After the furore surrounding the last round of group games and the somewhat farcical fixture in Ballyagran between Emmets and Adare, most GAA people in Limerick will be relieved to get back to straight knockout hurling this weekend.
Most pundits in the county would be in reasonable agreement over the likely winners this week, while the Patrickswell versus Adare tie is the only fixture where opinion is likely to be largely divided on the most likely winners.
Paddy Powers make Emmets out to be the shortest priced favourites of the lot at 1/7 and while they would easily beat Garryspillane on the form that they showed in the first two games of the year, the fixing of two intermediate quarter finals for Saturday involving Blackrock and Dromin/Athlacca won’t be a help as that will put pressure on key players from Emmets. Garryspillane were not highly rated at the start of the year but that was largely due to question marks surrounding their scoring power. They were the third highest scoring team in the group stages behind only Kilmallock and Adare and as we all know, Adare’s high total was perhaps not entirely down to the strength of their forward line.
As with all long shot bets, a fair degree of luck will be required for us to cash in but at 9/2, Garryspillane could easily be the best bet of the weekend.
Na Piarsaigh are 1/4 with Powers to beat Ahane and while the champions haven’t exactly been models of consistency this year, they still should have way too much class for Ahane, regardless of Niall Moran’s Indian summer. The county final last year illustrated the gulf between these two clubs and even if that was a flattering scoreline, 10/3 Ahane suggests that they would be underdogs by around four or five points. If there was handicap betting available, we’d be suggesting that Na Piarsaigh would cover that spread and so by extension they are a decent 1/4 bet.
Kilmallock, at 1/5, will be similarly fancied to beat Croom, who shipped eight goals in three group games, which leaves us with the battle between age old rivals Patrickswell and Adare.
Adare were seen by some people as the bad guys after profiting from the anomaly in the group stages, but the situation was hardly their fault since they could only beat the team that was put out in front of them. Their forward line is still one of the most impressive units in the county but Patrickswell have been immense defensively, which is probably no surprise when we allow for the fact that they are coached by Clare legend Brian Lohan. “Attackers win games but defenders win championships” is the old adage and that should apply here. Stick with the ‘Well at 8/11.
