THE Ulster Club Championship at senior level threw-in last Saturday night with the meeting of Errigal Ciaran and St Eunan’s.

I have been lucky enough to play in this competition once and even from afar as a spectator, it is definitely one of the best competitions in the GAA calendar. There are four games this weekend at the quarter-final stage and they all bring their own level of intrigue, even for the neutral.

For the clubs themselves, there is a level of heading into the unknown for some of them as they step into a new environment.

For other clubs such as Kilcoo and Scotstown, it is business as usual at this time of the year but throwing that all into the mix only adds to the sense of anticipation.

First up we have Kilcoo welcoming the Cavan champions Crosserlough to Newry on Saturday evening. For Kilcoo it will be very much business as usual – even down to the environment they play in – while for Crosserlough it will be something completely new.

The champions in Cavan in 2020 never got to experience Ulster Club due to Covid so barring the football match itself, they will have other small things to contend with, like gathering early on Saturday afternoon, getting a bus to a venue two hours away, stopping for food, etc. It’s more akin to a county away day.

How players adapt to this can dictate the mood for the day ahead. It can throw players out of their comfort zone or it can maybe lead to a giddy excitement of something different.

In terms of the match itself, the bookies are not giving Crosserlough much hope but for me, if there is to be a shock over the weekend this is the one where it might pop up.

Crosserlough are a strong, powerful side and physically they will definitely match up to Kilcoo. Not letting Kilcoo dictate the pace of the game for long periods will be vital for them and I think they can get in amongst them and disrupt Kilcoo. This game will be a lot closer than most expect.

Sunday then brings three games in quick succession all over the province.

In Belfast we will have the McCann brothers from Cargin coming up against their brother-in-law Enda McGinley who is managing Errigal Ciaran. Stories like this add a little extra to the matches themselves.

Football-wise, Errigal will be carrying more momentum into the game, having won a county final and an Ulster preliminary round in the 16 days previous while Cargin will have had a three-week lay-off.

Both teams have had the experiences of getting beat by eventual winners Glen in the last two years in games where they will feel they will have had a chance to win so they will definitely target this game as perfectly winnable.

Cargin got a home victory in Ulster in Corrigan in the last few years so they certainly won’t fear Errigal but in a very tight game I’d expect the Tyrone lads to come up trumps.

At club level, having the two Canavans in your forward line will take a fair bit of beating and after not scoring last week I would expect Darragh to be a man-on-a-mission this week to try to drive Errigal over the line.

With Glen out of the way, they will both target this side of the draw as wide open but Newbridge and Clann Éireann will have something to say about this. For Newbridge, this is a completely new experience for this generation having not been in Ulster since 1989 while Clann Éireann were there two years ago for one game.

Clann Éireann will feel that, given the experience they have throughout their team, they have a real chance to make a push in Ulster. If Glen had won the Derry Championship they would have been overwhelming favourites to beat Clann Éireann so it is funny that the Newbridge game is seen as more of a 50/50 with maybe home advantage swinging it for Newbridge. I note it is on TG4 which I think is good – there is a bit of a novelty factor around this fixture in that it is so new for both teams and it could be a cracking game of football.

The last pairing is Scotstown against Erne Gaels. The bookies have this one weighted heavily in favour of Scotstown and it’s hard to look past them.

While I have only seen clips of Erne Gaels, experience counts for a lot at this stage of proceedings Scotstown are veterans having won nine of the last 11 Monaghan Championships.

They have a good smattering of class and quality and will look to lean on all of this to see them over the line. No doubt Erne Gaels have deserved their crack at this and have a very experienced manager in place but I would be surprised to see anything other than a Scotstown victory.

Having looked at all four of the senior quarter-finals above, it would be remiss of me not to mention the other grades.

My own club had a crack at Ulster Intermediate the last two years and were narrowly defeated by Ballyhaise from Cavan in a semi-final last year.

Across the four quarter-finals this weekend, there will be a shock along the way. I might tip along to watch Ballymena against Derrylaughlan given its handy in Toome and a club man of ours from Glenullin, Liam Bradley, is managing Ballymena.

There is also a family connection there too. The McNicholl name is a common Glenullin name down through the generations and one pops up on the Ballymena team sheet in the form of Peter.

I wouldn’t dare suggest where his footballing heritage came from as he is Ballymena born and bred, but sure it does not harm to claim him anyway – if it’s good enough for the English every time an Irish person does well on the world stage sure we are only claiming a man from 15 miles down the road.

This weekend’s preview edition of our podcast Gaelic Lives is out now, looking ahead to the weekend of action.