KEVIN CASSIDY: Then there were two

AFTER seven games, we now know the who will contest this year’s Ulster Final on Saturday week’s and what a pairing we have.

It’s hard to argue with these two teams being in the decider and we will look into them in more depth next week to see who might prevail.

Returning to last week’s action. I have to say I enjoyed both games for very different reasons.

We’ll start with the Donegal game. The first thing we have to do here is acknowledge the tactical approach of Conor Laverty.

We have known about Conor’s coaching ability for some time now. For anyone who knows the game, then if you watch Sunday’s game back he got his tactics absolutely spot on.

Conor is a very intelligent fella and he identified that Donegal style of play is based around opposition teams being stupid on the ball.

What do I mean by that? Donegal invite you into the tackle, only to turn you over and hurt you on the counterattack.

Conor turned that on its head as he had his team drilled to hold possession and slow the game right down.

If you watch the game back, by doing so Down actually cut Donegal wide open on a number of occasions.

If Conor had a more clinical set of players to carry out his plan, I have no doubt things could have been a lot different at the end.

By moving the ball slowly and patiently, this takes away one of Donegal’s big strengths which is stripping teams of possession as they enter into the danger zone.

Down played around that danger zone. When the time was right, they popped the ball into the area where space became available. Conor and Down, while they will be disappointed this week, they still have a lot to offer this year.

Donegal did what they needed to do without setting the world alight and I’d say that’s the perfect way for Jim to take his players into this final next week.

This week at training, you can be sure that a lot of players got called out for allowing those gaps to appear. Jim will know that if that was against a more efficient team then that would spell big trouble.

On Saturday, the other semi-final offered up everything that you would want frorm a championship game.

The game ebbed and flowed. It kept us on our seats until the very last kick of the game. Tyrone will be massively disappointed but they will still have a massive say in how this year’s championship goes.

They now have time to regroup and Wednesday’s draw has mapped out their path in the All-Ireland series.

Armagh showed us that they have maybe strengthened their squad from last year with a few lads putting their hands up.

If they had Rian O’Neill in their ranks, then I have no doubt that they would be a force to be reckoned with again this year.

I do believe that Rian’s absence will hurt them at some point this year. When the game is in the melting pot and players are wilting around you, then Rian was that one player who wouldn’t shirk responsibility. You just can’t coach that sort of ruthless attitude.

I was in Owenbeg on Wednesday night for the Ulster U-20 final with TG4.

There are a number of very talented youngsters on both of these teams, and looking further down the line, it will be interesting to see if any of the players step up to senior level in the months and years to come.