It’s a bit early yet to say that this year will see the launch of another “Drive for Five” in Dublin GAA – or maybe even the “Joy of Six” – but the Metropolitans are off to a good start in the under-21 football championship and they should put the first piece of silverware on the table tonight. Elsewhere there is semi final action in Ulster, while the Connacht title will be decided on Saturday evening in Dr Hyde Park.

Dublin vs Louth

Dublin have enjoyed two large victories in succession in this championship and while Laois were in disarray under Pat Roe, that was a good Westmeath team that they put to the sword a fortnight ago in Parnell Park. Louth by contrast were marginally the better team in their win over Longford, but if it wasn’t for a very kind run of the ball against Offaly, they would have exited the championship at that stage. Without attempting to sound too biased, a perfectly legitimate Offaly goal was pulled back for a free in to be given instead, Anton Sullivan missed two 20m frees and even then Louth were hanging on at the end as Offaly’s greater fitness almost reeled them in. This Louth team may yet provide the template for beating sides that play a blanket defence since their tendency of playing long foot passes from one 45m line to the other and looking for runners off the shoulder instead of playing long from midfield to the scoring zone meant that the football got to the danger area before Offaly defenders did. Nonetheless Dublin won’t be playing such a defensive game, neither will they give Louth as big a head start, and they should cover the handicap.

Tyrone vs Down

Down came into this championship with a strong reputation, but they were severely tested by a very ordinary Antrim team and they could find tonight’s game a bridge too far. The injury to Ronan O’Neill however is a blow to Tyrone and their would be some concern about their full back line, which will be well tested tonight. Of the four games taking place tonight and on Saturday, this is the one best left aside, purely because Down should be a lot better than we’ve seen so far, but it would be a speculative play to bet on the basis that they will either match their potential or merely reproduce their first round form.

Cavan vs Derry

On the face of it, Cavan’s six-point win over Armagh in the first round in Ulster was the most impressive performance of this competition so far. They blew away a very highly rated Armagh team and now they take the favourites’ tag into tonight’s fixture with Derry. However reports subsequent to that game suggest that not all was well in the Armagh camp at the time with a rift existing between senior and under-21 management, while injuries have hit Cavan hard since then. Captain Barry Reilly, freetaker Paul O’Connor and midfielder Killian Brady are all set to miss out tonight and Cavan simply don’t have the depth to replace players of that calibre. One way or another they wouldn’t be in for an easy game tonight against a very strong Derry team and both Boylesports and Hills have cut Derry already. However Boylesports haven’t gone far enough, so take the 7/4 still on offer while you can.

Roscommon vs Sligo

Roscommon came out of the tough side of the draw while Sligo have really proved nothing in a facile win over a Leitrim team shorn of their best forward, but even so the odds here could be a little lopsided. Roscommon’s style of football involves very fast transferring of the football from one end of the field to the other, carrying the ball and avoiding the tackle. They could be vulnerable to a side that packs the scoring zone and forces them to shoot from distance and Sligo may well be that team. Pat Hughes, David Maye and James Clarke are all dominant players in the diamond sector and while Pat Hughes has a huge task on his hands against Roscommon captain Paddy Brogan who was one of the stars of the show against Mayo, midfielders Niall Daly and and Fintan Kelly don’t look entirely natural in these roles and would possibly be happier elsewhere. Powers go 7/2 about a win for Sligo here and that could be a little generous in a game where Roscommon could easily start the match with a touch of complacency.

Under-21 Championship Recommendations

Dublin vs Louth: Dublin -5pts @ 5/6 (Ladbrokes)

Cavan vs Derry: Derry @ 7/4 (Boylesports)

Roscommon vs Sligo: Sligo @ 7/2 (Powers)

After Sizing Europe’s defeat compounded the misery of punters who piled into Hurricane Fly yesterday, it would be understandable if people were nursing their wounds now – however GAA action continues regardless, and tonight we have four under-21 battles down for decision, starting with a clash of two heavyweights in Castlebar.

Mayo vs Galway

It’s not often that you see All Ireland champions starting the season as 6/4 outsiders to defend their crown, but Galway haven’t performed well at the minor grade for some time while Mayo have been the much stronger of the two traditional Connacht powers in the past three years. Galway still have several good players and up front they look particularly decent, but Mayo should have a bit more quality all over the field and with home advantage, their favouritism is justified. However the real value bet to take could be Roscommon at 15/8 outright for this championship. Roscommon and Mayo had little to choose between them in the 2009 Connacht minor championship and they will also be boosted by a few strong footballers from last year’s strong minor side. They’ll have home advantage for the semi-final and based on their challenge match form so far, they are capable but inconsistent. When we allow for the fact that they will be long odds on in the final if they beat Galway or Mayo in Kiltoom, that makes the 15/8 on offer from Powers very attractive.

Fermanagh vs Tyrone

Fermanagh under-21 manager Mark Henry is highly rated within the county but he looks to have too stiff a challenge on his hands in Enniskillen tonight. Tyrone have a very deep panel with a lot of capable players and the fact that we don’t know more about some of them says a lot more about Mickey Harte’s lack of willingness to discard his proven footsoldiers than it does about the players’ ability. However big handicaps are always hard to call and this match looks best left aside. Tyrone probably should cover on talent alone, but away from home it’s just not a good betting match.

Limerick vs Clare

Neither of these sides are particularly highly rated this year and it seems as if they are essentially playing for the right to be filleted by Cork in the next round. A late goal sucker punched the Banner men in this fixture last year but Clare seem to have retained more of their 2011 players and they could be well poised to deliver revenge this evening. Clare’s recent national league win over Limerick was a change in momentum at this level and while we were all poised to tip them up here on Starbets, the late money for Limerick that has led Powers and Boylesports to cut their price suggests that some of Clare’s complaints about injury and illness earlier in the week might have been a little bit more than the usual pre match poor mouthing. Enough for us to steer clear anyway.

Kerry vs Tipperary

A lot was expected of this Tipperary team in preseason and against a Kerry side that lacks star quality, their supporters will be hoping for big things tonight. Nonetheless it’s been a terrible season so far for Tipperary football and this is probably a year too soon for some of last year’s minor team. On the other hand, Kerry have been very poor at this grade for some time and at 9/4, it could be worth a small, speculative punt on an upset.

U21 Championship Recommendations

Kerry vs Tipperary: Tipperary to win @ 9/4 (Boylesports)

Connacht Championship Outright: Roscommon to win @ 15/8 (Powers)

As any odds compiler will tell you, one of the most difficult games to price up is the match where highly relevant information is going to become available in the future but isn’t to hand just yet. The perfect example is pricing up a weekend sporting event on Monday or Tuesday when that team will be in action on Wednesday or Thursday night.

That was exactly the situation that GAA compilers found themselves in this week, having to issue odds on weekend matches before midweek under 21 games.

In some cases, the results might not seem hugely relevant in that the number of players crossing over could be very few, however that discounts the value of feelgood factor in many counties, particularly when under 21 and senior panels train together as is the case in Westmeath.

Ladbrokes appear to be a lot more on the ball than most bookmakers in this regard and they are best priced at even money about Tipperary, however even so Westmeath should be able to use the renewed enthusiasm in their camp and break their run of sixteen league games without a win.

Neither Wexford nor Louth are heavily dependent on young talent, indeed the Wee and the Wex counties generally vie for the honour of the oldest intercounty football squads on the go. However the comprehensive nature of Wexford’s dismantling of Louth and under 21 level last night, combined with the feelgood factor from securing the only away win so far in this division, means that the offer of 8/11 about a Wexford home win looks like it should definitely pay out this week.

Louth continue to be over-rated generally due to their Leinster Final story last year but they are a division three county who tend to be at their best early in the year – with every passing week they will come back to meet the pack and that process could start this weekend.

Wicklow had a seemingly very strong group of under 21 footballers but they came a cropper against Carlow and now the seniors must face a tricky away trip to Fermanagh this weekend. Again, there isn’t a huge amount of crossover between the seniors and under 21 players in the Garden county, but with both sides having dropped points so far and Roscommon and Longford moving well, the loser of this tie could find themselves in huge trouble at this early stage of the season. At 8/13, Fermanagh look like a solid bet to compound Wicklow’s misery.

With much greater depth in their squads, Meath and Dublin should feel less of an effect, however Meath’s atrocious record away from Páirc Tailteann is reason enough to steer clear of them for their trip to Casement Park, while eighty minutes of football won’t help the cause of players like Shane Gillespie or Paddy Gilsenan, particularly as the match takes place only three days later instead of four.

Republic of Ireland under-21 manager Noel King revelled in watching “champagne football” as he celebrated his debut game in charge with a thumping win.

King’s team crushed Estonia 5-0 for their first competitive victory since November 2007, a run that recently brought to an end the 10-year reign of Don Givens.

King took charge of a low-on-confidence side that had suffered three defeats and four draws in group two of qualification for the European Under-21 Championships.

But at Tallaght Stadium the Republic appeared a team transformed, with Hibernian winger Anthony Stokes on fire as he scored twice in the first half before playing a part in the other three in the second.

“Three points and a clean sheet is what we were looking for, but we got a bit of champagne football at the end,” said King, previously at the helm of all of the womens’ teams for the Republic.

After a dismal weekend for the senior hurlers of both Clare and Limerick, it falls to the under-21 hurlers of each county to try and salvage something for the season when they compete for a place in the Munster final tomorrow night in the Gaelic Grounds. After a long and lean decade when they failed to win a Munster title at either age group, the fortunes of Clare underage hurling have turned around in the last twelve months and their All Ireland under-21 championship last year has heightened the sense of optimism in the county that better days may lie ahead. A minor title was also banked by the Banner county last Sunday and their status as 1/4 favourites in advance of tomorrow night’s game is unsurprising to those who would might simply look at the bare form of the match.

Looking back to the minor championship of three years ago would be little help either since both teams exited that championship tamely at the hands of Tipperary, who went on to win the All Ireland.

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Nobody likes bankers very much these days and visions of Seanie Fitzpatrick and the like living it up on the taxpayers’ shilling is hard to stomach for a lot of people, but in a betting shop, bankers are still very welcome. Everybody loves a short odds favourite that looks like it can’t lose and “bankers” thus get inserted to make up the odds on every multiple bet going.

This column has never been a huge fan of multiple bets since mathematically, there is much more margin built in than is the case with single bets. As any bookie worth his salt will tell you, a punter who regularly bets 7/1 single bets will almost always beat the punter who places the same stake on a treble on three even money shots, simply because the margin built into the treble is usually so much more.

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It’s a particularly busy weekend for a lot of the better younger footballers all across the country, with under 21 matches today and a full round of league games taking place tomorrow. Depending on how seriously managers are taking the national league and the under 21 championship, players could easily end up being asked to take part in both competitions, and from a betting point of view, that will be something to keep a close eye on when the league matches thrown in tomorrow – who will be deploying the greatest number of tired young legs.

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After the glamour and the tension of last Sunday’s final, we come back closer to Earth this weekend with the Under 21 hurling final the highlight of the weekend. We say closer rather than the whole way back to Earth since it still has the potential to be a pretty fantastic match up.

This Clare team have done their county proud this season with a string of fine performances. They had a good local derby win over Limerick before securing the Munster Title that they probably deserved in 2008 with a great win over Waterford in Fraher Field. Against Galway in the semi final they stepped up the intensity another notch and came away with a memorable win despite the best efforts of Joe Canning.

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It’s a quite well known fact that if you had backed Down in each of their senior All Ireland Final appearances, you’d be sitting on a quite healthy profit right now – albeit one slowly accumulated over the course of a half century. With five wins out of five, the Mourne men have an unprecedented strike rate in the annual football showpiece and it’s a source of constant pride to those vested in Down football.

With four wins from five appearances, Down minor footballers have an impressive record of their own, leaving only the under 21 grade where the county has a much more mundane track record, having registered one win from three deciders played before this year.

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It would be easy to look at this and say that Down’s record is not a factor at under 21 level to the same extent, however that would be to ignore the simple fact that the five out of five statistic at senior level is something that every Down GAA man or woman would be able to rhyme off at the drop of a hat, and any group of players who has grown up believing their county’s impregnable record in finals is unlikely to be overawed or overwhelmed on the big day.

Of course there’s a lot more to winning an All Ireland title than simply keeping your nerve on the day, a team must also have the ability and the skill to get themselves into a winning position before the mental strength to close out proceedings comes into play, but anyone who has seen this Down under 21 team perform in 2009 will have no doubts about the level of their ability. This is a team of pure footballing talent from one to thirty, a group of players who play the game the right way, fast, competitively and working hard for each other, moving the ball quickly and accurately to a man in a better position than the passer.

In the clamour to blame Gaelic Football’s ills on excessive use of the handpass technique, it can often be forgotten that good handpassing football can be just as good to watch, as long as it is executed swiftly and with purpose. Watching a team flood forward, supporting each other with well timed and well paced runs is a joy to behold, and that’s exactly how this Down team like to move the ball. Backwards handpassing, or “crab football”, where teams move side to side until eventually someone punts the ball forward out of boredom might be killing Gaelic football, but blame those teams, not the ones who use the handpass as it was always intended.

With Down likely to repeat their fine form of the Mayo game and Cork running out of lives in this campaign, as well as missing their centre forward Shane McCarthy, this Monday’s All Ireland Under 21 final looks destined to be won by the men from Mourne. Offered by the bookmakers as one point favourites, Down are very fair value and are well worthy of a 4pt bet at 8/11. Down’s likely confidence is all important here because these prices look as if there was a considerable degree of “traditional county” bias shown to Cork – something which this columns suspects will not play a part.

Turning to the hurling, and regular followers of this column shouldn’t be feeling the need to have another bet on the final as both Wexford and Tipperary have already been recommended, so any bets would either be for the purposes of an additional interest just for flavour, or else possibly to close off a guaranteed profit.

Sadly, with Kilkenny playing so well, Tipperary are actually now longer than their recommended price of 11/4 to lift the trophy, despite six contenders having fallen by the wayside, so no guaranteed profit is available here. Indeed the odds on Brian Cody’s men to repeat their regular season victory over their neighbours are so short that only the handicap is really a viable betting medium, and sadly for those who would like to see a competitive fixture on Sunday, the inclination is to side with Kilkenny to cover even an eight point spread.

Tipperary probably remain the second best team in Ireland until anyone makes a definitive move to take that accolade from them, but even at that they still look to be a good ten points off the Kilkenny pace right now. The news that Eoin Kelly is not going to play a part on Sunday and may indeed by a spectator for the remainder of the year can’t have helped morale in the camp, while even the most casual follower of hurling will have noticed that the Tipperary fire which burned brightly for the first month of the season has very much dimmed as the year has progressed. They will bring no shortage of seething fury to Semple Stadium this Sunday after their trimming in Nowlan Park and the idea of being humiliated on their own home turf will keep them honest, but right now they simply don’t have the tools to deal with a Kilkenny team which is operating on another level entirely.

Betting on high handicaps is always a dangerous tactic in that a team often has no motivation to keep racking up the scores, particularly in a final, however with competition for places as keen as ever in Brian Cody’s squad, it would be remiss not to recommend 1pt on Kilkenny minus eight points to beat Tipperary at 10/11.

Finally we have the second instalment in this year’s Offaly vs Wexford trilogy, and with followers of Off the Ground hopefully holding dockets with 7/4 about Wexford, then the option is there to take the even money about Offaly and close off a profit. Obviously the statement that no-one ever went broke taking a profit is as true as ever, however in this instance, it looks like such a move would merely be giving the bookmaker a “bailout” of his own. Offaly’s slight resurgence last season was based on a solid foundation of consistent team selection and Joe Dooley’s constant faith in his chosen hurlers eventually bore fruit with a fantastic win over Limerick and solid display against Waterford. This season there has been considerably more chopping and changing, albeit much of it forced by injury, and the results of that uncertainty were clear to see in recent games where Offaly looked poor in certain sectors of the field. Offaly are simply not hurling as well as Wexford right now and while anything is possible in a game where both sides have proven goalscoring and indeed goal-conceding ability, Off the Ground would need to see 6/4 outright about the Faithful County before they would start looking like a viable betting proposition.

As with any sport, late tactical adjustments can go a long way towards securing the desired result in the betting game also. Team news is a tricky thing to read at this time of year as a hungry but less well known 21 year old can often be a more effective performer at this time of year than the established star who knows that his jersey is secure for the championship. However a manager’s intentions can still be read from the line up which is selected and can sometimes help point as to where the money should be placed.

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