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September 07, 2007
The weekend between All Ireland Finals is invariably one of the best for club games all across Ireland and certainly 2007 is no different in that regard. With all due respect to the U-21s of Dublin and Galway and the Camogie Stars of Cork and Wexford this is a weekend for most GAA followers to take in some top class club championship action in their home county, and since Ladbrokes have broken the mould in Irish bookmaking and begun pricing these games, it's only reasonable that we try to pick out some value in their list!
In order to get a good price on your bet and still be in with a good chance of collecting, an accumulator is probably the best way to go. We're going to recommend five teams, though no doubt each reader will have their own local knowledge and they may wish to substitute or add in games that take place closer to home.
First up is the Mayo semi final between Charlestown and Knockmore, with Charlestown looking very solid at 1/2. Charlestown are one of the few teams in Mayo that have won a county championship this decade, and having knocked off perennial kingpins Crossmolina with a great nine point replay win recently they'll believe they have every chance of repeating their achievements of 2001. Waterford's poor display against Limerick in the All Ireland Hurling semi may serve as a warning as the parallels are striking, but if Charlestown can keep their focus, players like Tom Parsons and the Higgins brothers will be still preparing for a shot at a county title on Monday.
Now we alter our course slightly north to Sligo, where Tourlestrane look like a penalty kick at 1/5. Drumcliffe/Rosses Point got a nice draw this year and duly took advantage by finishing runner up in their group, but with Eamonn O'Hara's men firing on all cylinders, this is simply a match between a dark horse for Connacht and a mid ranking senior club outfit in a small county. Much like the Kerry men of the similar colours next week, the Sligo green and gold boys are a banker that should be included on any coupon this weekend.
The North West is full of good things this week, and going further up the coast, St. Eunan's at 4/11 to beat Glenfin are well worth adding to our list. Donegal club football is extremely competitive but Eunan's are big guns of the county that have bounced back brilliantly after shipping five goals to Naomh Conaill in the first round. The Donegal championship is unusual in that their backdoor structure is repeating the first round match, and then having a deciding third game if the first two games see each team take one win each. Eunan's took advantage of this second chance to blow Naomh Conaill away by 12 points in the rematch and since then they've gone on to take out Ardara in a huge quarter final clash of domestic big guns. Overall they look well positioned to reach their third county decider in a row.
In a big change of direction, we're going to round off with not one but two selections in the Tipperary hurling championship. The Mid Tipp Final will be contested on Sunday between Loughmore/Castleiney and Thurles Sarsfields. Semple stadium is home field for Thurles, and with Pa Bourke and Lar Corbett likely to run riot in it's big open spaces, it's hard to see them failing to raise at least two green flags. This Sars team has a lot to prove in terms of winning a Tipp championship outright, but they are the dominant force in the Mid Tipp division and should prove that this Sunday, justifying odds of 2/5 in the process.
Finally we're going to look to a Tipp backdoor qualifier match, an eliminator to reach the last sixteen. Hardly glamorous, until you factor in that it's the reigning Tipp and Munster champions Toomevara playing Mullinahone, featuring Paul and Eoin Kelly among others. And superstars though those two are, 4/7 is still just too big to ignore about the bluebloods from the Offaly border. Toomevara lost the North Tipp semi final when they were missing a wide array of players, and it's understood that they weren't unhappy to go back into the qualifiers and regroup. Bouncing back from a defeat is always difficult, but Toome have so much strength all over the field that it's very difficult for any team with any weak links to survive against them, and Mullinahone is just too short on depth to be fancied here. Eoin Kelly could score double figures by all means, but Toomevara still should move on to the next round and hopefully round off a payout of over 4/1!
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