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Money in the bag? Inpho
Betting

You betcha! Check out the top three wagers of the GAA weekend

Having escaped from the office with €100 of our money, Ewan MacKenna spends the summer betting it wisely and promising us a profit via his three tips a week.

Our self-proclaimed gambling novice Ewan MacKenna, who is keen to point out that he wouldn’t do this with his own money, is starting out with €100 which he’s been warned not to spend all at once. It’s for an entire summer’s worth of Gaelic football and each Friday he’ll have his three bets for the weekend and we’ll be keeping tabs on his progress. Close tabs.

And then there was €94 left! Okay, so Joe Sheridan didn’t look like scoring a goal last weekend and neither did Colm Cooper. And even my winning bet on Monaghan at -2 was tinged by the fact that former ‘Sunday Tribune’ colleague Malachy Clerkin, a man from that very county famed for their generosity, had a swipe at my €2 stake and claimed I was the last of the big spenders. But safety is the way forward until another couple of losing weeks sees me go all in but for now, I am still of the mindset that slow and steady wins the race. Kind of.  So here’s this weekend’s bets…

1. €20 on Dublin to score the first goal versus Louth – 4/6

Forget about the sloppy league losses, the champions are a different team with the Brogans back and their presence will force opponents to be more defensively minded and attack less. That added to the fact that Dublin – who start 12 of the 15 that won the All Ireland – only conceded three goals in six championship matches last season means they are unlikely to concede here. Crucially, no team scored more goals in Division One this league than Dublin, no team conceded more goals in the top two divisions than Louth and this is printing money.

2. €5 on Wexford (-1) to beat Longford – 10/11

As you’ll see in our preview of the game today, we think Wexford can’t get any worse than that Division Three league final, Longford can’t get much better and that game went down to the wire. Indeed over the last four seasons, only Kildare and Dublin have beaten this Wexford group in the Leinster Championship and despite all the hugely enjoyable strides Longford have made, they aren’t anywhere near that calibre yet.

3. €4 on Leitrim to beat London – 11/10

These high-sided odds hinge on last year’s championship but London’s draw against Mayo was a freak and the win against Fermanagh was against a side in turmoil. And while London will be better than they were this league where they only beat Kilkenny, they have had to play a round of club championship games last weekend (where teams didn’t exactly hold back when you look at the knocks picked up) and there were five points in Leitrim’s favour when the sides clashed a few months back.

Left in the bank: €75

Louth change one for Dubs test

McConville to make Down debut v Fermanagh