IT was great to see the hurling back in full swing last weekend and a special mention to Antrim on their fantastic win over Clare, but it’s this weekend that fills me full of excitement.

Before sitting down to write this I glanced at the games available to watch on TV over the weekend and it was brilliant seeing the match listings.

Obviously we would all love to be going to the games in person but this is the next best thing and great credit must go to the GAA and the broadcasting providers for bringing us all of these live games.

Now that competitive action is about to return, you really get the sense that we have turned a corner and we can now look forward to something that resembles a normal summer. I am one of the lucky ones in that on Saturday, due to my work commitments with TG4, I will get to see Tyrone versus Donegal live in the flesh.

When I cast my mind back to the last time these two teams met in the league up in Ballybofey last October, I remember saying to people ‘thank God we won’t have to do this again, we will be back to normal before long.’ Little did I know that almost eight months later we would be gearing up for another National League game between these two heavyweights and once again the game will be played behind closed doors.

A lot has changed since that last encounter, most notably the departure of Mickey Harte, and it will be interesting to see how Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher have changed how Tyrone set up.

I can remember a lot of talk around last year’s league game about the Tyrone players being unhappy with how Mickey set them up that day.

Now that the change has happened, all eyes will be firmly fixed on this Tyrone squad to see if they are capable of lifting the levels to what is needed to become kings and Ulster once again.

I have to admit that I am excited about seeing the Red Hands in action. On paper Tyrone have probably the makings of the best forward line in the country outside of Dublin. When you look at the likes of Conor McKenna, young Darragh Canavan and Cathal McShane you will struggle to find a better front three. Add in Peter Harte, Mattie Donnelly etc and then you have a real scoring threat on your hands.

For me looking in from the outside though, I feel that Feargal and Brian’s main task this season will be on their defence and what that structure looks like.

We all know that Mickey opted for a counter-attacking approach with a defence-first mentality and perhaps he thought that this was the best approach for the group of players that he had at his disposal. Time will tell whether Tyrone in fact have the players to go for a more man-to-man approach or if they will have to fall back on a more structured defensive system.

Although I don’t expect them to show their full hand on Saturday evening, I do expect to see some changes in terms of how they approach the game and how they set up tactically.

From a Donegal point of view, I think our lads will be delighted to get back on the pitch and to go about righting the wrongs of last season.

Now don’t get me wrong, Cavan were fully deserving of their victory last year but I’m sure there will be some players within that Donegal camp whose performances will still haunt them to this day.

Last year was a difficult one to handle for all teams and players can be forgiven for having a below par season due to the unpredictable nature of the season, but this year it’s a different ball game. All teams are used to the protocols in place so therefore all teams should be fully ready when the ball is thrown in.

Donegal are shaping up nicely with the return of my own club mate Odhrán Mac Niallais from his self-imposed sabbatical and also the return of Kieran Gillespie and Paddy McBrearty to full fitness after last year’s injuries.

Declan Bonner is entering into his fourth year at the helm and I’m sure he will want to take this team to the highest perch.

That journey begins this weekend but much like Tyrone, I do not expect to see a fully-fledged Donegal team going hammer and tongs this weekend.

I think they will opt for the more conservative approach and just use the game to ease the lads back into it. Both managements will be fully aware that these two teams are on a collision course set for mid-July, so they will not want to give too much away either.

The hope for both sets of players this weekend will be to get a game under their belts and to come through it unscathed without picking up any slight knocks or niggles that may lead them to be side-lined for a few weeks. Any player who now misses three or four weeks of training at this stage will be playing catch up for the rest of the season.

I honestly don’t think that the result will matter an awful lot to any of these teams at the weekend. The game is purely about performance and to see where your guys are at. For us spectators, it’s just all about seeing the action getting underway again and long may it continue.