This is definitely not going to work out.
There’s a better chance of a bag of Gaelic footballs being found in Kilkenny than there is each of these seven teams winning their respective county senior hurling championships in 2018.
And Kilkenny did make it to the 2018 All-Ireland junior football final so there definitely is a better chance of that happening.
There’s no rest for the wicked at all. The Limerick senior hurlers probably haven’t finished partying yet but every single member of John Kiely’s panel are back in club hurling action this weekend.
As Treaty legend Gary Kirby said on TV3 recently though, you’d be more worried about the boys of Limerick who didn’t win the All-Ireland than the lads who did, in terms of the last two weeks, if you know what we’re getting at.
Anyway, we’ve put our necks on the chopping board, we’ve put a euro on the line, we’ve risked the shame of losing a 350,000/1 bet. Here’s our seven team accumulator for the club hurling championships around the country this year.
Limerick
Patrickswell (5/1, Boylesports)
Na Piarsaigh traditionally win the Limerick hurling championship every second year. They come in fits and bursts and the trend of recent history tells us that last year’s beaten All-Ireland club finalists will have a down year in 2018.
Kilmallock are the second favourites if the 2017 kingpins are to be usurped but the value bet looks like Patrickswell. Any club team with three potential All-Stars has a live chance of winning a county senior title and Cian Lynch, Diarmuid Byrnes and Aaron Gillane can do the business to regain the John Daly Cup for the village of Patrickswell.
Kilkenny
Mullinavat (13/2, Boylesports)
No real names from the Mullinavat senior team jump out of the programme at you, except maybe John Walsh of 2-5 on All-Ireland minor final day fame. He’s plays a bit of football with Kilkenny now so maybe you actually would find a bag of O’Neill’s size fives in Nowlan Park.
Anyway that’s not the point here because the point is that ‘Mullinavegas’ have is a team of workers. There may not be any real standout names but similar to Clara’s county title winning team of 2013, they have a hungry team who are willing to get their hands dirty.
They bet seven shades of it out of the Village back in April, who have admittedly improved a lot since then, but Mullinavat have kept that blinding pace up. They beat Clara with seven to spare last weekend and they’ll be looking to keep it up against defending champions the Boro this Saturday.
Tipperary
Loughmore-Castleiney (11/2, Paddy Power)
The mid-Tipperary club have more McGraths on their team than most club’s have sliotars and that’s most definitely a good thing. You’ve brothers Noel, John and Brian. Then you’ve Ciaran, Aidan, Liam and a few more of them as well and then you’ve a fairly decent team.
An absolutely exemplary club, Loughmore-Castleiney is only a small parish but they’ve plenty of heart and they’ve won the Dan Breen before. If anyone is going to stop Thurles’ drive for five, it’s the men in green and red for whom John McGrath has been burning it up recently.
Galway
Cappataggle (16/1, Paddy Power)
2017 was the one that got away for a rising Cappataggle team. Only a white flag separated them and the eventual champions Liam Mellows in their first ever senior semi-final in Kenny Park last year.
This year, the likes of Jarlath and Donal Mannion and Dan Nevin are a year older, a year wiser and they’ve the hurt of last year’s pain to draw on.
Galway is as open as it’s ever been this year and 16/1 is way too high for the team who have improved every year since their promotion to the top table in 2013.
Worth a punt.
Wexford
St Martin’s (6/4, Paddy Power)
They won in Wexford last year but that heavy loss to Cuala in the Leinster semi-final should be enough to keep their feet on the ground. They’ve picked up from where they left off so far this year, Tomas Codd’s side are top of their group and unbeaten after four games in this year’s Championship to date.
With a couple of men still to return from America, they should have enough to see off the improving Naomh Eanna, the perennial contenders Oulart-the-Ballagh and the Rapparees.
Dublin
Kilmacud Crokes (4/1, Paddy Power)
The Crokes only lost to Cuala by two points in last year’s semi-final but Anthony Daly is their manager this year. If anybody can get hair standing on the back of Kilmacud Crokes’ necks so high that they’d run through walls to win a county title, it’s definitely the Clare man.
Clare
Ballyea (9/2, Paddy Power)
Two words, Tony Kelly.
Tony Kelly delivered a scoring masterclass and @buff_egan was there to see it all unfold. Fair play.https://t.co/pEzqb5H8qN
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) August 25, 2018
He scored 1-11 from play from midfield against Cratloe last weekend. With Jack Browne, Niall Deasy, Gary Brennan and Martin O’Leary all firing on all cylinders, the Bally boys have what it takes to dethrone Sixmilebridge.
This all works out at 342,859/1. We’ll be sticking a euro down if that’s any good to you.
