It's quite ironic that despite county sides still finding their feet early in the season, several teams still putting out relatively experimental teams, and the small matter of a minor rugby game on TV, the National League games will still see over 100,000 paying customers click through the turnstiles, maybe a lot more. This is ironic when you consider that today at 2pm, at four separate venues around Ireland, the cream of the country's Gaelic football talent will be going head to head at championship intensity for places in the finals weekend of a tournament that has a history going back way beyond the NFL - the Sigerson Cup - and not one of the games will see a crowd worthy of the occasion. If you've never experienced Sigerson Cup competition first hand, the standard of football on display is nothing short of excellent and once the latter stages of the competition are reached, it's rare to see an uncompetitive clash. At the time of writing Ladbrokes is the only bookmaker in Ireland with betting available on these great games and it would be shame not to try and win a few quid off them seeing as they've gone to all that effort! The highest profile game by some margin will be the clash of UCD and Queen's University in Belfield. While UCD have a great tradition in this competition with 32 wins and they enjoy home advantage, the visitors should justify favouritism at 4/7. Queen's are hosting this year's finals weekend in a little over two weeks time they'll be hugely motivated to qualify themselves. Beaten finalists last year, they still retain most of that team while UCD laboured to get past St. Mary's in the previous round. An upset is not impossible but Queen's should advance. The clash between Cork IT and Maynooth in Maynooth is the most evenly matched of the four games. Neither side will be fancied to go too far, but Paul O'Flynn and Daniel Goulding between them should muster up enough scores to push the Cork side on at 5/6. Cork and Queen's look set to be joined by UUJ, who won't fear NUI Galway after taking out champions and pre competition favourites DCU in the previous round. Having lost Michael Meehan, the Galway attack is somewhat toothless this year, with only David Conway of Laois under 21s in any real form. Jordanstown look too powerful and should take one step closer to the all Ulster final with Queen's so many are predicting, though odds of 2/5 might not appeal to many. Finally, one for the long shot backers: Garda College to beat IT Sligo at 11/4. Sligo have dominated this competition in recent years, but the guards-in-waiting showed great character to edge out a decent UCC team in the last round and actually have as much intercounty experience as most of the colleges, with Denis Glennon, Sean Casey, Stephen Kelly and Cormac Bane among their number. IT Sligo are entitled to be favourites, but this is a real banana skin for them and they are worth opposing at those prices. TO PLACE YOUR BETS, CLICK HERE NOW LADBROKES Tweet

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