The Ulster Senior Football Championship kicks off next weekend and it is shaping up nicely.
Who will win it? It’s a bit of a toss-up. Again.
After Tyrone went unbeaten in the first four league games this year, they were being tipped as the side to beat come championship time but then Donegal came along and beat them by six points against the odds and Tyrone followed that performance with further losses to Mayo and Kerry.
After that point, the league shaped up interestingly for the Ulster teams, Donegal just missed out on a league final spot and Monaghan were a couple of minutes away from ending Dublin’s unbeaten streak.
That is where we are now; nobody knows who will win Ulster, not least the lads on The GAA Hour.
With championship set to come into full swing, speaking on Thursday’s podcast, Colm Parkinson, Conán Doherty, Cian Ward and Stevie McDonnell ended up being split on who would take home the Anglo-Celt Cup.
Low and behold this is who each of them thinks will reign victorious.
Stevie McDonnell: Tyrone
Cian Ward: Donegal
Conán Doherty: Monaghan
Colm Parkinson: Monaghan
Parkinson was critical of Tyrone’s predictability but impressed with Monaghan.
“I think Tyrone’s game plan is so predictable,” Wooly said.
“I’ve seen Monaghan and you would be surprised with how much Monaghan can change it up game on game.
“(Malachy O’Rourke) is constantly mixing it up: it’s a defensive system but there’s so much different stuff going on. I know Tyrone are going to use (Sean) Cavanagh and their centre back Justin McMahon as their the two sweepers.
“I know how Tyrone are going to set up, they’re always the same with what they do. There’s no nuance in what they do.”
Although he picked Donegal, Cian Ward was impressed with Monaghan but opted against them for one reason.
“I’ve gone against (Monaghan) just because of the extra game to get to the final, that does seem to stop teams.”
Monaghan has a preliminary round tie against Fermanagh whereas Donegal and Tyrone will enter the competition at the quarter-final stage.
And while the studio began to criticise Tyrone, Ward was quick to defend the Red Hands.
“This conversation is making me very weary because the one thing that Mickey Harte does is that every single year… whatever game they’re knocked out of they are going to lose it by less than three points.
“So to be overly critical of the way he sets up his team or the approach they’re taking, it’s probably not a comfortable place to be sitting.
“He’s so good and you’d probably have him ahead of the other managers in terms of his approach to the game and intelligence with the game.”
Despite only receiving support off one of the four analysts, Tyrone are in fact bookmaker’s favourites to be crowned champions come July 16 but predicting winners is a fool’s game anyway.
Listen to the full debate below from 45:10.
