THE competitiveness of the Ulster Championship is regularly trumpeted by those within the province.
Let's hope we start to see evidence of that in the five remaining games in 2016.
Cavan's victory over Armagh was virtually assured by half time, just like Fermanagh and Tyrone's wins in the opening two games.
Kieran McGeeney has had his managerial ability questioned of late.
From the outside the team doesn't appear to be getting the maximum out of themselves, but the reality is that Armagh do not have the players to be challenging for honours in Ulster.
Last Sunday proved that once again for me. Ignoring everything else, Cavan simply have better footballers than Armagh at present.
However, there wasn't any real aggression or determination about the team.
They didn't collapse like they did during the league game against Cavan earlier in the year.
Cavan though were never under any real pressure and just held Armagh at arm's length. Armagh have problems at both ends of the pitch.
Despite all the players Armagh had back in defence, Cavan were able to run through their defence at will. Any team can get players behind the ball, but the hardest part is getting players to be effective when they are back. At times Armagh had all 15 players in their own half, yet Cavan were able to find holes in the defence.
For the defensive system to work, there must be a huge amount of communication and players need to be aware of what is around them and change their position to pressure the ball. Too often Armagh stood off the player in possession allowing Cavan to find gaps within shooting distance.
Nobody took responsibility for organising the team. For both goals the Armagh defence was wide open.The first came about when they were deceived by the bounce of the ball, but Cavan had extra players over and virtually walked the ball into the net. The second was even worse with Cavan creating an overlap by simply running the ball down the wing.
When you have such numbers back creating a goal scoring opening should never be as easy as that.
Paul Courtney's selection in goals seemed a really strange decision for me.If he was coming up field to take free kicks then his selection could be justified. By putting someone with no experience of the position in goals then you must rely on your defence shutting out the opposition. Armagh's defence was unable to do that, while kick outs were an issue making it very difficult to work out the reasoning behind Courtney's selection.
Despite their defensive struggles, Armagh have just as many issues up front. This was highlighted by the fact that three of their starting forwards were replaced within 35 minutes. Armagh played a lot of individual football when attacking. Players were carrying the ball, but there was a real lack of support runners. Players became isolated and had to do too much themselves with the ball. As a result they were constantly turned over in possession.
If Stefan Campbell is contained then it is hard to see where the scores will come from. It's difficult to see Armagh turning their season around. They are probably unfairly compared with the team of the 2000's, who were aggressive, physical, dominant in defence and direct in attack. At the moment though Armagh don't have an identity of their own and they need to start developing that in order to improve.
In contrast to Armagh, Cavan have worked from a defensive base and are now developing a more rounded tactical approach. Their defence is not unbreakable, but it' clear that the players understand the system and have bought into it.
Armagh struggled to get the ball inside to Campbell on a regular basis, even though he had the beating of Killian Clarke. The crucial part of Cavan's defending was the physicality and, more importantly, effectiveness of their tackling. Their first up tackling was excellent as they almost always forced the runner to turn back.
Slowing Armagh down initially meant their play became laboured and they couldn't penetrate the Cavan defence.
Cavan's lack of scoring has been the one area that has really held the team back from progressing in recent years. A return of 2-16 will win most Championship matches.
They have a good mix up front with Michael Argue providing an outlet for direct ball inside and Seanie Johnston playing off him. Johnston won't consistently win ball and beat his man, but given a sight of the posts he is deadly accurate.
Two players really stood out to me. Gearoid McKiernan was superb in the middle of the field. His fielding was excellent and he also kicked three points. It's not often we have midfielders in the modern game that can combine the ability to win true aerial duals as well as burst through to kick scores. McKiernan is a fantastic asset for Terry Hyland to have as the combination of his ball carrying ability and strength can open up packed defences.
The second man to star was Martin Reilly. He was particularly effective in winning ball as he picked up a lot of possession from Raymond Galligan's kick outs by running to the wings. Armagh were unable to cut out this source of possession and, combined with their dominance of the aerial battles, meant Cavan were able to control the game.
What will worry Cavan supporters is that they allowed Armagh to stay in the game for so long. If Stefan Campbell's penalty had been scored, Cavan would have had a nervous last 10 minutes with their lead cut to three points. Considering their overall dominance of the game Cavan should have been out of sight by that stage. They will need to be much more clinical if they are to topple Tyrone next time out.
Cavan certainly won't have the same amount of space to attack into against Tyrone in the semi-final. However, Terry Hyland will have learnt plenty from the Division Two league final match and both teams will make some adjustments to their game plan.
