KEVIN CASSIDY: It’s show time

I HAVE been saying it for a number of years now but I think club football, when played at the highest level, trumps county on all fronts.

In the club scene we get more drama, more excitement, more carefree approach and that is refreshing to see.

Last weekend we were treated to two brilliant games of football and I‘ll start with the first one and the Errigal Ciaran story.

The Tyrone champions booked their place in the All-Ireland final after a game that had absolutely everything you could want.

The Canavan Brothers were worth the admission price alone not to mention the performance of Micheál Burns for Crokes.

I’m not sure if it’s because we are so much closer to club football, in the fact that most of us are involved at some capacity in our clubs, but there is just a more personal feel to the club scene if that makes sense.

The game between Errigal Ciaran and Dr Croke’s kept us on the edge of our seats for practically the whole match and I can’t even remember the last time that happened at an inter-county game.

Errigal Ciaran made history when they became the first Tyrone side to book their place in the All-Ireland senior decider.

Now, for them, the whole aim is to try and bring the Andy Merrigan Cup to the Red Hand county for the first time.

The newness doesn’t end there. In the final, they will play another newcomer to this stage as Cuala from Dublin booked their place in the showdown with a well-deserved win over Coolera-Strandhill.

The Dublin based outfit raced into an early lead and although the Sligo side fought back, Cuala had too much power and experience for them.

If all the talk in the first game was about the Canavans. then King Con was the name on everyone’s lips in the second game. Con was outstanding and he showed his leadership skills when his club needed him most.

The final will now pit the brilliance of the Canavan brothers against the force of nature that is Con O’Callahan and I for one can’t wait to see how that pans out.

The game itself will be an interesting tactical battle. From their games to date, we know Cuala play a defensive brand of football and they try and hit you on the counter attack.

It will be interesting to see just how they go about denying the Canavan brothers any space or time on the ball.

Cuala have the advantage of having already played a game in Croke Park but I don’t think that will have any major bearing on the match. On the other side, Ruairi and Darragh Canavan are made for the wide-open spaces of Croker.

It is really hard to pick a winner here.

I’d love to see Errigal Ciaran win it but I have watched a lot of Cuala over the last few years and they are a really well drilled machine.

Both teams are laced with exceptional players all over the pitch but I really do think this game will come down to the Canavans v King Con.

In the big games you need your biggest players to step up so let’s see who turns up on the day to take that All Ireland title back to their club for the very first time.