In this week’s four-timer, we’re plumping for two slight upsets at Croke Park and handicaps from the Rugby World Cup and the NFL. A stray tenner could well net you €341 come Monday morning.
By Shane Breslin & Sean Nolan
Dublin v Kerry (All-Ireland senior football final – Dublin to win @ 7/4)
Similarly to the minor game (see below), we feel that Sunday’s showpiece is so close it’s almost impossible to call.
And if we believe that, then we just have to get on Dublin at 7/4. Right, Kerry deserve to be favourites but we’d suggest the odds should be much more marginal than this.
Unlike last time out against turgid Donegal, the Dubs should get the freedom to play their game – Kerry would never go into an All-Ireland final with any notions of stopping the opposition, it’s just not in their nature. Even Tomas O Sé, the most ruthless of their defenders, is not wholly happy unless he gets forward to register his trademark score on every visit to Croker.
And the last time Dublin were given any sort of freedom, it resulted in the year’s most complete performance, their 22-point tally against Tyrone in the quarter-finals. Being able to back them at significantly odds-against is just too good a chance to turn down.
Dublin v Tipperary (All-Ireland minor football final – Tipperary to win @ 10/3)
When it comes to minor football, anything can happen. The players may have all the skill in the world but they are still kids. And kids are not reliable, that’s why we stopped using them to clean chimneys, right?
Because of that, the odds offered on the Tipperary minors to beat Dublin on Sunday are far too generous. Yes Dublin have looked very good in the MFC but they struggled past Galway in the semi-final while Tipperary have improved in every round so far. At 10/3 they are just too good to let pass.
Pittsburgh Steelers v Seattle Seahawks (Steelers -14 pts on handicap @ 10/11)
Last week, the Pittsburgh Steelers got their asses handed to them by their fierce rivals, the Baltimore Ravens. It was a shockingly inept show from one of the toughest teams in the NFL. Coach Mike Tomlin will demand a reaction and the unfortunate lambs to the slaughter are the lowly Seattle Seahawks.
They arrive in the Steel City with one of the worst stating quarterbacks in the league, Tarvaris Jackson, and the Steelers could beat up on Seattle very badly. Certainly enough to beat the 14-point spread that is available. It could get really ugly, but in a good way as you will be making money.
Wales v Samoa (Samoa + 14 pts on handicap @ 1/2)
Wales put in one of the performances of the first week of the Rugby World Cup. Well, that was the general consensus. The bottom line is that they still lost, to the weakest of the southern hemisphere sides, and both of the Springboks’ inspirational seconds rows, Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha, were looking on from afar for the second half.
From the heroic performance of underdogs, Wales face the altogether different prospect of favouritism against a Samoa side who blitzed Namibia in midweek and can look to events of 20 years ago for inspiration – Samoa beat Wales in Cardiff at the 1991 World Cup.
Take the islanders to at least put it up to Wales and get inside Ladbrokes’ extended handicap.
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