Posts Tagged ‘Laois’
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.
As we discussed in our first post this week, bookies tend to side with the teams that need a result, based on the premise that their extra competitive edge will be enough to overcome teams who are simply playing for pride. We already went against that line of thinking once this week when suggesting that Roscommon might be a good wager to overcome Sligo and at the risk of overdoing matters, team news towards the weekend suggests that a second such bet could be in order.
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.
Having already looked at this weekend’s hurling matches, there is no real need for any further in-depth analysis, however with most of the team news now available (Kilkenny’s line up being the obvious unknown factor), two teams look to be particularly well equipped for big performances on Sunday.
Neither Laois nor Offaly are teams who are usually to be trusted to cover big handicaps, as neither county tends to display any great killer instinct. However both Niall Rigney and Joe Dooley appear to be looking to break that trend this week as they’ve called on a lot of big name players for today’s fixtures. Niall Rigney has completely overhauled the Laois team that lost to Wexford last time out and out of his eight new players, three in particular will stand out – James Young at full forward, Zane Keenan at corner forward and Matthew Whelan at centre back. These three players are among the best hurlers the county has produced in the last decade, with Young very much the county’s star man.
