Last week, we advised a bet on over 1.5 goals in the meeting of Portlaoise and Clara, and we were on course for a payout with one goal scored by half way before the sadly necessary intervention of referee Joe Curley ensured that refunded stakes was the outcome.

That bet was advised last week on the basis that both of these teams are capable of scoring goals, and having been in attendance for the 35 minutes of football that was played, this bet should definitely be re-struck this week, as both sides demonstrated their ability to get in and create goal chances, even in atrocious conditions.

(more…)

As we look out our collective windows and wave at our neighbours rowing past, happily adapting to the nation’s new status as the next Atlantis, it may seem to many people as if it’s slightly pointless to get involved in betting on any of the weekend’s games. Such has been the level of rainfall that unless fixtures get moved to neutral venues on continental Europe, the strong likelihood is that most of the ties arranged for this weekend will fall by the wayside. Every one of the ties are taking place in either the west, south or midlands, with no action going ahead in the east or north-east, which has escaped the worst of the conditions.

(more…)

It’s not difficult to make a case for either Galway or Waterford this weekend. Galway have been very impressive so far this season, competing well against Kilkenny before securing solid and well deserved wins over Clare and Cork. They’ve clearly addressed a few key problem positions on the field, and Joe Canning is no longer their only outlet for scores.

Waterford on the other hand have been really struggling to ignite and if anything they have taken over from Galway and become hurling’s main one man show, with John Mullane making a legitimate case for a hurler of the year award amidst a team which has otherwise been lethargic and disappointing. Nonetheless it should not be forgotten that they have been trained all year to peak around now and they also secured a few huge wins last season when, it could be argued, their form was no better than it is at the moment. 9/4 looks to be a huge price about a team that has not lost to Galway in their last seven championship meetings, though it must be said that most of those games are a part of history rather than form. If Waterford do get their act together they could cause Galway a lot of problems, but unfortunately that looks like a big “if”.

(more…)

Last week, this column made reference to what we call “The Jersey Test”. The idea is very simple; when assessing teams, it’s no harm to remove any of the allure or stigma that is associated with a particular team and see if that affects your reading of the game. Meath footballers are the perfect example of just such a team. Over the years they have beaten, battered and bruised so many teams into submission that the mere uttering of their name evokes an automatic level of respect.

(more…)

We’re all told that stereotyping is a negative trait to be avoided at all costs, yet sometimes it’s just too hard to avoid. Ulster football is just one of those situations. Honestly, if two red headed Irish lads landed into Piccadilly Circus in London wearing green clothes and drunk on whiskey and started beating each other up with shillelaghs while singing about the Famine, it wouldn’t be any more of a ridiculous parody of a famous stereotype than what went on in Celtic Park last Sunday – except that what we saw on TV was no parody, but simply Ulster football at it’s grim and gruesome best.

(more…)

Viewers of the live double header on RTE television tomorrow look very likely to see two very different games throwing in at 2pm and 4pm. First off is the clash of Monaghan and Derry and while Off the Ground stands by the view espoused in the previous article that Monaghan are very live contenders for this game, particularly with the two point handicap on their side, this column is nonetheless very aware that a blank sheet in terms of goals scored by the Farney men is very much a live possibility.

Tommy Freeman is a fine corner forward, but even he will struggle to break down this Derry full back line and if he can’t raise a green flag, his team-mates will find it doubly hard to do so.

(more…)

GAA dressing rooms in January are an odd environment, a distant cousin to the tense and energised setting that one finds in the summer. For every enthusiastic teenager with energy to burn and a point to prove, there’s a grizzled veteran in his early thirties who has been through it all before and knows well that the summer is a long way away yet. For every local lad who’s been pounding the roads over Christmas making sure that any traces of turkey have long been burnt away, there’s yet another lad who’s been burning sambucas deep into the night without a thought towards the calorific content in the glass, or even the crisp weather and mucky pitches that lie in waiting, ready to severely punish any such flamboyancy of lifestyle.

(more…)