What a sporting weekend it proved to be!
 
Chelsea are now the only unbeaten team in the English Premier League after beating Wigan 6-0 at the DW Stadium on Saturday. They have won both of their Premier League games this season by that score. Amazingly, there were no corners conceded by either team in the match.
 
On Sunday, Newcastle also won 6-0 at home to Aston Villa, with Andy Carroll scoring a hat-trick, while Fulham twice came from behind to force a 2-2 draw with Manchester United at Craven Cottage. On Saturday, a Theo Walcott hat-trick set Arsenal on their way to a 6-0 win, the first time that the Premier League has seen three 6-0 wins on the same weekend.
 
The Monday night game is high-spending Manchester City against Liverpool (8pm), with recent acquisition James Milner set to make his debut for City.
 
In Scotland, there were convincing wins for Celtic and Rangers, a Kenny Miller hat-trick earning Rangers a 3-0 win at Hibs after both sides had been reduced to 10 men just before the half-time break.
 
In horse racing, the Jessica Harrington-trained Pathfork burst his way into next year’s classic picture by winning the Group 2 Futurity Stakes at The Curragh, while Dream Ahead did the same when maintaining his unbeaten record in landing Sunday’s Group 1 Prix Morny at Deauville. The David Simcock-trained Dream Ahead’s victory capped a great weekend for young rider William Buick, who also landed the Arlington Million in Chicago over the weekend on the John Gosden-trained Debussy.
 
Also at Deauville, Stacelita fought hard to land the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet and her autumn target remains the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
 
On Saturday night at Shelbourne Park in Dublin, there were a number of shocks in Round 3 of the Irish Greyhound Derby, not least when Makeshift, one of the market leaders pre-Saturday, was eliminated. Heading the betting in most lists now is Tyrur Big Mike, followed by Barefoot Bullet, Definate Opinion, Colourful Champ and Tullymurry Act. The Quarter-Finals are on Sat 28 August.
 
In golf, Peter Hanson moved into an automatic Ryder Cup place by winning the Czech Open, and Arjun Atwal gained his first PGA Tour win when landing the Wyndham Championship. He also became the first Indian player to win on the Tour.
 
In GAA, Cork won a thrilling All-Ireland Football semi-final against Dublin at Croke Park by 1-15 to 1-14. The first time they led in the game was virtually on full-time. In the final, they will play either Kildare or Down, who meet next Sunday in the other semi.
 
In tennis, recent reports of Roger Federer’s demise seem exaggerated following his Cincinnati Masters win on Saturday against Mardy Fish, although he had to come from a set down in winning 6-7, 7-6, 6-4. The Pilot Pen takes centre stage this week, although the Rogers Cup semi-finals had to be moved to Monday following heavy rain over the weekend. The US Open begins on 30 August.
 
In Rugby Union, New Zealand continued their Tri-Nations domination by beating South Africa 29-22 on Saturday, although the Springboks led up until the closing minutes of the game, and, in Rugby League, Wigan won the Super League leader’s shield courtesy of the 38-18 win at Hull KR on Sunday. 
 
Sport, it never disappoints in terms of drama, fascination and achievement.

Cork left it late at Croke Park to claim a one-point victory over Dublin and book their place in the All Ireland football final.

The Rebels staged a second half comeback overcoming a five point deficit to earn a narrow one point win.

Bernard Brogan’s goal after just a minute had put Cork on the back foot and it looked as if that goal would set the Dubs on their way to a first All Ireland final since 1995. They led 1-08 to 0-07 at half time.

A second half revival though, saw Cork chip away at Dublin’s lead and they eventually emerged victorious with a tally of 1-15 to Dublin’s 1-14.

They await the winners of next week’s semi final between Down and Kildare.

Place a €20 bet on Ladbrokes.com’s First Goalscorer market for Dublin v Cork and they’ll give you a free €20 bet on the Down v Kildare First Goalscorer market the following week*.

* Web & Phone offer only

With no championship meeting having taken place between Cork and Dublin for the last fifteen years, a look back at their most recent encounter should, on the face of it, offer little by way of insight into Sunday’s game. From a playing perspective, that 1995 All Ireland semi final was utterly irrelevant, but nonetheless the parallels between that meeting and the semi-final this Sunday are intriguing.

Cork had slowly become the dominant team in Munster back then, but failed to put an All Ireland title on the board, most notably failing to justify favouritism against Derry in 1993. Dublin too were on the back of a sustained run of supremacy in the eastern province that hadn’t yet resulted in a Sam Maguire trophy, but manager Pat O’Neill had put his faith in an unproven full forward whose atypical background was no barrier to his ascent into legendary status with the Hill 16 regulars after a string of crucial goals.

Jason Sherlock’s goal on that 1995 afternoon was the deciding factor in a tight game, and this Sunday, Eoghan O’Gara’s battle with Cork full back Michael Shields is likely to play a big part as Dublin are likely to need to get in behind the Cork defence for a goal or two. On paper, based on concession of scores to his direct opponent, Shields has performed well in 2010, but O’Gara is the most robust opponent he will have faced so far and Shields’ tendency to take full advantage of his “allowance” of two or three fouls when under pressure might not get him out of trouble against the Templeogue player who tends to ignore fouls and continue bullocking forward.

Cork’s win over Roscommon was by far the most underwhelming performance of the four quarter final winners, but allowance must be made for the extremely limited challenge that Roscommon presented in opposition to Cork. The Connacht champions were way out of their depth at that stage of the championship and it was no coincidence that Cork only looked good once the Sheepstealers had the temerity to take the lead early in the second half, essentially rousing their opponents into action. Still, Conor Counihan’s men looked both powerful and directionless in their play at times and could find this Dublin team surprisingly capable of counteracting their pace and movement.

Cork’s dominance of primary possession has been one of their strongest assets in recent years but here too, it’s difficult to make a confident call about how the two sides will match up this weekend. Any one of Murphy, Walsh, O’Connor and Kavanagh could start in the engine room for Cork, while there was no real kickout battle between Dublin and Tyrone since both sides took the short kickout option when it was offered. Dublin have been voracious at devouring breaks but they will expect to concede many more clean catches than they make themselves. This won’t be a problem if they can prevent the Cork wing backs and wing forwards from finding space and the football around the middle third and instead force Cork to play the ball backwards, thus allowing their blanket defence to reset. In this regard, the potential loss of Graham Canty could prove crucial.

More than any other player, Canty is able to take opposition defenders out of the game and create missed tackles, even going through heavy traffic areas in the middle of the field. He’s likely to play some part in Sunday’s match, but if he’s any way short of full fitness, Cork will be missing a crucial aspect of their play.

The match prices of 7/4 about Dublin and 8/13 about Cork already suggest that a fair amount of improvement in form for Cork is priced in, but that expectation might not yet come to pass. Dublin’s full back line is improving with every game and while Pierce O’Niell remains a wild card, Cork’s unsettled forward line might struggle to score with regularity. Dublin are far from the finished article, but in terms of value, they offer much more than the Rebels. A 2pt bet on Dublin at 7/4 is the obvious match betting play in this game, with nerves of steel required for the early stages, when Dublin have tended to struggle in games so far.

Dublin manager Pat Gilroy has made just one change to the team who overcame Tyrone in the All Ireland quarter final, Cian O’Sullivan, a half-time substitute against Tyrone, takes the place of Barry Cahill.

The team is as follows:

1. Stephen Cluxton
2. Michael Fitzsimons
3. Rory O’Carroll
4. Philly McMahon
5. Kevin Nolan
6. Ger Brennan
7. Cian O’Sullivan
8. Ross McConnell
9. Michael Darragh Macauley
10. Niall Corkery
11. Alan Brogan
12. Bryan Cullen
13. David Henry
14. Eoghan O’Gara
15. Bernard Brogan

As soon as the draw was made for this weekend’s quarter finals and Down landed the defending champions, you just knew we were going to be subjected to relentless nostalgia pieces about the olde times. Tradition has its place in our games of course, but lordy it gets spread on a little thick sometimes. Scanning for opinions on the game on the highways and byways of the internet some people believe that Down’s football tradition and proud record will stand to them against Kerry on Saturday – I honestly just can’t accept that at all.

Games played before these players were even born can have no bearing on the outcome of this game whatsoever. What’s gone before is for the media, the fans and the history books. Anyone looking to make money out of the game would be better off tuning out from the Mick O’Dwyer interviews and spend more time analysing this year’s form.

Now a Division 1 team, Down are improvers and can be content with their efforts this year. An extra time win over Donegal and a four point defeat to Tyrone ended the provincial road while skinny wins over Longford and Offaly saw them get a shot against beaten Connacht finalists Sligo. The 19 point win there simply can’t be taken at face value, and I’d be inclined to dismiss it altogether. Four points worse than Tyrone and four points better than Longford is an assessment that holds much more water for me.

Down are at the zenith of their season, but you get the feeling that Kerry are just stretching having stepped out of bed. The Kingdom’s suspension woes are largely offset by the embarrassment of riches they keep in reserve. In line with the Tyrone form, we make Down four points inferior to this Kerry side on our handicap line.

Tyrone’s maturing masters have followed Kerry’s lead by reaching the business end of the season as the crow flies, duffing up some provincial neighbours as a warm up before setting foot in Croke Park. Tyrone have had some great battles with Dublin over the last decade but this is arguably the weakest Dublin side they will have met in championship football under Mickey Harte’s reign.

Dublin’s true form is hard to pin down. The Louth win has too many mitigating circumstances for us to say Dublin are worthy of a semi-final place. Eoghan O’Gara’s goalscoring threat is a much needed alternative point of attack to Bernard Brogan, and Bryan Cullen’s resurgence is also noteworthy and a credit to the man’s character to get back in the side having spent so long in the cold. That being said Dublin are a work in progress, just like Down really. And just like Kerry, there’s nothing “in progress” about Tyrone whatsoever. They are the real deal and I expect them to take care of business before putting some manners on Cork in the semi-final. We offer a best price 5-2 for any optimistic Dubs out there.

The Meath and Kildare quarter-final is a difficult puzzle to solve. I couldn’t decide who to make favourites so I am offering bigger than evens for both sides and I’ll let the money pick the favourite nearer the weekend, because for all the analysis – its the money that talks in this game!

Punt On!

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Dublin’s 2-14 to 0-12 win over Louth at Croke Park last Saturday set up a mouth watering quarter final clash with Ulster champions Tyrone this weekend. Goals in the first half from full-forward Eoghan O’Gara put Dublin well on their way to victory and helped to ease the disappointment of losing to Leinster rivals Meath.

Paddy Power is offering an interesting Money-Back Special on the Dub’s double goalscorer. If Eoghan O’Gara scores a goal against Tyrone, Paddy Power will refund all losing first, last, anytime goalscorer, double result and winning margin bets on this match*.

* Terms & Conditions apply

Round three is invariably the most competitive round of the qualifiers since it features only teams who have won their previous game, each of them now within striking distance of getting to Croke Park for an All Ireland quarter final. This is particularly the case this year, with so many teams likely to enter the draw in round four who simply will not inspire fear in their opponents. The Ulster final losers will be a tough nut to crack irrespective of whether it’s Tyrone or Monaghan who fill that role, however Limerick, Louth and presumably Roscommon are all likely to be big underdogs at that stage.

For all three of these teams, their shot at provincial glory was their biggest game of the season and it’s very unusual for a team like that to miss out on their chance of a provincial title and still pull themselves together for the qualifier fixture. Aside from Kerry twice and Cork once, only Kildare and Wexford have won round four qualifier fixtures in the last four years after losing a provincial final, those wins coming against Wicklow and Down respectively.

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Eight football qualifiers and two provincial showpiece finals take place this weekend, but none are as likely to go down to the wire as the hurling qualifier match between Dublin and Clare this Saturday afternoon. Supporters of both counties could be said to be hopeful but not confident as they prepare for a match which should tell a lot about where each team stands in the greater scheme of things.

In 2009 these two counties met in the National Hurling league in Parnell Park and the spoils were shared on a day when a draw was of little use to either team. The 0-15 to 0-15 stalemate meant that Clare were guaranteed to drop into division two, while Dublin lost their chance of reaching a division one league final. At the time, Clare’s better championship track record would have ensured that they would have carried the favourites’ tag into any championship meeting that year, but events since then have made people think twice about that status.

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Leinster football may have plenty of detractors, but whatever the eastern province lacks in quality, it more than makes up for in drama and competitiveness. With just over half the contenders for the Bob O’Keeffe cup having fallen by the wayside, punters are still hard pressed to tell who have been the most impressive candidates still in the field. The twists and turns in this competition have been absolutely intriguing with all five remaining counties fancying their chances from here in.

Dublin entered the year as favourites, unsurprisingly bearing in mind they were and are seeking a sixth Leinster crown on the bounce. The draw handed Kildare a seemingly handy run and the Lilies were earmarked as the Dubs’ most likely rivals, a status they held despite a very moderate division two campaign. Wicklow were the only county perceived to offer a threat to Kildare’s handy progression to the provincial decider. Meath’s demolition of Offaly made the province sit up and take notice, but since then they have had their deficiencies highlighted by a very stubborn Laois display, while Dublin and Kildare were both rocked on their heels by big performances from relative outsiders and Wicklow too fell by the wayside despite being expected to progress.

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