get back to his feet and bury the ball to the net.
Having played a brilliant first half Cork would have left the pitch at half-time somewhat deflated and perhaps a little perturbed that the referee allowed the last play to continue.
The two minutes of injury time had already elapsed by the time McCaffrey sent the long testing ball into the penalty area.
But that’s Dublin’s game management for you. They never fail to seize every opportunity going.
With 58 minutes on the clock Cork were still very much in the game at just three points down. But by the 68th minute there was 13 in it.
I think it is fair to say they were very unlucky to suffer such a heavy defeat but then that’s what Dublin can do to you if your defence isn’t organised and switched on for every second of every minute in the game.
They will tramp all over you.
Whether anyone can go toe to toe and fight the Dubs like men for a full 70+ minutes still remains seriously doubtful.
