GERARD O’KANE: Don’t discount the lower seeds

SO the Ulster final pairing has been decided and we will see most people’s two best teams in Ulster face off in Clones in nine days’ time. On the same weekend we will also see the novel pairing of Meath and Louth hit it off in the Leinster final.

The word novel is not directed at either Meath or Louth in particular – it’s more that Dublin are not there is the big surprise.

For years, Leinster counties have tried to break the dominance of Dublin and finally, after 14 in-a-row and 19 in 20 years, someone other than Dublin’s name will be on the Delaney Cup.

That doesn’t mean to say that Dublin’s cycle of dominance is over, but there certainly is evidence to suggest that it is on the wane which in essence can only be good for gaelic football as a whole.

This weekend coming will see provincial finals in both Munster and Connacht and in both cases it’s hard to look past Kerry and Galway as the favourites in each.

The group stages for both the All Ireland series and the Tailteann Cup have been decided, so the next 10 days will be season-defining not only for the eight provincial finalists but for the teams awaiting them in the draws.

The defeat of Dublin had unexpected knock on effects for the teams in pots two, three and four.

For my own county Derry, it has made the draw considerably harder as we now reside in pot four and we’ve been handed a fairly tough draw for the groups.

In some respects this might not be a bad thing. Derry have had time to regroup from their defeat to Donegal and hopefully get bodies back on the pitch, which would allow them to make a charge at the group stage with renewed hope of getting to the knoc-kout stages.

The pot for the third seeds is arguably the most significant pot with Dublin, Monaghan, Tyrone and Roscommon all involved.

These are teams which would have seen themselves in pots one or two before a ball was kicked and now find themselves in pot three.

They will prove to be a difficult task for any of the teams in the remaining pots.

For the Ulster teams in the Tailteann Cup, Fermanagh will provide the biggest hope of silverware. A yo-yo team between Division Two and Division Three, realistically the Tailteann Cup is their biggest hope of success.

Being in pot 1 will provide them with a decent start at getting their season back on track.

They have been defeated by Antrim twice in the last two seasons in this competition so if an all Ulster derby is on the cards at some stage or other then this is surely one defeat that Fermanagh will be keen to avenge!

Overall there is still a vast amount of football to be played before the year is out and there is plenty of time for teams to pull up their socks and turn their season around.

Likewise, there is also plenty of time for a team to have a severe dip in form and fall off a cliff when no one is expecting it.

Teams might only be one/two injuries and a bad performance away from a season-ending few weeks.