GAA tips
All-Ireland Football Championship Semi-Finals
Saturday, 5pm – Dublin v Monaghan
Dublin To Win By 10-12 points
Colm Basquel First Goalscorer
Sunday, 4pm – Kerry v Derry
Kerry To Win By 4-6pts
Paul Geaney First Goalscorer
Tailteann Cup Final
Saturday, 3pm – Down v Meath
Down To Win By 1-3 points
Liam Kerr First Goalscorer
*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
All-Ireland Football Championship Semi-Finals
Dublin v Monaghan
Croke Park, Saturday, 5:30pm
TV: RTE Two
Dublin To Win By 10-12 points
I think Dublin will win pretty comfortably here, I think the handicap is around seven or eight points at the time of writing. Monaghan though will try and keep this exceptionally tight. A bit similar to Down above, they’ll get a lot of bodies behind the ball early on.
At some stage though, they’re going to have to come out and Dublin have been able to find their way past defences better than Monaghan’s over the last few years. If Dublin have a three or four point lead over Monaghan at halftime then they’ll have to come out and play and they’ll leave themselves open and Dublin could really hurt them. I’m backing Dublin to Win by 10-12 points here.
Colm Basquel First Goalscorer
Dublin will be hunting for goals early on. They love to get a run on teams and put them out of the game early. We saw it against Mayo where they tried to hit them hard early on in the game. They will get turnovers and they’ll get breaks too and they’ll use them to hurt Monaghan.
Colm Basquel is in a really rich vein of form, he scored two the last day against Mayo and I’d take him to get the first goal here.
- WELCOME TO PP NEWS: NEW TO US? CLICK HERE FOR OUR £/€20 SIGN-UP OFFER
Kerry v Derry
Croke Park, Sunday, 4pm
TV: RTE 2, BBC One NI
Kerry To Win By 4-6 points
Kerry looked fresh in their win over Tyrone but what really impressed me was how mean and miserly they were at the back. They were very Tyrone-esque, getting numbers behind the ball, getting tackles in and trying to turn over the ball. Similar to Dublin, they can bring in quality players off the bench in the last 15 minutes and that can really make a difference.
There’s no doubt that Derry are going to come at them with everything here, they fell at the same hurdle last year and they’re really going to want to go one further this time around. They’ll be able to keep the game tight for a far longer period too but I think that ultimately, just based on what they have up front and what they can bring in off the bench, Kerry will come out on top and win by 4-5 points.
Paul Geaney First Goalscorer
You can expect David Clifford to be double- or even treble-marked at times and we know that Paudie Clifford plays a good bit further out from the goal so it’s going to be Paul Geaney who’s going to be inside so I’d fancy him to get the first goal here.
Tailteann Cup Final
Down v Meath
Croke Park, Saturday, 3pm
TV: RTE Two
Down To Win By 1-3 points
To be fair to Colm O’Rourke since he came in as Meath manager he’s tried to play football ‘the Meath way’. They like to catch and kick the ball and don’t play with too many players behind the ball. Down would be the complete opposite of that, they both attack and defend in numbers, as do most of the teams in the Championship this year.
I think we’ll get goals at both ends of the field here. There were plenty of goals scored in the semi-finals so I think we can expect a few more too. I’d have to go with Down, their progress over the last few years with two Under 21 Ulster titles and with manager Conor Laverty involved with all three teams. I think there’s great continuity and momentum with them.
Meath won’t fear them but they held on by the skin of their teeth against Antrim in the semi-final so for me, it’s Down to Win by 1-3 points.
Liam Kerr First Goalscorer
Liam Kerr really impressed me over the quarter and semi-final and he scored a lot in both games. Down like to kick the ball to the full-forwards and get the ball back off of them. Kerr is really good at that and I think he’ll score the first goal.
GAA tips
All-Ireland Football Championship Semi-Finals
Saturday, 5pm – Dublin v Monaghan
Dublin To Win By 10-12 points
Colm Basquel First Goalscorer
Sunday, 4pm – Kerry v Derry
Kerry To Win By 4-6pts
Paul Geaney First Goalscorer
Tailteann Cup Final
Saturday, 3pm – Down v Meath
Down To Win By 1-3 points
Liam Kerr First Goalscorer
*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
READ MORE
- Head over to Paddy Power News for all the latest GAA tips
THE PADDY POWER GUIDE TO SAFER GAMBLING – EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
