CARGIN BOSS CASSIDY A FAN OF CLUB GAME

CARGIN boss Damian Cassidy says county football has lost its appeal for a lot of fans who are voting with their feet by turning out to watch club games in big numbers.

A former All-ireland winner with Derry, Cassidy (above) has managed Cargin to backto-back Antrim titles and previously twice led Clonoe to success in Tyrone.

His Cargin team take on five-in-a-row Fermanagh champions Derrygonnelly in

Sunday’s Ulster club preliminary round clash at Corrigan Park.

“The county game has lost its appeal a wee bit. I’m still a person who loves going to watch county football but the club game has taken on an appeal to the public that the county game is not really providing at the minute in terms of its entertainment.

“You come into county semi-finals and finals and the Ulster club, it has that special feel about it.

“The Ulster club is unique and massively competitive and massively well supported.

“People are voting with their feet, that’s the bottom line.”

Opponents Derrygonnelly haven’t played in four weeks but Cassidy feels the drawn final and replay in backto-back weeks is a positive, not a negative, for his side.

“We’re not going to complain about that – the previous week we could have been gone!

“I think we are pretty fresh too. It’s not like we are playing four, five weeks on the trot.

“We played St Gall’s comfortably in the semifinal and then two weeks off so I think we’re pretty sharpened up.

“We are pretty fresh going into Sunday’s game and I think it (replay) was a help to be honest.”

Slaughtneil’s period of dominance appears to be over for now, after three Ulster titles in the last five years, and Cassidy reckons the provincial landscape looks wide open – even though some big hitters like Crossmaglen, Kilcoo, Scotstown and last year’s champions Gweedore are still in the mix.

“It’s a lot more open than it has been for the last few years, although Gweedore can put a lot of that analysis to bed if they come out of Donegal on Sunday, which I expect.

“You don’t see teams getting hammered in Ulster.

“I didn’t know a great deal about Derrygonnelly until now, but any team that has won five county championships in a row has a lot of pedigree.”