AS A general rule, county teams tend to be most vulnerable to upsets at the hands of college teams in the first round of January competitions. At that stage the county sides are often just finding their feet and getting to know each other, while the college sides have come through their league campaigns and are fine tuning in advance of the upcoming Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cup campaigns.
UCD, DIT and DCU all got off to very strong starts in Leinster last Sunday in the O’Byrne Cup and college sides like UUJ, St Mary’s and NUIG also put in creditable performances, even if they eventually fell short of gaining actual victories. UL and Mary Immaculate college were less impressive however, falling at the first hurdle in the McGrath Cup and only producing twenty minutes of decent football between them. However the two Limerick sides would not have expected to go deep into this tournament, while some of the teams that are out in the McGrath and Waterford Crystal Cups this weekend will go into the weekend with much higher expectations.
In the McGrath Cup, UCC represent very formidable opposition for the Limerick footballers. The Cork side will travel with some excellent footballers, particularly up front. Conor Cox and Paul Geaney represent a formidable attacking partnership and while a Limerick team at full strength would be good enough to come through this test, in the absence of any real indication as to what standard of team John Brudair will select, we have no choice but to move on and look at other options.
Of course, the odds haven’t been set out by Paddy Power at the time of writing either but one we’d be on the lookout for is Limerick IT at anything close to even money against Waterford in the Crystal Cup. LIT don’t have as many stars in their ranks as might have been the case in some of their more recent campaigns, however they do have a deep panel filled with high calibre prospects and after a solid league run in October and November, they should be too strong for what’s likely to be an experimental Waterford team.
UL also look decent this year in the same competition but they’ll be pushed very hard by Cork, who have a lot of players in their early to mid-twenties – old enough to be out of college and available for selection, but young enough to still have enthusiasm for January games. Steer clear here at any price shorter than 7/2.
Instead, move back to football and take Waterford at 4/5 or better against Cork IT. Waterford have had a game under their belts; they welcomed back some excellent footballers such as Patrick Hurney, Joey Veale and Gavin Nugent who all missed out on playing in 2014 last time out and as a division four team, they need to hit the ground running early in the year. Against a moderate CIT side, they should be clear favourites.
by Kevin Egan, PaddyPower.com
