THE West is most certainly awake, as all four teams left in the Irish Wire Products Senior Football championship are from the West Division.
The semi finals, which take place this weekend, will see Dromcollogher-Broadford taking on Fr Casey’s (Saturday 4pm in Mick Neville Park), while Newcastle West will take on Ballysteen (Friday at 6.30pm also in Mick Neville Park).
The meeting of Dromcollogher-Broadford and Fr Casey’s is a repeat of the 2009 final, which Dromcollogher-Broadford won 0-9 to 0-7.
The second semi final will see last season’s defeated finalists Newcastle West looking to topple this season’s surprise final four participants, Ballysteen.
Newcastlewest qualified for the semi finals by winning four of their five games in group one. Fr Casey’s likewise qualified for the semi finals direct from the group stages, however, the light blues won five from five in their pool.
Dromcollogher-Broadford qualified for the last four by defeating Galbally 2-13 to 0-11 last weekend, while Ballysteen romped into the last four with 0-19 to 2-9 win over St Kierans.
If you are a betting fan, then the following odds make for interesting reading.
Fr Casey’s are priced at 6/4 to win the county outright. Dromcollogher-Broadford are 2/1, as are Newcastlewest. Ballysteen continue to be ranked as outsiders, being priced at 10/1 for the title.
Whomever wins this weekend’s games. (both being broadcast live on Limerick’s Live 95fm) the final is set for October the 21st at a county venue, yet to be decided.
Speaking of finals, the Live95fm sponsored county senior hurling final will take place on Sunday October the 7th in the Gaelic Grounds.
This season’s decider will be between Adare and Kilmallock. Adare defeated Garryspillane last weekend to secure their first final appearance since 2009.
Kilmallock dethroned the champions Na Piarsaigh in their semi final. The men from the county town won the county title in 2010, so they will be looking to return to winning ways against the former three in a row winners Adare.
Betting odds by Kevin Egan
Results from the quarter final games in the Limerick Senior football championship didn’t exactly do a lot to endorse the form of the group 2 sides, but nonetheless Fr Caseys of Abbeyfeale have been installed as 8/11 favourites by Paddy Power bookmakers for their semi final this weekend at Mick Neville Park.
The change in location from Newcastlewest is quite likely to suit the favourites here as they would fancy their chances in a more open, expansive game of football, but regardless of whether these two clubs met in the tightest junior club field or in the wide open spaces of Croke Park, nobody would ever dismiss the chances of a team with Drom Broadford’s ability and nous. Most of this team have county medals and instead Munster club championship medals as well, and that kind of experience is always crucial at this stage of the championship.
Fr Caseys have been the form team throughout the group stages of the competition and if the game turns into a shootout, they will certainly fancy their chances of raising more flags. Nonetheless the days are starting to shorten, the evenings are no longer warm, showers or even persistent drizzly rain is forecast and Jerome Stack has his team well set up to defend strongly against even the most potent attack. All of these factors point to a relatively low scoring game and if so, the 11/8 available from Powers about a win for Drom/Broadford could be the smart play.
In the other semi-final, Ballysteen are the 5/2 underdogs against Newcastlewest and while there were seven points between these teams in the group stages, at that price it’s tempting to consider a second bet on an outsider this week. Ballysteen produced their best performance of the year when they racked up 0-19 against St Kieran’s in the last round and there’s a lot to be said for producing your best football at the right time, particularly when your opponents have been unable to do anything but sit at home twiddling their thumbs. Challenge matches are all very well but Newcastlewest would be in a much better position if they had played a quarter final fixture two weeks ago and they’ll be vulnerable this weekend.
To round matters off by following the same trend, we’re also going to suggest a small wager on Pallasgreen to beat Na Piarsaigh in the Intermediate semi final. Powers go 5/4 Pallasgreen here and while Na Piarsaigh fans could be forgiven for feeling picked on by this column after we sided with Kilmallock last week, it’s an unfortunate but undeniable fact from their point of view that a championship defeat is a hard thing to take and expecting the Na Piarsaigh players to bounce back so soon could be expecting too much. Pallasgreen have been able to focus on football for the last few weeks and that too will stand to them and of the three outsiders taking part this week, they could be the best value bet of the lot.
