Ahead of another exciting round of fixtures in the All Ireland Senior Championship this weekend, the Marc Ó Sé blog is back with the Ladbrokes ambassador giving his picks for the forthcoming games.
Marc Ó Sé blog
Sligo v Galway 3:30 Saturday
Sligo will be reasonably happy with their league form having won nine points, but they really are up against it taking on this Galway team that absolutely tore through London two weeks ago in Ruislip. Although Galway are still without some of their big name players, they have enough quality in every line of the field to have too much for Sligo. I don’t see any upsets here, Galway just win.
Cork’s fourth place on the table is a fair and accurate indication of where they are at right now. John Cleary is doing a good job but he will need more time. Chris Óg Jones, Stephen Sherlock, Brian Hurley, and Mattie Taylor are match winners on their day. Kerry won’t be too disappointed with the league, albeit they did get a right hammering from the Dubs and I think Jack O’Connor will have dissected that loss over and over again. Jason Foley will be a huge loss at full back for Kerry but with the two Cliffords and Seanie O’Shea up front, Kerry will have too much at home for Cork.
Donegal will be delighted to have won the Division 2 final and they will be playing top level football next season. What a difference Jim McGuinness has made in a few months. And even though there was a huge contrast in standards in the Division 1 and 2 finals, I don’t think that will have any bearing on this games outcome. Jim McGuinness is a master at going after the opposition and finding areas where his team can expose the opposition. He will have watched the Derry v Dublin game on repeat and I think we are in for the game of the championship so far. We all know the quality that Derry possess but Donegal have some star players also. The moving of Caolan McGonagle to centre-back has been a master stroke by Jim. Ciaran Thompson, Oisin Gallen, Niall O’Donnell, and Peadar Mogan are big game players for Donegal so I suspect Derry won’t have things all their own way. I expect this game to go down to the wire but I firmly believe Derry are the inform team in the country to go after Dublin this year, and should win here.
This game last year gave us a shock result. Many expected Mayo to beat the Rossies comfortably. However Roscommon had a different plan. This time around I think Mayo will be well ready for the challenge. Ryan O’Donoghue really produced the goods in the Big Apple albeit against a weakened New York side. However, Kevin McStay can’t be happy with the goals they conceded, something which the Mayo team will have to work on. For me the winning of this game will come down to which forward line can do more damage. I believe in Sam Callinan. Mayo now have a go-to defender who can mark the best of the best so I expect him and the Mayo defenders to nullify the threat of the Roscommon forwards. I also expect O’Donoghue and co. to continue where they left off against New York and get to a Connacht final.
The element of surprise will be gone after Cavan’s recent win against Monaghan. And what a win that was. At half-time I knew Cavan where going to fight the fight and take the game to Monaghan and why wouldn’t they. They have some fantastic players throughout their team. When Tyrone are at full strength they are a match for any team and for me they have the best goalkeeper I have seen in the league so far this season. The key for me is Darragh Canavan and Darran McCurry’s ability in the inside line. When both players play together coupled with a good supply of ball, it is hard to stop them. Paddy Lynch for Cavan will take minding also. I am going to go with an away win and back Tyrone.
