There is a widely-held belief that the Ulster Senior Football Championship is the most competitive of all the provincial races and therefore has always had an edge when it comes to matches being broadcast live on RTé and Sky.
It could also be argued that a re-run of Antiques Roadshow or a James Bond film with Roger Moore in the title role on a Sunday afternoon would be better viewing than any early fixture in the Leinster, Munster or Connacht Championships.
When you consider the emerging trends over the last few years, there is an argument that Ulster is the ‘diamond in the rough’ in the context of the All-Ireland series, but recent representation from the northern province in the latter stages of the All-Ireland shake-up has been quite limited.
Donegal’s fear factor has diminished somewhat since their All-Ireland win in 2012 and final appearance two years later.
Monaghan struggle on the national stage and have yet to make a semi-final appearance.
And Tyrone haven’t got the firepower to trouble the other contenders at the minute.
When the ‘Super 8’ is introduced, Ulster football will benefit in the long-term because our teams will have a chance to escape the potential pitfalls which come with winning the Anglo-Celt and then crashing out at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage.
Why?
The intensity of Ulster means it is a ‘mini All-Ireland’ in itself and teams have historically been heavy-legged after emerging from a number of scathing encounters with northern counterparts.
Mickey Harte made the point a number of years ago that a provincial winner is ‘punished’ in the sense that a quarter-final defeat leaves no second chance.
That has only affected Tyrone, Donegal and Monaghan in recent years as they have dominated Ulster since Armagh last won the title in 2008.
You have to say that the Orchard county, Down, Fermanagh, Antrim, Cavan and Derry have very little hope of claiming their provincial crown this year, especially when you look at their League form.
For one of those counties to emerge from the pack they will require a massive change in mentality.
And this will need to come from the manager, not the players.
In fact, I would go as far as to say that Ulster teams in general need to change their mentality.
The preoccupation with defence, defence and defence needs to change.
Ulster football, at both club and county level, is obsessed with defensive formations to the point that it is almost entrenched.
I will give you a small but local example.
Last year I went to watch a Division Three club in Down take on a top tier team in an early-season challenge match.
The game was recorded and the statistics gathered a couple of days later by a friend of mine.
The Division One side ended up winning comfortably, as you would expect, but managed to do so with only 35 per cent of possession.
What does that tell you?
The winners didn’t have the ball for 65 per cent of the time and still won by five or six points.
When you looked at the respective teams beforehand, it was fair to say the top flight team had the better set of players.
Therefore, you would assume they wouldn’t need to give up possession.
However, their higher calibre of player wasn’t even a consideration and the club with the superior players opted to employ a defensive strategy, regardless of the opposition.
Meanwhile, the Division Three team were left wondering how they lost a game when they had the bulk share of possession.
The problem is that if you don’t employ a defensive formula first and foremost, you are open to being hit by a well-drilled, counter-attacking team.
You may have little choice but to imitate a defensive strategy and hope that you make fewer mistakes than the opposition.
The aim is to stifle and strangle every opposition attack and in some ways the reasoning is plain to see.
I know that Mickey Harte feels there is a great deal of exaggeration around when it comes to the modern defensive blanket.
He used the Allianz Football League final between Dublin and Kerry as an example, and commented that perhaps the game wasn’t as open as some people had made out.
I watched the game a couple of times and while there was a lot of players filtering back, Kerry and Dublin attacked at speed and both teams had forwards capable of executing the skills of the game into the bargain.
The criticism being levelled at Donegal, Tyrone and Monaghan is that the transition at speed from defence to attack is just not there.
It is slow, it’s lateral and, in Tyrone’s case, the out and out forwards are either not being played or just aren’t there.
Until Ulster teams speed up their transition from defence to attack, Dublin and Kerry, and Mayo for that matter, will continue to have the edge.
Donegal may have paved the way in 2011 and 2012 with a defensive formula which secured famous wins and an All-Ireland title, but that strategy has ultimately been overcome by Mayo, Dublin and Kerry in recent seasons.
Other teams have continued to assume that playing a sweeper, or two, continues to hold the key to success.
Dublin, Kerry and Mayo have all adapted when they face Ulster opposition. Increasingly their managers are happy to rely on the ability of their own players to pick holes in opponents who are unable and unwilling to deviate from an inflexible and suppressed approach which has been over-coached and drilled into them from day one.
They have the adaptability to play in a closed, defensive formation and also, if allowed to, play open football as is their genetic nature.
Kerry and Dublin are the ultimate masters, letting nature and nurture exist in perfect harmony.
Mayo are getting there, but lack the minerals to actually convert this into silverware.
Yet it wouldn’t take much for Ulster football to return to the top table.
It simply takes innovation and patience. And it takes bravery.
Yes, it is easier to imitate the current defensive trend.
But Kerry’s approach to the League final proved Dublin can be beaten.
I witnessed young Kerry footballers unknown to many prove that attack can be the best form of defence.
The shackles came off.
Ulster may be the most competitive of all the provinces, but in terms of entertainment value it has real question marks.
While I won’t be watching Antiques Roadshow or Roger Moore when the Ulster Championship starts, if the mentality doesn’t change it won’t be long before a lot of people will.
What type of diamond will that be?
