We know that it's not them, it's us

Let's get one thing straight about the All Stars. Despite what you might have heard or read following the announcement of this year's football selection, there is no sense at all in GAA circles here that the entire process is in some way biased or prejudiced against Ulster players.

Suggestions to the contrary by observers who should really know better are little more than examples of mischief-making and are part of a wider trend that likes to portray the Ulster counties as more isolated and removed from the rest of the country than they already are.

The presence of just one Ulster player, Tyrone's Stephen O'Neill, on the team of 15 announced last Friday night is a fairly accurate reflection of the extent to which fortunes within the province have declined over the past five years or so.

The net result is that Ulster now figures much larger in the GAA consciousness in terms of rules, regulations and public image than it does in pure playing terms. When it comes to football, the reality is that we don't matter like we used to do.

With four or five counties at more or less the same level of talent and expectation, the Ulster championship has become stale, dull and outmoded. For years we used to rail indignantly against the stereotype peddled in other quarters that it consisted of a series of unadorned wars of attrition, each as unattractive as the last, until eventually one team was left standing to go down to Croke Park and get beaten. Now we are slowly starting to realise that all of that and more is true.

At club level, the game is simultaneously moribund and downright nasty. The situation is compounded by an incestuous, circular colleges and third-level scene where the same county players regularly line up against each other in games which seem to become more nasty and ill-tempered with each passing year.

The trend towards the hot-housing of players from the second they arrive at their chosen third-level institution is having a stultifying effect on the game and is creating more problems than it is solving. A scenario in which evenly-matched and equally well-prepared players and their counties meet each other on a regular basis with any number of unresolved scores to settle is a recipe for GAA Groundhog Day.

Games between Tyrone and Derry or Armagh and Down used to have a dynamic all of their own. Now they consist of opposing teams going through the motions with a little bit of mindless antagonism thrown in. It's entertainment of a sort, but not as we used to know it.

Ulster had, and still has, most to gain by the moves towards a fully open championship draw in football. This year's All Star return is proof positive of the decline that has been engendered by the outmoded provincial system and the wind of change will benefit Ulster most of all.

The first signs of that, of course, were supposed to emerge this year as a result of the revised structures, but the quirks of the draw saw a number of spirit-draining re-runs of earlier encounters from the championship in the qualifying section.

The Derry-Tyrone quarter-final stands out as the worst culprit in that roll of shame and the sham of a game they served up showed just how much contempt familiarity can breed in Ulster football.

The recent tinkering with the rules was designed to ensure that a similar re-match could not happen again. Anyone who doubts the wisdom of such a move should be forcibly strapped into an armchair and subjected to just 15 minutes of that horror show from Clones.

Amid all the depression there is still room for a few green shoots of optimism to push through. While Ulster can have few real complaints about this year's All Star side, Fergal Doherty is one player who can feel just a little aggrieved to have missed out. Coming into the Derry side at midfield was a big ask, but any questions were more than answered as the novice comfortably outshone Anthony Tohill, his more feted partner. Like his spiritual midfield forefather, Brian McGilligan, Doherty has that air about him which suggests he is player around whom you can build a team. His time will surely come.

The Ulster player who did make the cut, Stephen O'Neill, is a fine player and one who could comfortably find a place on any county side. His precocious talent was apparent to all those who followed the progress of the Tyrone under-21 sides in which he played, but, as with so many of the others who have trodden the same path, there were doubts as to how he would bridge the gap to competitive senior football.

We needn't have worried. His first championship game this year against Armagh provided all the evidence needed to prove that he had character, confidence and drive in abundance to match his footballing ability. Kieran McGeeney, the Armagh centre back, was the man billeted to mark O'Neill and in their initial exchanges he took the opportunity to remind his younger opponent about his place in the pecking order. O'Neill paid little attention and when the opportunity came just 15 minutes into the game he presented his calling card with a frame-shaking shoulder charge which visibly shook McGeeney. Stephen O'Neill had arrived.

The rest of his summer was punctuated with eye-catching performances as the young pupil dovetailed particularly well with the side's talisman and master, Peter Canavan. Still just 21, O'Neill has much to look forward to.

Influential as O'Neill may yet prove to be, he may still have to linger in the long shadow of his Tyrone team-mate and Young Player of the Year Cormac McAnallen. If Ulster football is to climb out of the doldrums it needs new figureheads to fill the same roles as Mickey Linden, Anthony Tohill and Martin McHugh have done in the past. McAnallen sits comfortably in that sort of company and exudes class in everything he does. It takes a special type of player to garner the honour for best young player in a year when his side was regarded to have under-performed, but the claims of McAnallen were irresistible.

An intelligent, articulate and unassuming man, only a fraction of what he has to offer has so far been revealed. These are inauspicious days but better times may be just around the corner.