KEVIN CASSIDY: My take on the Ulster final

WE have had another extremely busy week, both on and off the playing fields.

Let’s start away from the pitch as the news came through this week that all of the rules trialled earlier in the inter-provincial series will carry forward for all grades for 2025.

If we are honest, we all thought that the majority of them would get through so it’s great now that we all have clarity and teams can start to plan accordingly.

We all know the benefits these rules will bring and how different players must now think and play.

It’s totally different at underage. This changes the whole landscape of how you approach your training sessions.

Thankfully, my philosophy never moved too far away from the importance of being able to be comfortable in a one-on-one situation.

This is important because, as a defender or an attacker, most of the coaching that will take place in the future will be planned around that key principle.

Training sessions will look a lot different this year and I think it will be a totally refreshing experience for players and coaches alike.

On the pitch, Cuala flexed their muscles to win Leinster and must now be seen as possible favourites for the whole thing.

We have seen that over the last number of years, teams from Dublin become very hard to beat once they get a run.

We all know what Kilmacud Crokes did over the last number of years. When you add in the likes of Ballymun and Ballyboden, you get where I’m coming from.

Normally a team like Cuala, who are coming for the first time at this level, could struggle. I think the experience they’ve had as a club from those hurling campaigns down through the years will stand to them.

The one team who could challenge them this year in my opinion will be the Ulster champions.

We will find out who that will be at the weekend. We are all well aware at this stage what both of these teams bring. For me, the question on Sunday in Armagh is can individual flare express itself or will the structure win out?

We have all watched how Kilcoo have played over the last number of years and the experience they have. It’s hard to imagine that, with that, they will let Ruairi and Darragh Canavan run riot.

It will be interesting to see how those particular battles pan out. It doesn’t take a coaching guru to work out that if both of the Canavans are kept quiet, then this Errigal team could struggle to post enough scores to trouble you.

The deciding factor in this game is whether or not one of the lads can churn out a performance of a lifetime because as a team they are really up against it here.

Kilcoo can hurt you from all angles with their searing pace on the counterattack too. I’m sure Enda McGinley has had many a sleepless night over the last week or two worrying about that.

As a neutral, I would like to see Errigal win this one because I think it would do wonders for the competition.

I have a massive respect for Kilcoo and what they have done over the last number of years. I honestly don’t think that they would begrudge this title to Errigal should they produce a performance good enough to win it.

Kilcoo are a fantastic club and the hunger they keep showing year on year is a credit to them.

As I stated last week, a few of their key players are pushing on in years, so I’m sure the way things have fallen this year, in terms of results elsewhere, they have one eye on the big prize once more.

It’s prediction time. I do think Errigal can put it up to them but everything in my head just points to Kilcoo’s experience so I’ll go with Kilcoo by three.

Watch our special preview show ahead of Sunday’s Ulster final showdown