GAA for the weekend

A couple of football games to chose from today but with home venue playing such a vital part of any teams chances its kind of hard to find value.

Limerick V Kildare

One that looks good to me is Limerick to progress to the next round at the expense of Kildare. Limerick were ruthless last weekend in their demolition of hot favourites Meath and have been priced up as best priced 1.73 chances for this game. They discovered an amazing new talent in Ian Ryan who scored 3 - 7, a remarkable individual score for any player. Obviously his cover is blown now but i would expect him to be well marked and if Kildare make the mistake of concentrating on him then they will be punished by the other forwards. Confidence is high amongst Limerick now and on home soil should have enough to take their championship through to the next round. Kildare needed a last minute goal last weekend against Cavan to make it this far. Their over reliance on Doyle in the last few years has hindered their progress and they now find it hard to make scoring chances.

Verdict
Limerick are full of confidence and playing at home should give them an extra 2 or 3 point advantage that should see them win by 3 0r 4 points. They have the better overall play and create more scoring chances which will give them the edge.


Laois V Down

Two teams here that you just cannot rely on for betting purposes, too often both win when they shouldn't and lose games that they should win at a canter. Down start as favourites and rightly so but Laois on their own patch are a tough nut to crack. Based on form though you would have to plump for the Mourne men and they certainly in good scoring form grabbing 5 - 19 in their last outing against Offaly. il keep it short here, i think that this has the potential to be an open entertaining game and i think we could see a few goals in this. Benny Coulter has an eye for the net and at 8 (paddy power) he certainly is worth a small punt. If this is as open as i expect it to be then i think the best punt is over 2.5 goals at powers. Down scored 5 on their own last weekend and Laois are well capable of getting goals
Over 2.5 goals is my choice


PICKS
Limerick - 1 point (1.91 @ bet365) 4 points 5 points

Laois V Down over 2.5 goals ( 2.5 @ paddy power) 4 points
Benny Coulter 1st goalscorer (8 @ paddy power) 1 point

1 year anniversary of the blog

One year in and the blog is 117 points in profit overall. I have had some good months and some bad months but i guess anytime your showing a profit over a long period of time then you must be doing something right. Over the course of the year im showing a 12% profit so while many others claim to win all the time i wont. 12% may not sound like a massive increase in the bank but its much better than being -12% !
Im busy trying to make time to work on the new website, as im a bit of an amatuer at these things its taking a little longer than i forecasted. Other than that im more or less waiting for the football to start up again. The Irish season is running at the moment but its not a league i ever really got into and i find it hard enough to predict at times. If anyone is interested in writing a column now and then for the new website then contact me by email and let me know.
Thanks!