Galway take on Cork & Clare

Tribes and Banners

If I said to you that standing in Galway’s way of a first All Ireland Hurling title in 25 years was Clare, Limerick and Dublin, how would you feel? Pretty confident if we examined the last 5 years of form but in this crazy year of hurling Galway are only the fourth favourites to lift Liam at 6/1. Yes Galway were abysmal against Dublin. Holes in their defence have to be plugged with Kevin Hynes in particular needing to find his feet quickly or face the bench but that was Galway’s first proper game of the championship and I expect them to come on leaps and bounds like last season when they were poor in early stages of Leinster before coming alive against Kilkenny. One game at a time will need to be the mantra inside the camp and Clare will pose the perfect challenge. They too possess weakness in defence but don’t have the class of a ‘Joe Canning’ in the forwards and if Galway wins the midfield battle, as I suspect they will, they’ll win by 4-6 points at 4/1. Clare’s goal ratio of 6- 2 is impressive but Davy’s men will struggle to prevent Galway’s forwards hitting the back of the net. Win in Thurles and suddenly the bandwagon will be hitched again with an All Ireland looking attainable. Kilkenny are still alive, in fact it looks like only they and cockroaches would survive an apocalypse, but Galway people need to lose the negativity and realise 6/1 might look smashing value come next Monday morning.
Match Prices: Galway 8/11, Clare 6/5, Draw 10/1

Off to Croker

Speaking of negativity, Galway football has been under a cloud for the last 5 seasons at senior level and support has been at an all time low. I can report that most GAA punters deserted them in the betting but win they did and what a shot in the arm it could be. Galway has talent and although it’s going to be a tough climb to the summit, they deserve our support all the way. Cork is a free shot as nobody genuinely expects Galway to win again. Yes Galway did beat Armagh and Cork in 2001 but let’s be real, there is a massive gap between Division One and Two but who out there thought Galway would play in Croke Park in the height of summer this season?
Match Prices: Galway 9/2, Cork 1/6, Draw 10/1