Athletic Armagh well-matched against contrary Derry in perfectly-poised Ulster final

Colours to the mast: I'm in the camp that believes, despite their storied past, the provincial championships are becoming the proverbial square peg. For me that’s a logical position. Yet, just like the game this afternoon, logic only ever takes you so far.

The atmosphere, drama and excitement in Clones combine to impact the collective consciousness of those in attendance and those tuning in, in a way no group stage will ever be able to do.

As a child, having travelled over the mountain from Fivemiletown, I would’ve joined the hoards trekking in a few miles or, in my earliest days, hitching a lift on the back of a tractor trailer.

The whole thing was other worldly. Mad, rip-roaring, febrile contests in the misfit cauldron of St Tiernach’s Park, Clones, were practically a rite of passage up here.

In anticipation alone, despite the turbulent build-up, today is an important timely reminder of what we are potentially losing.

Setting the emotion aside let’s return to the cold logic with which both teams will be approaching this blockbuster.

Derry’s application of mass attack not only gives them an effective attacking platform but also significantly disrupts opponents' positional set-up and allows them to dictate the terms of engagement.

Even without Rory Gallagher facing him on the sideline, this is the conundrum that Kieran McGeeney has to figure out.

Derry’s positioning of several players deep inside the opposition's 21 has been obvious for a while but it is the personnel involved that is perhaps most noteworthy. It’s highly fluid of course but the likes of Eoin McEvoy, Gareth McKinless and Chrissy McKaigue were some of the most common residents there in the Monaghan game.

The consequent dragging of the opposition's best forwards so