Nobody likes bankers very much these days and visions of Seanie Fitzpatrick and the like living it up on the taxpayers’ shilling is hard to stomach for a lot of people, but in a betting shop, bankers are still very welcome. Everybody loves a short odds favourite that looks like it can’t lose and “bankers” thus get inserted to make up the odds on every multiple bet going.

This column has never been a huge fan of multiple bets since mathematically, there is much more margin built in than is the case with single bets. As any bookie worth his salt will tell you, a punter who regularly bets 7/1 single bets will almost always beat the punter who places the same stake on a treble on three even money shots, simply because the margin built into the treble is usually so much more.

So for the purposes of this column, this weekend we are going to recommend two single bets – however it’s reasonable to assume that most punters would prefer to go out and place a double, or possibly even add those two with another selection and in this instance, it’s probably not the worst course of action.

First up is Wexford against Laois at 2/5. Nobody could fail to be impressed with what Niall Rigney has achieved in a relatively short space of time with the O’Moore county hurlers, but he is still working with a young and unproven panel and his team failed to cash in on a wonderful opportunity to secure a big win against Clare. Much like their game against the Banner boys, Laois could push Wexford all the way to the wire here, but Wexford know that they have to win this game or else they will be facing a third consecutive year of division two hurling.

If Wexford lose this match, nothing that they do for the rest of the year will redeem their season – short of beating Kilkenny and that’s simply not going to happen. Wexford need to deliver a championship standard performance in Portlaoise and they should do that. When they concentrated their minds against Clare they secured a good draw in Ennis and with no safety net underneath them, they should repeat that performance here. At 2/5, they are worth a 4pt bet.

Another match in division two with implications for the promotion race is Carlow’s trip north to Kildare. Carlow’s rock solid defence has been extremely impressive this year and right now they are a much better team than Andy Comerford’s Kildare men. The O’Loughlin Gaels man has done a lot of good work in Kildare but his team are at least two years behind Carlow in their development and they simply will not score fifteen times this weekend, as they will need to do. A 6pt bet on Carlow hurlers at 1/4 is advised.

For those looking to make up the odds on these two, keep a close eye on Cavan under 21’s against Monaghan. This team came into the year with little or no attention but they have some very powerful footballers and their demolition of a good Down team cannot be ignored. Monaghan have some good results on the record books this year too but Cavan have a little bit more class about them and can win this rescheduled match in Enniskillen this weekend.

A combination of factors meant that I lost 10 of the €100 I wagered at the weekend but what’s really been irritating me over the past couple of days is the amount of money that my inactivity since has ended up costing.

The problem started on Monday night when Manchester City beat Wigan 3-0. The result would have made me a tidy profit had the first half of the double I had included it in come off on Sunday but it hadn’t. Still, I was fairly confident about the result and meant to revisit it over the course of Monday afternoon, possibly combining it with a win for Newcastle over Nottingham Forest as it happens, but I never managed to get around to it and so that night’s viewing was, to put it mildly, rather spoilt.

In slightly different circumstances, I might have been jumping about my living room last night when Bayern Munich scored their late winner against Manchester United. The handicap betting had meant you could back wither side with your money back in the event of a draw and my initial hunch was that if anyone was going to nick the game it would be the home side.

The problem was that I was slightly unnerved by Bayern having lost their last two Bundesliga games and all the talk that Franck Ribery was going to miss out through injury. Once again time played its part too with no real window opening up that would have allowed me to sit down and write something about what I was doing and so I watched United blow their early lead with very mixed emotions before being cheered up by a Lyon Bordeaux game that was ridiculously open for a Champions League first leg encounter between two sides that know each other so well.

Arsenal and Barcelona should be pretty open too and at the time of writing the Londoners are reckoned to have something like a “40 per cent” chance of having Cesc Fabregas available for the game. The last time I suggested the Spaniard was essential to his side’s chances in big games, of course, Arsene Wenger’s men proved me wrong fairly spectacularly but I can’t help thinking once again that they are going to struggle badly if they are without him against his former club this evening.

United showed in last year’s final what can happen you if you try to take the game to the Spanish champions and it seems fairly unthinkable that Arsenal will not try to do the same this evening. I had rather hoped to be a few hundred euro ahead of where I am at present in which case I would probably have had a more serious punt on this but as things stand, I’ll settle for rather modestly backing the defending champions to take a lead back to the Nou Camp.

Bet

€50 on  Barcelona (0/-0.5) to win at Arsenal @ 2.04.

That’s one thing I’m not going to do any time soon anyway, celebrate early.  I don’t mean have a birthday party three days before your birthday, or have a summertime barbeque in May, but punching the air and doing the type of cartwheels on horseback, of which the scantily-clad lady with the feathers on her head in Duffy’s Circus would have been proud, before the result of the print is in?  That’s something I’m not going to do.

Poor Kevin Shea.  You have to feel for him.  He rides the perfect race, sits in behind off a slow early pace, moves his horse up nicely, picks up well in the home straight, has the leader in his sights, the line’s coming up fast, but we’ll get there, stride, stride, stride, one, two, three – bingo!  Head outstretched, gets Lizard’s Desire’s nose on the line just in front of Gloria De Campeao’s, surely.  He must really have thought so.  I mean really.  To celebrate like that, he must have thought he was up by at least a neck.

In fairness to Kevin Shea, most of the watching world probably did as well.  I know I did, watching on Sky Sports 4 and on At The Races, the commentator did, Ahmed Ajtebi riding the third horse Allybar did, as he rode up to congratulate the jockey in yellow, although the Dubaian may have been duped by the on-board celebrations.  Maybe the ‘winning’ rider thought that he was riding in a 1980s point-to-point in the south of Ireland, that there was no photo finish and that if he acted like he won and celebrated like he won, then, similar to the duck (walks like one, quacks like one, you know the type), he must have won.

The slow motion replay told you that it was close, however, a lot closer than you thought.  Of course the riders didn’t have access to the slow motion action replay, in much the same way as the referee doesn’t, as he makes a decision and we all shout abuse and throw paper cups at the television, but jockeys tend to know.  If they are celebrating, they have generally won.

But Shea can’t have been sure.  The fact that he didn’t win meant that it was close and, as above, jockeys tend to know.  The angle at Meydan is not like the angle at the old Phoenix Park, when the one that was called out first in the photo could have lost by a half a length, and Shea had to have known that there was at least a small doubt.  Betfair said that he was a 9/10 shot.  They knew.

You can understand Shea’s exuberance, this was the Dubai World Cup, the richest horse race ever run, some £3.7 million to the winner, of which the winning jockey was up for 10% I presume, and he was riding a 33/1 shot, who had no realistic chance of winning, but whom he had just delivered with a perfectly-timed challenge.  10% of the runner-up’s £1.2 million is not bad for just over two minutes’ work, but it’s a fair comedown from the winner’s purse – a Porsche instead of a three-bedroom semi-detached house in Rathfarnham – and it means that you don’t go down in history as a Dubai World Cup winner.  Who remembers the runner-up?

Actually, we may remember this one for a little while.

* For more of Donn’s thoughts, visit www.donnmcclean.com.

Rebel county followers may take issue with the idea, but until the Corkmen manage to get their hands on the Sam Maguire trophy, or at least overcome their near neighbours in an All Ireland series match, they will always be a level below that where Kerry and Tyrone now dwell. Neither the Kingdom nor the Red Hand men have set the country alight with their form this Spring, but every football fan in the country knows that the nation’s two heavyweights are keeping plenty in reserve for the championship.

Jack O’Connor and Mickey Harte won’t have lost too much sleep over their respective losses to Mayo and other counties, but tonight’s meeting in Omagh is another matter entirely, with both counties likely to be extremely keen to put down a psychological marker in a match that could easily be repeated in August or September.

The moderate form of each county so far adds an extra weight to the match in that the loser will find themselves in real relegation trouble in the last weekend of the league. Tyrone will be playing for their lives against Dublin irrespective of what happens tonight, while a loss for Kerry would leave them playing in a straight relegation shootout against Monaghan. Of course Kerry would be favourites in any such match, but it’s not a scenario Jack O’Connor would like his players to be in.

However while all these connotations are in play, the simple fact is that form is not the kind of thing that can be turned on and off, and poor as Kerry have been, they have at least earned the two wins that they did secure over Derry and Galway. Tyrone were second best against Cork in the one win they have secured and unless they improve by a significant factor this week, they could find Kerry too much to take. Kerry at 5/4 are an excellent value bet and should be taken to a 2pt stake.

Of the other football fixtures this weekend, there is one other match where the odds and the form don’t match up – and that’s Armagh versus Tipperary in Crossmaglen. Tipperary have only taken three points from their five games so far this year, but they were competitive in every fixture and could easily have taken the points last weekend against Donegal if they had got some kinder treatment from the referee.

Armagh have been solid but unspectacular in their five league games and Peter McDonnell has a lot of work on his hands if he’s to restore the Orchard County to the status of All Ireland contenders. Right now they look like a division two team, no better, no worse. Tipperary too look more at home in this division than many might have expected and while Armagh should win this tie, odds of 2/7 are way too short. A 1pt bet on Tipperary at 10/3 is an appropriate speculative punt this week.

Moving now to the hurling, and there is another very live outsider hurling in division one this week. Dublin’s win over Tipperary got a lot of hearts racing in the capital but their subsequent loss to Offaly dragged their supporters back down to Earth. However it is a measure of the progress that has been made in the capital that people were genuinely disappointed that they failed to beat Kilkenny last weekend instead of being pleased that they hurled very competitively.

Cork’s renaissance this Spring has seen them installed as short odds to win in Parnell Park this week, but these odds appear to underestimate how consistent Dublin have been in recent years. Parnell Park is now a venue where even the best hurling counties fear to tread and whatever about Kilkenny or Tipperary trading at 4/11, there is no logic to Cork being at that level, irrespective of how much they appear to have improved. A 2pt bet on Dublin at 5/2 is well worthwhile in a game where odds of 6/4 would seem to be a lot nearer the mark.

In theory, the lives of managers of teams whose raison d’être is essentially to keep winning a two horse race should be quite straightforward. But, as Tony Mowbray discovered this week, second place in such circumstances is nowhere and getting badly beaten by a side who are really only supposed to be there to fill out the field is utterly unforgivable.

Ultimately, most of the Celtic fans, having held the former defender in such warm regard, will be glad to see the back of him after nine terribly difficult months while Rangers supporters, would surely have preferred him to stay although only in the sense that Feyenoord fans would have preferred Morten Olsen to stick around at Ajax a little longer in the wake of his wife’s disappearance (presumed overboard) from a ship so that they could keep on enquiring of him at games: “ Morten, where’s your wife? Morten, Morten where’s your wife?”

Mowbray handled his exit this week with a fair amount of dignity, conscious no doubt that while he did not get to keep all of the players he wanted to or sign the potential replacements he had identified; he had few complaints in the end.

Celtic go into this weekend 10 points adrift of Rangers having played two league games more. Their rivals did better than in Europe – or, more precisely, just as badly but in the group stages of a better competition – and have already won one cup. Walter Smith’s side are clearly no world beaters – conceding 10 goals in three Champions league home games against Unirea Urziceni, Stuttgart and Seville sort of underlined that – but they have made more of a knack of putting the weaker sides away over the course of the campaign while also winning a majority of this season’s Old Firm games.

The Bhoys have had their chances to get back into the title race since Christmas. Rangers were flying around then, scoring 27 goals in December alone, but they have looked poor enough at times since. They have been fortunate, however, in that Celtic never had the wherewithal to string together the serious run of wins required to close the gap.

The rather expensive recruitment of Robbie Keane has not made the hoped for difference despite his nine goals in all competitions and Mowbray might, in any case, reflect that his problems were more tied up with the loss of Gary Caldwell in Wigan in the January window. The Scotland captain is no great shakes really but was something of an inspirational figure within the side, organising and firing up those around him. To be wildly outbid in terms of wages by the Premier League’s most poorly supported club – they basically doubled what he was being offered to stay at Parkhead – is not good and the manager must have rued the fact that he would almost certainly have been in a much better position to keep the defender had he still been in charge of West Brom.

Anyway, they could have used Caldwell – or something…anything – at St Mirren on Wednesday night. The Paisley club hadn’t scored in their previous three outings and hadn’t managed more than one in a game since the 3-1 Cup defeat of mighty Alloa back in January. Four isn’t the most they’d scored all season, though. Oh no, they’d bettered it once, back on the opening day of their competitive season when they saw off East Stirling 6-3 in the first round of the League Cup. Clearly, they’d tightened up at the back a bit since then.

So, Neil Lennon gets to take up for at least a little while with a Scottish Cup and the salvaging of a little pride still to aim for. The Irishman may well be a little more pragmatic than Mowbray whose emphasis on attractive, attacking play seemed to cost his side at times. At the very least, though, you’d expect there to be some sort of bounce this weekend against a rather ordinary Kilmarnock side much I suspect Spurs, without Keane, will have enough about them to fairly comfortably beat a Portsmouth side whose focus on the cup semi-final (also against Tottenham) will have been clarified somewhat by the midweek hammering at the hands of Chelsea.  

Bets

€25 doubles on…

Celtic (-1.5/2) to beat Kilmarnock and Spurs (-1.5/2) to beat Portsmouth @ 3.42.

Burnley v Blackburn to produce three goals or more plus Manchester City (-1/1.5) to beat Wigan @ 3.51.

Birmingham City (+1) to beat Arsenal and Hull City v Fulham to end in a draw @ 6.46.

St Pats (0) to win at Dundalk and UCD to beat Bray Wanderers @ 3.3.

Us bookies certainly couldn’t complain about results last week whether at Cheltenham or around the county grounds. Fancied odds-on chances getting turned over was the order of the week: Kerry were GAA punters’ ‘Dunguib’, Tyrone their ‘Masterminded’ and Cork perhaps their ‘Big Bucks’ – the one banker that didn’t let punters down.

It would take a disintegration of epic proportions for Down to miss out on promotion to football’s top tier. Armagh and Donegal jostle in their slipstream to further the Ulster contingent in Division 1. However it may well be a case of two up, two down as a look at our relegation prices will indicate.

It pained me to chalk 2/7 alongside our sponsored county for the drop but Derry really have a lot of work to do to pick up the required points.
Monaghan are next in the betting at 4/7 to go down, they are two points ahead of Tyrone and Derry in the table, while they also have the cushion of a better points average than Galway. However the devil of detail here reveals Monaghan short-strawed with unenviable assignments on the road to Mayo and Kerry. Seamus McEneaney’s men will do well to add to their current four points at all.

There’s little between Galway and Tyrone in the book at 7/4 and 13/8 respectively, but it’s Tyrone that the punters have latched on to in this market. Any feeling that a corner had been turned following Tyrone’s hard earned win over Cork was swiftly undermined as they failed miserably last Sunday against an understrength but very motivated Galway team.

Admittedly there were men missing for Tyrone, but where are the men who will become the men?

Such is the brevity of the National League competition that Kerry, while most likely to find equilibrium in mid table, are 8/1 chances to be relegated and also 50/1 outsiders to go on and win the trophy! The format of the inter-county competitions come in for regular criticism but it must be said that when a team can still be relegated and also win the league with only two games to go it certainly gives every game a bit of meaning.

Looking through the form for this week’s games, my eye is drawn to Offaly and the fact they have either won or lost each of their five games in this campaign by one to three points – winning at home three times and losing away twice. It would be negligent of us all not to punt them going under by 1-3 points on our Winning Margin market away to Cavan on Saturday evening. It’s a 3/1 chance at Ladbrokes.com.

Punt On!

Nobody could argue that Ulster football is fiercely competitive, but the opening five rounds of the National Football League have illustrated that this season, the northern counties appear to be struggling to keep pace with the best teams in the country. The province is performing really well in division two and somewhat hit and miss in division three, but in division one the stark reality was brought home this week when Ladbrokes released odds on which counties would get relegated and the three Ulster counties headed the market.

Tyrone, Derry and Monaghan have recorded four wins out of fifteen games between them – but when games against each other are stripped away, they have won one out of nine games against southern opposition – and that was Tyrone’s somewhat fortuitous win over Cork in Omagh, a game which could easily have been closed out by the Rebels had they defended their goals a little better.

The implications for the championship are as yet unclear in that Tyrone have a lot of players to bring back in, while there is a case for making Down the number two contenders among northern counties, however what is clear is that it’s far from assured that Tyrone will pick up the points that they need to survive in the coming two weeks. Home advantage against Dublin and Kerry will stand to them, but just as Mickey Harte is likely to put a lot of emphasis on these two matches, so too will Pat Gilroy and Jack O’Connor. O’Connor in particular is likely to travel to Omagh with all guns blazing – his reputation as manager suffered for the fact that he never got the chance to atone for the defeats that his Kerry teams experienced at the hands of Tyrone and he will not rest until he has won an All Ireland while slaying the Red Hand demon on the way.

Dublin too have suffered a few famous defeats to Tyrone and Pat Gilroy’s men are likely to be in a do or die situation in terms of league final qualification when they travel to Omagh in the final round. The potential to send Tyrone through the trapdoor and down into division two is only likely to push them on further. Weaknesses in the Dublin ranks were exposed last weekend, but they have time to address that and can set the ship to rights against Galway this week.

However from a betting point of view, the 13/8 about Tyrone making the drop is very appealing simply because even if Tyrone do pick up one win out of the two matches, as is the most likely outcome, they are still in real trouble. Galway shouldn’t win in Dublin on Saturday night, but if they need a win to survive on the last day of the season against Derry in Pearse Stadium, they should get it. Monaghan, the other likely contenders, have two very tricky games away to Kerry and to Mayo, but even if we do assume that they lose both matches, they have six points in scoring difference advantage on Tyrone right now. For Monaghan to lose to both Kerry and Mayo is one thing – for them to lose by six or more points between the two games is quite another. That obviously presumes that if Tyrone win one game and lose one game that their margins are the same, but that’s a reasonable best guess.

Overall, Monaghan still have a bit to do to avoid the drop, but their excellent win last weekend in Scotstown has given them every chance, and more importantly, it has kept their fate in their own hands. Tyrone on the other hand need either two wins of their own, or they need favours. They have the quality and the experience to do it, but at 13/8, the value money says that they’ll fall short. A 3pt bet at 13/8 on Tyrone to be relegated is recommended.

March mayhem continues today and tomorrow with another full round of national league games taking place in both codes. Competitive hurling fixtures are few and far between this week, with the meeting of Cork and Waterford likely to be the only high profile fixture where a straightforward win for the favourites isn’t widely anticipated. There will probably be a few nervous Wexford supporters in advance of their trip to Dr Cullen Park, but for competitive bets this weekend, it’s definitely the big ball code that has a lot more to offer us.

Dublin’s trip to Cork is certainly a fixture that should draw a large crowd into Pairc Ui Chaoimh with both sides going well, and there is no question but that the Dubs are the most attractive looking underdog team in the top flight this weekend. Cork played well in Omagh last week and were unlucky to come away without anything to show for their efforts, but the concession of the three goals will have upset Conor Counihan, himself a man who rarely allowed opposition forwards too much leeway in his playing days. The result itself won’t have been too much of a concern, but his side are in for another humdinger of a clash tonight and could find their league final place beginning to slip away if they’re not careful.

Dublin have been motoring under Pat Gilroy and crucially, they have dug out results in venues where traditionally they tended to struggle. The loss of the two under 21 players, particularly Ross O’Carroll, will be a blow to Dublin’s chances, but if they can retain the same physicality and unity of purpose that was very evident in Parnell Park a week ago, the visitors can take this game to the wire. A speculative 1pt bet on Dublin at the 2/1 on offer is recommended.

Mayo and Kerry is not really a punting game with Mayo tending to struggle in Munster and Kerry still not at full swing, while Monaghan should edge out Derry but would have been much more appealing at even money or 11/10 rather than the 5/6 on offer.

The meeting of Galway and Tyrone in Tuam Stadium is another intriguing clash with both of these teams well aware that defeat here will make relegation a likelihood, if not a certainty. Galway will have to cope without their talismanic corner forward Michael Meehan, who misses out due to a knee injury, and for that reason alone, Tyrone look by far the more likely winners. Micky Harte is still operating without several key performers of his own, but Meehan has carried this Galway attacking unit so far this year and the contrast between how the team looked with him and without him last week when taking on Kerry was very stark.

Tuam stadium will always be the spiritual home of Galway football and they will probably get a bit of a lift from coming back to familiar territory, but they simply have too much to do here. A 3pt bet on Tyrone at 4/7 is our second recommendation of the weekend.

It’s a brave punter who would attempt to split Armagh and Down in division two tonight, while absolutely anything could happen when Donegal travel to play in Semple Stadium. The Tir Chonail men are painfully inconsistent and could not be trusted with bad money at odds on, but the fact that a loss here will put them into the relegation melting pot should concentrate their minds enough to get them past a decent but limited Tipperary team.

Westmeath have to improve eventually from their appallingly low base and Kildare were poor last week, but it’s stall a brave man who would back the Lakers to take anything out of Newbridge. Brendan Hackett’s team might not be hammered but they will lose, while in Navan, Laois will fancy their chances against a Meath side that hasn’t pulled up any trees. Laois are very comfortable under lights and they’re exactly the kind of side that might cause Meath a few problems, particularly when moving the ball through midfield, but 15/8 is too short a price when the home record of the Royal county is factored in.

Antrim played some fantastic football the last time they came to Tullamore and almost recorded a famous win over Kerry so they’ll have no fear of travelling to O’Connor Park tomorrow. Offaly are another Jekyll and Hyde team when it comes to home and away form however and with Michael Magill missing out, Antrim have been robbed of exactly the type of player who could discommode the Offaly full back line. A lot will depend on the performance of a remodelled Offaly half forward line. Last weekend Sligo scraped past Offaly largely because of the dominance they exerted under the breaking ball and in moving the play through this sector. Antrim offer a very similar threat, with Justin Crozier and Tony Scullion each among the best footballing half backs in Ireland. Nonetheless, Offaly have shown glimpses of some good attacking play this year and might yet sneak a high scoring game.

From a betting perspective however, the most interesting division three game is the meeting of Wexford and Fermanagh in Wexford Park. Wexford have brought back in Ciaran Deeley into their attack and they look to be building nicely right now. There remain some quesion marks over their midfield unit and full back line players, but they have a lot less issues than the visitors. The season is going from bad to worse for Fermanagh and last weekend’s loss will have been a huge blow. With local derbies against Sligo and Cavan still to come, Fermanagh could easily find themselves is bother this year and Wexford Park is not the place to turn that around. Ryan Keenan will give them a little bit more penetration and zest in the corner, but at 1/2, Wexford are an excellent proposition for odds on backers and they will be getting 4pts of this column’s money this week.

Expect Sligo to continue their good form with a win over Cavan, but favourite backers would do well to tread carefully before wading in on Louth to beat Roscommon. Roscommon have a good track record against the Wee County and they will have been boosted by their excellent under 21 win in midweek. They played some nice football in patches against Antrim and cannot be discounted. This match is one to watch rather than keep an eye on.

Finally to division four, where Leitrim should win but are still way too short, and where Longford couldn’t be too short even if they were a million to one on. The meeting of Clare and Carlow could go either way but Clare’s momentum and the disappointment in the Carlow camp after their shattering under-21 defeat might make the difference, while Wicklow will know that their home game against Limerick represents a huge opportunity. Limerick remain the best team in this division, but their shock home defeat to Waterford was a huge setback. A loss to Wicklow could leave it out of their hands whether or not they can finish in the top two and Wicklow would fancy their chances in a division four final against any other opponent. Aughrim is a tough venue to visit and Limerick should be up against it, but there’s still a nagging feeling that Mick O’Dwyer teams should never be backed in the league and so we’ll leave the 11/8 alone in this instance.

For real GAA enthusiasts, it’s difficult not to get caught up in the romance of the All Ireland club finals. No single day in the GAA calendar has such a wonderful tradition of throwing up pairings that can whet the appetite for a variety of reasons, and in 2010, the pairings couldn’t be better if they were chosen by hand at the start of the year. The hurling contest sees two of the most celebrated clubs in the land going head to head in the final pairing that everyone wanted to see since last year’s one-sided semi final in Thurles. Each side will line out with one of the best hurlers of the modern day in their starting forward line, and with wonderfully contrasting approaches in terms of how to hurl and create scores. They represent East vs West and the game also serves as an excellent form guide in advance of Galway’s assault on Kilkenny’s Leinster crown later this year.

Neither of the protagonists in the football decider have ever lifted the Andy Merrigan Cup meaning that this game will have all the romance of a first time winner, combined with subplots revolving around defence vs attack, David vs Goliath and urban vs rural.

However while St Galls and Kilmurry-Ibrickane are a wonderful final pairing from a writing point of view, they are also wonderful from a betting point of view – in that the romance has led the bookies to price it up as if an upset is possible, when in actual fact it’s hugely unlikely. Ask any St Galls player about All Ireland club finals and most of them will tell you that the day passes you by in the blink of an eye. The majority of this St Galls team are of course featuring in their second final, having just lost out to Salthill-Knocknacarra four years ago. It’s reasonable to assume that St Patrick’s day of 2006 was a black day in the memory for all of those West Belfast lads, but tomorrow is the day when that experienced can be harnessed and when reparation can be made, all while KIB are still getting to terms with the occasion.

This column recommended Kilmurry-Ibrickane to win the Munster decider against Kerins O’Rahilly’s but has opposed them ever since – and remains of the view that they are simply out of their depth at this stage. As this line is being typed, this columnist is all too aware that a rod for my own back is being fashioned with every tap of the keys, but all the same it is just too difficult to envisage a team like KIB winning a game like this. Portlaoise imploded, in every sense of the word, in the All Ireland semi final and if Galls can avoid doing the same, as Off the Ground expects, then they can take that crucial final step. Players like Kevin and CJ McGourty will get nothing easy off this Quilty backline, but they are well versed in the art of thriving off scraps and they can ensure that Wednesday will be a great day for Antrim football.

In the spirit of in for a penny, in for a pound, we’re going to oppose KIB one last time. A 3pt bet on St Galls minus three points at even money is the recommended bet in this game.

With their rich history, the meeting of Portumna and Ballyhale is likely to be savoured by neutrals, but from a betting perspective, the bookies seem to have got it right. Last Autumn this column recommended backing Portumna at 4/7 and opposing Ballyhale at 5/2. The easy answer would be to suggest that Ballyhale have proved that assessment wrong, but another way of looking at things would be that since then Ballyhale endured two very tough games against Oulart the Ballagh and Newtownshandrum and negotiated another very dangerous tie extremely well in beating Ballyboden St Endas. Despite clearing three hurdles of such a magnitude, they remain comfortably odds against. If you did back at 5/2, you’d have been hoping to be in a much better position for having endured so many nervous Sundays.

There is a nagging feeling that the Kilkenny and Leinster champions deserve better after what they’ve achieved, both previously and in the last six months, but the simple fact is that Portumna have been devastating in recent years and while they have been relatively untested since starting their 2009/10 campaign, they have proven that they can own the stage on All Ireland final day.

Whether you have a bet running or not, this game is simply a match to savour, not really one to punt. Four or more goals at 11/10 looks enticing enough for those who feel that a wager is mandatory when a great sporting occasion rolls around, but it’s not good enough to warrant a recommendation, and certainly not when the football provides such an excellent money making option instead.