KEVIN CASSIDY: Oh what could have been

THE players and supporters of Errigal Ciaran won’t need me to tell them this week that things could have been so very different.

Without taking away from Cuala, who were absolutely outstanding and I will touch on later, but there is no doubt that Errigal Ciaran seriously under performed in the first half of Sunday’s final. In reality, the game was pretty much over at half-time.

Enda McGinley did well to rally his troops in the second half but you just felt that they left themselves with too much to do and Cuala were never going to be caught from that position.

It will be a long, hard winter for those lads as they play the scenarios over and over in their heads. On the other side, when the dust settles, I think they will be happy with what they achieved this year.

I have to give great credit to Cuala who I thought were absolutely outstanding on the day. I have been a keen observer of Dublin club football over the last number of years.

These lads have been coming and, this year, everything just clicked into place for them.

They fully deserved their All-Ireland title and there is no better man than ‘King Con’ to drive them over the line.

His performance in the final was incredible. Not only did he kick five points, but his leadership and drive with something to behold.

Both himself and Michael Fitzsimons have done incredible things for the Dubs and indeed for the GAA in general down through the years. I think that it’s only fitting that they got to experience those feelings with their club as that’s the best feeling of the lot.

Before I turn away from club football, I like to acknowledge the achievements of the Naomh Pádraig, Uisce Chaoin club here in Donegal for reaching the All-Ireland final this weekend.

This has been an incredible journey for these lads and it’s something that they remember for the rest of their days.

The face a tough An Cheathrú Rua side from the Galway Gaeltacht region. These lads are always big and physical and they can always provide good skilfull players. Their own club have a great history and tradition so they will be well up for this final.

I’d like to wish the Naomh Pádraig lads all the best. I really hope things go their way and they can take the title back to Donegal.

The wait is finally over. This weekend, we will all get to see the new rules in action as the National Football League swings around again.

There is a real sense of excitement this week as fans all over the country are eager to see how these new rules look as we get the chance to see them in the flesh.

There are some very interesting clashes but, unlike other years where you could maybe predict winners, I think this weekend we just have to sit back and let the boys at it.

There will be a lot of mistakes but we have to take that on the chin and the first weekend’s viewing may not be what we expected.

I am hopeful that over the course of the league we will really start to see the benefit of these new rules.

I am covering the Kerry against Donegal game for TG4.

Even with that game alone, I’m interested to see how both counties will set up, particularly how they will go about benefiting from these new rules.

Let’s hope that this time next week we have lots of interesting situations to talk about.

It’s great to see that so many of these games will be available to view both online and on television because the thirst to view them is at an all-time high, especially this weekend.

I think that by the time Monday comes around, we will all have a better understanding of how a game might look in the future.

I have the feeling that after Saturday and Sunday’s games we will be excited about what the future may hold.