KEVIN CASSIDY: Bogue is one to watch

JANUARY is in full swing and with it the football season is churning out games at will.

It’s early in the year but we have plenty to choose from. The pre-season competitions are back. We have the Sigerson Cup and the various club finals. You name it, we have it and isn’t it great.

Last weekend I made my way to Croke Park with the TG4 team to cover the All-Ireland junior and intermediate club finals. I enjoyed both games.

The first one was the junior final between Kerry champions Ballymacelligott and Clogher from Tyrone.

It ebbed and flowed until Ballymacelligott pulled away towards the end of the game.

I have to give a special mention to the Éire Óg player Ciarán Bogue. He gave an exhibition in the first half. This young lad is definitely one to watch out for in the future.

He has pace to burn and he kicks off both right and left. Having been called in by Malachy O’Rourke I have no doubt that we will see him in the Tyrone jersey before long.

In the intermediate final, An Ghaeltacht from Kerry faced off against Derry and Ulster champions Glenullin. I have to admit, that before the game this was one that I was really looking forward to.

When I was doing my analysis and research, I was excited by the fact that Derry champions had scored heavily up to this point so I thought that we were in for a real humdinger.

To say that I was disappointed with how the Derry champions set up would be a real understatement. Now, I get the fact that teams want to be structured and allow themselves the opportunity to stay in the game.

That said, after five minutes you could tell that the Kerry champions were just far too clever for that approach and they simply played around the Glenullin defensive system.

This sort of tactic may have worked 10 years ago against Kerry teams but after being stung on a number of occasions, teams from the Kingdom are now smart in how they approach Ulster defensive systems.

For me, after a few minutes you could see how this game was going to pan out. I saw some of the lazy analysis over the last few days where it stated that Glenullin had to do this to stay in the game.

That is absolute nonsense because after 56 minutes, they had only registered one point on the scoreboard. How on earth are you supposed to win again with that sort of approach?

Anyway, An Ghaeltacht ran out deserving winners but I’d say that that defeat will hurt for a long time in the ‘Glen and there will be a lot of ‘what ifs’ bandied about over the next few months.

This weekend I’ll get to see inter-county action up close and personal, as we cover the Dr McKenna Cup final on Saturday night.

As I pen this, it is still not known who will contest the final as the semi-finals are on this evening (Wednesday) but no matter which pairing comes through it should make for an exciting contest.

After this weekend’s finals in the pre-season competitions, all the focus will then move towards the National Football Leagues which are due to get underway the following weekend.

From nothing in the off-season, it’s all go on the county front. We will get a look at all divisions next week as we focus on who we should keep an eye on this season and who may struggle to stay the course.