by Kevin Egan of Paddypower.comAFTER a gruelling 140 minutes of football plus injury time, Dromcollogher-Broadford finally got past Newcastlewest last Friday 26 night in the Gaelic Grounds. In doing so, they secured the right to represent Limerick in the 2012 Munster club football championships, a campaign that gets underway this Sunday November 4 in Clonakilty when they take on the newly crowned Cork champions, Castlehaven.
On the face of it, this looks like a particularly tough draw and after standing up for Kilmallock last week against Thurles Sarsfields, this column is reluctant to blindly cheer on another Limerick team and cost our followers hard earned cash in the process.
However the simple fact of the matter is this: Cork clubs in general have an incredible record in this competition, but that’s largely down to the fact that Nemo Rangers by themselves have won 15 Munster titles. In addition, St Finbarrs won four titles back in the Jimmy Barry Murphy era while Castlehaven won three championships with players like Niall Cahalane and Larry Tompkins to the fore. Cork have had more than their fair share of outstanding sides but outside of that the standard of Cork championship winners can be ordinary. Certainly this current squad from Castlehaven hasn’t done anything to suggest that they are worthy of comparison with such illustrious teams. As we saw last year when it took extra-time to separate UCC and Monaleen, if Nemo don’t win Cork, the best of the rest often isn’t that good.
Drom-Broadford haven’t been priced up at the time of writing but we expect Paddy Powers to lay at least 2/1 about the Limerick champions picking up a win in West Cork. It’s a big ask, but they are capable of a result and at the risk of being seen as a cheerleading column yet again, we’re going to recommend a bet on them doing just that.
This Saturday will also see Ballybrown meet Ballinhassig in a replay of the Munster Intermediate Hurling quarter-final that was drawn on Monday afternoon. Ballybrown were installed as 13/8 outsiders for that tie and Powers are unlikely to give such a good price about the Limerick side picking up a win at home. But if they go odds against at all, Ballybrown could be a great value punt. It would have been easy to say that the draw at Páirc Uí Rinn was largely down to Ballinhassig getting a man sent off early in the game, but extra time was played with 15 men on either side and there was little to call between the two teams in that spell either. Cork clubs have always done well in this competition but Effin blazed a trail for Limerick in 2011. Anything better than even money about Ballybrown following in their footsteps would be well worth a small bet.
