Clubs play with more abandon in the provincial series

John Hughes says that lack of familiarity makes for better football.

That’s why he thinks that competitions like the Ulster Club, schools events and club u-21 championships are so intriguing, and he says so in this week’s Opening Shot Column.

“On the intercounty scene, and in domestic fixtures, teams know each other inside out. They know the men who need to be stopped and that knowledge plays itself out in tense, fraught football where every move is careful, considered, and thought out.

“Ulster Club football, certainly at the intermediate and junior level, has more in common with the brand we see played at schools and u-21 level than it does with the more earnest domestic club and intercounty variant.”

Read the entire column in the current issue of Gaelic Life. Buy the online edition here