Posts Tagged ‘All Ireland club championship’
Most GAA fans would agree that it’s great to have the league back, but that there’s still nothing like championship. As a result, this weekend Sunday is definitely the day to head out for a walk, or go to the shops to look at carpets, or whatever it is that the other half would have you do – because Saturday should be an excellent day’s viewing on the box. Yours truly doesn’t get the chance to be a couch potato too often but the opportunity will certainly be taken up tomorrow, starting with the Sigerson Cup final at 2pm.
Readers of Off the Ground could be forgiven for wondering whether or not this column will ever let a Kilmurry-Ibrickane game go by without taking an opinion one way or another, but having taken a variety of views on the Clare and Munster Champions up to this point, there’s hardly any point in stopping now. The Claremen are simply the kind of team that don’t follow the usual script when it comes to betting, and that’s ideal for the purposes of this column.
The battle hardened men from the Banner County were definitely underestimated this year in a Munster context, but it should not be forgotten that this was a Munster championship shorn of any leading contender along the lines of a Dr. Crokes or a Nemo Rangers flagship team. The first round against Dromcollogher Broadford was probably the most likely game in which Kilmurry could have slipped up and once they negotiated that challenge, they were unlikely to miss out on their Munster crown.
In theory, the process of identifying a good antepost bet should be relatively straightforward. Either some personal insight or else a standout price leads you to your selection, you pay your money and take your chances. This year’s antepost market for the All Ireland club hurling is somewhat different from that, in that it’s easy enough to see the bad value, meaning that the good value should be in there somewhere, though at first glance, it’s tricky to see it.
Thus, let’s take a good full look at the runners and riders, with a view to identifying where the money is best placed by eliminating all the clubs which are simply way too short to even contemplate backing.
As was discussed previously in this column, bookmakers often don’t give antepost books the care and attention that they deserve. The reasoning is simple enough – most punters don’t have the patience to put their money down for months at a time, so the compilers know that errors will go unpunished more often than not.
The greater length of time between striking the bet and collecting also allows for a greater amount of random factors to enter into the equation, but nevertheless, the opportunities for finding value are usually a lot more plentiful in antepost markets.
