Mickey Harte is a man I think the world of, he's perhaps the best manager in the game and three Tyrone All Ireland's for a team that never held the title before his arrival prove the class of the man. This year has been a particularly painful one for Mickey and one journalist close to him at this time was Brian Carthy but his actions, meditated out of loyalty to Brian look way over the top. GAA managers have no right to demand how RTE coverage of the matches is handled. I have no idea why Brian Carthy is not their anchor commentator on the RTE radio one but I don't understand why they pay planks like Pat Kenny and Ryan Tubrity those type of wages either or why they commission any TV programme starring Katherine Lynch but if RTE backtracked now and promoted Carthy surely that would be a tainted promotion now judging by the method by which it's achieved. Onto this weekend's football and hurling.
Leitrim vs Roscommon-Sunday 2:00
Leitrim's victory over Sligo shocked many but not me. Mickey Moran, another RTE shunner, has Leitrim playing well and their fitness appears higher than any season before. Their trainer,
Oliver Cummings is the trainer for Paul McCloskey so baring a stop for cuts, expect Leitrim to motor to the final whistle. Roscommon, last season's surprise champions, overcame New York easily last month but I expect they will be slow out the gate.
Back a half time-full time result Leitrim to be leading at half time-Roscommon win at full time at 4/1
Cavan vs Donegal-Sunday 3:30
Donegal play one tough minded game in horrid weather against Aintrim and suddenly the whole
world is calling them the Ugliest team since Don Reeves' Leeds. I think it's a tad harsh and Donegal need to block out all the media and just play their way. Michael Murphy picked up a leg infection last week but has been passed fit to start while Rory Kavanagh and Michael Hegarty are also shaking off niggles. This test looks harder than the bookies odds suggest and Cavan, with home advantage and a hole host of debutantes from their U-21 Ulster champions team could be absolutely anything. Betting wise the most appealing bet would be Cavan in receipt of a 3 point start.Cavan +3 at 6/5
Carlow vs Louth & Wexford vs Westmeath
Hard to see anything but a Louth win and will strike as the safest moneybuyer match of the weekend at 1/4 while Wexford hope to carry on the momentum of that hammering of Offaly by seeing past Westmeath with a big home crowd behind them for a double header for Wexford. I think the odds though look wrong on this occasion as Wexford will need to improve again from that match and Westmeath were excellent in Division 3 this season up to their loss to Louth.
On to the Hurling
Wexford vs Kilkenny-Sat 7:00
To regular readers of this blog I won't lie to you. Follow my tips on the Gaelic football and you have a good chance of profiting. Follow my tips on the hurling and you'll end up in the potless, just like me. There is a real buzz around Wexford around this game, confidence is high that they can achieve an upset against their biggest rivals. However one caveat there is despite losing the
final to Dublin, Kilkenny did still finish top of the table and while suddenly as big 7/4 to win the Liam McCarthy cup, their rivals are not 66/1 for another other reason than the gap is still huge.Kilkenny to win by 8 or more at 10/11 to make it a weekend double header to forget for Wexford.
