All-Ireland football championship predictions and GAA betting tips: Get on Galway to go all the way

Best bets

Galway to win All-Ireland Championship
1pt each-way 14-1 Boylesports 

Galway to win Connacht Championship
5pts 5-6 bet365, BoyleSports

Armagh to win Ulster Championship
3pts 11-4 general 

Galway to reach All-Ireland semi-finals
4pts 6-4 BoyleSports

Cork to reach All-Ireland quarter-finals
3pts 6-4 general 

Rory Grugan Championship top scorer
1pt 50-1 BoyleSports

Robert Finnerty Football of the Year
0.5pt 150-1 Boylesports

All-Ireland football championship preview

A bit like the Premier League title race this season, the 2024 All-Ireland championship is a three-horse race if the betting is to be believed with only Dublin, Kerry and Derry mattering in the market. 

It is 12-1 bar the big three, but they may not be as far ahead of the pack as everyone seems to think. 

Dublin didn't win the League, although they were absolutely outstanding for most of it. They were the better team in their opening two outings, but lost them both, and they went on to win their remaining five matches in the group stage with real swagger. The Dubs destroyed Kerry by ten points, scoring a whopping 3-18, in round four and there must be a concern that they have peaked too early this year. 

The same cannot be said of Kerry, who stumbled from round to round in the League and weren't too fussed about reaching the final. They still accumulated the same amount of points as Dublin, but did so in an entirely different manner. 

Derry won Division 1 for the seventh time, and a first since 2008, after a penalty shoot-out success over Dublin. Mickey Harte has come in at the helm and it has been a seamless transition. You could make quite a compelling case for them being too big at 9-2 considering Dublin are 13-8 favourites, but they are still probably short enough.

Of the big three, Kerry make most appeal at 11-4, although it's 14-1 Galway who look the real value. They are the forgotten piece of this particular jigsaw. 

Don't forget, it was 0-16 apiece after 65 minutes of their 2022 All-Ireland final against Kerry only for the Kingdom to tag on the last four points and lift the Sam Maguire Cup.

Galway's two losses in last year's Championship were both by a single point and they were by far the better team in each outing. They led 0-8 to 0-3 at the break in their preliminary quarter-final but succumbed to a late Mayo surge, while Armagh somehow edged them out despite the Tribesmen being in front after 67 minutes. 

Galway have been without a whole host of their gems this spring. Kilmacud Crokes attacker Shane Walsh started the opening round loss to Mayo but nothing else. Damien Comer, one of Galway's talismen up front alongside Walsh, and Cillian McDaid didn't play a single minute while Liam Silke only returned for round seven. Sean Kelly and Matthew Tierney were marked absent for most of the campaign as well. 

At one stage this spring, Galway were missing a staggering 21 members of their squad, yet they still managed to avoid relegation from Division 1. Indeed, they had basically secured their status by bagging five points from the first ten available and particularly impressed when dismantling Tyrone in Omagh. 

When Galway have everyone fit – and that can be a big if – they are a match for any side in Ireland. Padraic Joyce didn't rush any of his star names back in the League and Galway have a lovely passage through Connacht to ease their key personnel back in at the right moment. 

The Tribesmen play London in their provincial opener and then the winners of Leitrim and Sligo. The latter are the likelier victor of that tie meaning any Connacht semi-final will be on home soil at Pearse Stadium. 

Mayo and Roscommon are in the other half of the draw, so the 5-6 about Galway winning their third Connacht title is well worth taking. That is outstanding value and the safest play of the whole Championship. 

The two other Galway-related bets that appeal are for the Tribesmen to reach the All-Ireland last four at 6-4, and a small wager on Robert Finnerty being crowned Football of the Year at 150-1. 

With the star names likely to be missing early on, Finnerty will carry most of the responsibility for scores and could have earned plenty of brownie points by the time the big guns return. 

Cork, meanwhile, could be timing their run exceptionally well in 2024. They were poor in the early stages of the League season, but they were superb towards the end of it and odds of 6-4 about the Rebels reaching an All-Ireland quarter-final look too big. They should be odds-on. 

Kieran McGeeney could not have handpicked a better passage to an Ulster final for Armagh, who face Fermanagh first and then the winners of Down and Antrim. With that in mind, how they are 11-4 for provincial glory is a mystery. 

This current crop of Armagh footballers should have won more, but this is another glorious opportunity for silverware and they might just be able to grasp it. Given the likelihood of racking up big scores in their opening two matches in Ulster, Rory Grugan looks a big price at 50-1 to finish the campaign as top scorer. 

Shane McGuigan was top dog last year with 2-52, but Shane Walsh only got 1-36 in 2022. Armagh are almost guaranteed to have six games at the very least in the Championship, and quite possibly seven or eight, so Grugan could be a big player in this market. He was superb throughout the League season, including in the Division 2 final, and will kick all frees on his side. 

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