Worth closing out with a cover on Clara
November 24th, 2009 by Kevin EganFewer games than might have been expected fell by the wayside last weekend, with three of the five games that had been arranged playing out to a conclusion. The Connacht decider was unsurprisingly called off relatively early, while in Portlaoise, referee Joe Curley was left with little choice but to bring matters to a premature conclusion when he saw the conditions that prevailed at the start of the second half.
Indeed for those who follow this blog and its recommendations, the Meath official’s decision was extremely welcome. Portlaoise had played with the advantage of a stiff but tricky breeze in the first half, and Clara were definitely the happier team going in at half time level pegging. Stephen Deehan’s point at the start of the second half was taken with the kind of relaxed kicking stroke that simply wasn’t an option in the first half, and with Thomas Deehan also playing extremely well in the inside line, Clara were definitely odds on to progress had the match played to a natural conclusion.
The refixture takes place this Saturday in Portlaoise, and the issue for those with a current position on the Leinster Championship outright, or indeed those currently uninvolved, is whether or not the market currently reflects the state of play of the three clubs involved. Clara were at least a match for Portlaoise last Sunday in the thirty five minutes of play that took place and their excellent use of foot passing over ranges of twenty and thirty yards really discommoded Portlaoise’s pressure defence. Portlaoise manager John Mulligan is unlikely to let the lessons from last Sunday go unheeded, but the evidence is stacking up that Clara are not just an unspectacular club team that pulled off a shock win over Rhode, but that they are right at home in this kind of company.
The bookmakers continue to view Clara as three point outsiders looking for a shock result this weekend, but this column is not so sure that this is the case. Portlaoise at 8/11 to win Leinster outright is way too short to justify punting after a shock to the system like this, particularly in the light of an excellent display from Garrycastle in Mullingar last Sunday. This column has bets running on Portlaoise at 6/4 and Garrycastle at 16/1, and bearing in mind that the Offaly champions still look very dangerous, a covering 1pt bet on Clara at 6/1 is definitely in order right now.
From an All Ireland perspective, our existing position on Corofin is perfectly healthy, however Garrycastle very definitely entered the list of potential contenders on Sunday. The poor standard of football on display in Munster was also a factor in this regard in that neither Kerins O’Rahillys nor Kilmurry-Ibrickane look strong enough to go the whole way, meaning that Garrycastle are probably the second most likely team after Portlaoise to reach the final from that side of the draw. Indeed Sunday’s football threw up the very real possibility that no Munster team will play in the All Ireland semi-final at all. Based on the form shown by the Kerry and Clare representatives, this year is the best chance Tír Chonaill Gaels have had to win a quarter final since they started lording the London scene, and in familiar territory in January, they could cause the Munster champions real problems.
Garrycastle would be underdogs in any hypothetical final since the odds of neither Corofin nor St Galls making the decider are few and far between, but at 14/1, it’s could be worth getting a small interest on the Westmeath men into the portfolio now. A natural distrust of Westmeath men in the latter stages of All-Ireland competitions, bred into all West Offaly Gaels from a young age, prevents Off the Ground from going on record and staking on this selection, but they have been handed a huge advantage now in that either Portlaoise or Clara will be going out for their third week in a row in the Leinster decider, while a win for Kilmurry-Ibrickane in Munster, also a distinct possibility, would also greatly shorten their All-Ireland price, were a victory for the Claremen come to pass.
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Tags: Championship, Clara, Football, Garrycastle, Leinster Club
Categories: Gaelic Football
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