THE Championship swung into action last weekend and after a nervy start, normal order resumed as champions Tyrone found their rhythm in the second half and eased to victory.

Fermanagh would have been happy with how they performed earlier on, but a couple of crucial misses left the door open for Tyrone. After a wonderful individual goal by Conor Meyler, Tyrone upped their performance. Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher will be relatively happy because the objective here was to get over their opening game and move on and this is exactly what they’ve done. The big blow, I suppose, was losing Conor McKenna late on after another pulling and dragging match broke out.

We will touch more on this later on, but at the minute I fully expect McKenna to get away with the sending off as Tyrone will no doubt go through the appeals process. Conor played a massive part last weekend because after his introduction Tyrone found that spark as he injected some much needed pace into their attack, so I’m sure the Tyrone management team will be keen to have them on board for the next game.

As we move onto this weeks’ games, news broke late on Wednesday evening that Armagh had successfully appealed all of their sendings off, meaning they are now at full tilt as they prepare for their clash with Donegal. On the other hand, Donegal, having accepted the punishment and choosing not to go to the appeals road, are minus two players for this weekend’s clash. You would have to ask yourself where the justice in all of this is. Let me begin by saying that at the very start of this carry on I was completely against the flashing of red cards for a bit of pulling and dragging and now that Armagh have successfully appealed all of the bans, it just turns the whole situation into a bit of a joke to be honest. Referees would need to get a grip from here on in, otherwise we are going to have a summer of appeal after appeal.

Last week I was fully convinced that Donegal would have enough in the tank to get over the line this weekend but after the whole carry on this week and with Armagh seemingly having the momentum behind them this game, it could really go either way.

Donegal will feel severely hard done by given the fact that they’re down two of their players and Armagh now have the full complement, so this will only add to the occasion and I fully expect a feisty affair once that ball is thrown in. When we look at both team’s form during the league, obviously Armagh have had the better run of things recently and they really seemed to have taken that step forward but for them the major questions will come now.

At the end of the day, it’s in the Championship where they will be judged and should they lose this weekend then their whole season will matter for very little. Donegal also go into this weekend’s game under a lot of pressure so there is very little doubt that this game will have a real championship bite to it and I cannot wait to see how it is pans out.

Elsewhere in Ulster this weekend, Antrim take on Cavan in what could be a really interesting affair given how both teams have been performing lately. Antrim have been going extremely well under the guidance of Enda McGinley (left) and Cavan seem to have taken three or four steps backwards since landing that Ulster title so this is another game that really could go either way. The game is perfect for Corrigan Park and it would have been very unfair to ask Antrim to move the game and take away that home advantage that they are entitled to. On paper, Cavan should win this game and perhaps they will but do not bet against McGinley‘s troops upsetting the odds and turning in an heroic display.

The last game of the weekend sees arch rivals Mayo and Galway facing off. This is the third game of the weekend that could be decided by the toss of a coin. Both of these teams would have been extremely disappointed with their league final displays so this is the perfect opportunity to put things right. There is no doubt that when the draw was made that this is the game that both if these camps were building towards so we will hold judgement until after the weekend.

After a lot of deliberations I’ll go for Donegal, Mayo and Cavan but only just.