Last week we had a look at which counties appeared to be moving well in the preseason competitions, but just as some teams are overachieving, others are falling a little short of where they need to be and they too should be looked at, with a view to opposing them in the earlier stages of the national league or simply towards being fully informed before acting in any form.
Of course preseason competition cannot be treated too seriously and in no way should it be taken as a reliable form guide, but it remains very difficult to break a losing habit or to get players to turn around their form no matter how irrelevant the games are where such enthusiasm is expected. Preseason form should never be a primary factor in striking a bet, but it could be enough to turn an inclination into either a strong bet, or alternatively into a decision not to bet at all.
In Leinster, Laois and Westmeath both look to be well short of the standard required to compete even moderately in in division two. This column has already recommended a wager on Kildare to win the group and a saving stake on the Ulster province to lift the trophy, but that feeling has certainly been reinforced by the struggles of the two midland counties. Westmeath have endured a lot of turmoil over the winter and their loss to DCU was somewhat forgiveable in the sense that DCU are an extremely strong college team, nonetheless Brendan Hackett is unlikely to be able to plug too many gaps in the early stages and their first round match against Donegal looks for now to be of huge importance. If the Lakers fail to put points on the board against Donegal, they certainly shouldn’t against either Armagh or Meath in Crossmaglen and Navan respectively and will be in real bother come mid march.
Laois have a better chance of a fast start with a home tie against Tipperary, but the likely suspension of several of their key players won’t help matters and they are unlikely to cause any problems for the big guns, even if they do get their show on the road earlier.
In division one, Monaghan have been extrely weak and this column previously thought that their first round fixture against Cork in Scotstown looked very appealing from a betting point of view where once we would have looked at Monaghan at anything shorter than 2/1, now 9/4 or 5/2 would be needed before we could realistically consider the Farney county as a betting proposition. That may yet happen as this Cork team has a lot of heavy backers behind them usually, but more likely is odds of 1/2 Cork and 2/1 Monaghan, in which case no bet would be the call.
As in the case above, previous recommendations, i.e. backing Cork to finish in the bottom four in this instance, remain valid until stated otherwise.
For our last county, we’re staying in Ulster and advising readers that one treads warily before getting involved with Cavan. The Breffni boys have had very little to cheer about in recent years and this column simply does not rate them as anything like as good as most of their Ulster counterparts, but their range of footballing talent cannot be ignored. Seanie Johnston, Dermot Sheridan and Ronan Flanagan are three excellent footballers who will be playing a huge role in DCU’s bid to pick up the Sigerson Cup and until they come back into the Cavan colours properly, the management likely to be short of good leading young talent.
