Marc Ó Sé blog: ‘It’ll be extremely difficult for Monaghan’
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In our exclusive blog with Marc Ó Sé, the Ladbrokes ambassador states that ‘it’ll be extremely difficult for Monoghan’ in the National Football League with his previews for January 27 and 28.
This will be a repeat of last year’s All-Ireland semi-final, where Kerry had it all to do to get over the line. Since then, Derry have appointed the great Mickey Harte as their new boss. He will be renewing his old rivalry with Jack O’Connor and this game has the ingredients to be a great battle.
Although I expect both teams to be without key players. Kerry will be without the services of Tadhg Morely, Paudie Clifford, and David Clifford.
The mighty men from Glen played National League Football the week after their defeat to Kilmacud last year, but I can’t see the same happening this time. I expect Mickey will rest Conor Glass and his Glen inter-county colleagues.
Derry have a slight edge as I believe Kerry will also be without Killian Spillane, so they may be lacking firepower. It will go down to the wire though, and I wouldn’t rule out the draw at 15/2.
This will also be a repeat of last year’s other All-Ireland semi-final. In that game, Monaghan put Dublin to the test but it wasn’t until the last ten minutes that the Boys In Blue stepped it up, with Brian Fenton in particular showing his class.
We will see a different goalkeeper for Monaghan for the first time in 123 consecutive league and championship games. Well, that’s the word anyway. That’s quite an achievement for Rory Beggan who is turning his efforts to an opportunity in the NFL. He will be a huge loss for Monaghan if he is unavailable for this game.
Dublin on the other hand will probably be without Stephen Cluxton but we have seen Dublin function well without him in the past.
It will be extremely difficult for Monaghan without Beggan between the posts. We have seen how influential goalkeepers can be and, on that basis alone, I expect the Dubs to pile on the pressure and win.
I watched Galway play against Roscommon in the Dome on TG4 recently and they looked very poor albeit minus some key players. Galway will look to put things right in Salthill after their last run out here against Mayo last year. In terms of players, it’s very difficult to know who is going to play. We know that Galway will be without Liam Silkem Sean Kelly, Damien Comer, and Matthew Tierney to name a few.
They are huge losses for Galway but obviously the championship is where it is at. There was hardly anything separating the two sides last year in the league encounter and I expect that to be the case here again on Sunday. I would expect Mayo to pull through here at 11/8 but don’t rule out a draw at 13/2.
It will be the second year in a row that the Rossies to take on Tyrone in the opening round of the National League and if last year is anything to go by, it will be a great battle. Roscommon won this game last year 3-11 to 1-12 but that game was at Dr Hyde Park. This time the game will be in Omagh and I only know too well how difficult it is to go there and try and get a result. Roscommon looked very strong in the FBD Cup and Tyrone seem to be blooding new players in the Dr McKenna Cup. It will be interesting to see if these young men are ready for inter-county football. Tyrone certainly need new personnel to get the ball rolling again and get back to the heights of 2021. I will go with a Roscommon win at 2/1
All odds and markets are correct as of the date of publication.
