KEVIN CASSIDY: The Donegal championship is finally gathering pace

WE head into the last round of group games here in Donegal this weekend.

After these games, we will have a top four who go straight into the quarter- finals, the next eight teams will be drawn against each other for a preliminary quarter-final with the bottom four playing off in a relegation battle.

The carrot this weekend for the teams at the top end of the table is that if you win you get an extra week off. There are a lot of teams still in contention and anything can still happen at this point.

As you can see, it’s a lengthy enough process here before we get to the real knockout stuff but it is what it is and we just have to move with it.

At the minute if you had to pick a stand out team, it would probably be Dungloe. They have won all of their games to date and look in a really good position.

Now let’s not fool ourselves though as the real tests for all teams will come after this weekend when the safety net is taken away. I find that top players and top teams play their best when the stakes are highest.

Personally as a player, I hated playing in games that had very little meaning or risk for the want of a better word. The idea for me that you could lose a game and still be in contention to win the competition didn’t sit well with me. I used to love being in situations where it was winner-takes-all because, for me, that’s when you saw people’s true characters.

Some players would freeze, some players would hide and some players would turn into different animals altogether and become killers, and I loved seeing that unfold in front of your eyes. The challenge for all teams now is to see what type of players they have in their squad and whether or not they have enough ‘killers”’ in their ranks that will get them over the line on the big days.

As you know, I’m not a fan of the group or round- robin formats. For me, we already had our leagues. This is where we play and develop players to get them ready for the big stuff, which is the championship.

The championship is always about seeing who is the cream of the crop, who has the skill, ambition and the balls to do it when the stakes are highest and that’s why I love this time of year.

All around the country we are now reaching that point of stand up or shut up. All the bluffing and empty promises are done, it’s now coming to the do or die phase in the club season and if you are the right type of person then that can bring out a dangerous animal in people.

Those who have it will excel and probably go onto help their club win their county titles and those who don’t will more often than not retire to the bar stool for the winter and blame managers and anyone else they can think of. As you prepare for this do or die stage of the season ask yourself which one are you.

Was it Einstein that said “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”?

If your approach has not worked for you in the past then it may be time to change your approach. If you are one of those players who at the end of each season convinces yourself that it’s someone else’s fault then my advice to you is to purchase a large mirror in the off season as it may benefit you way more in the long run than any Hyrox event or gym membership.

At county level and club level far too much emphasis is now based on the “what if”. What if he plays there? How can we get our plus one? What if his kick-out goes here? We have lost that real ‘play it as you see it’ mindset.

The only team to really move back to anywhere near that this year was Kerry and the proof is in the pudding as to how that went for them so here’s hoping more teams follow suit.

I think the day of the robotic footballer is coming to an end and if we are being honest I think that this is one of the main reasons the FRC got as much power as they did. Less structure more flair is what we all want to see but unfortunately it will take the majority of teams a long time to catch onto how best to benefit from these new rules.

Anyway after this weekend here in Donegal the safety net is gone and thanks to the Lord for that!