This weekend sees us get down to the nitty gritty of the GAA season, managers can no longer claim to be playing "experimental line-ups" and players can no longer claim to be getting back to fitness.

The first round performance in the National League is of significant importance for managers and players alike, a bad performance on the first weekend in February can often signal the beginning of the end for a team's season, and counties will be out to ensure that there are no premature obituaries written.

My point here is that the high pressure surrounding round one matches has often delivered surprising results, as managers will do anything to avoid the negativity of a round one loss.

Because of the unpredictability of the opening rounds, I have decided to primarily focus on betting markets which don't contain an outright winner and my first pick involves the Down and Donegal game to be low scoring.

Having checked the weather forecast for today, there is a high chance of a lot of sleet, snow and high winds in Newry. As well as the poor weather conditions both these teams haven't had the greatest of starts to the year. Donegal have been very sluggish and have averaged around 10 points a game, and Down have struggled to get their strongest team on the pitch.

A loss for either of these teams would put a massive dint on their hopes of remaining in Division One, which leads me to believe that it will be a low scoring and cagey affair. Paddy Power are giving a points total of 28.5, and the 10/11 offered to be under the points when taking into account the predicted weather conditions looks like an ideal NAP.

My second pick for the opening weekend is Antrim to beat the handicap against Carlow. Again Paddy Power present the best value here and have Antrim -2 priced at 5/6. Over the last number of years Antrim have been aiming to get out of Division Four, and they seem best equipped to do it this year.

Although they drew with Carlow at this stage last year they were without key players like Kevin Niblock, Tomas and Micheal McCann, Bam Neeson and Kevin O'Boyle.

Carlow took three hammerings in the recent O'Byrne Cup losing by an average of 10 points a game. Antrim manager Frank Fitzsimmons has spoken about the importance of winning this game and I believe the Saffrons should have the focus and ability to beat Carlow by 3 points.

Finally, I have chosen two outright bets that I believe offer some decent value. The first one is Tyrone to win all their games in Division Two and win the cup; it is 28/1 with Paddy Power.

As I have mentioned a number of times already I have been a big fan of Tyrone all year, and the strength and depth they have at their disposal at the minute looks to be setting them up for a massive league campaign.

The second outright I have chosen is Sligo to get relegated from Division Three. They have had a terrible pre-season campaign where they managed to get defeated by GMIT. This has led to players, such as stalwart David Kelly to walk away. All of this doesn't augur well for their league campaign.

Recommended bets:

• Down and Dongeal game to be less than 28.5 points with Paddy Power at 10/11 (NAP)
   
• Antrim -2 at 5/6 with Paddy Power
   
• Tyrone to win all their league games and lift the cup 28/1 with Paddy Power and Sligo to get relegated from division three 6/4 with Boylesports

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