Weekend All-Ireland Football predictions and betting tips: Galway and Armagh to set up final date

Best bets

Down -3
5pts 4-6 BoyleSports 

Galway -1
4pts 11-8 BoyleSports 

Galway to score over 1.5 goals
2pts 13-5 BoyleSports

Armagh
2pts 3-1 BoyleSports

Rory Grugan to be named RTE Man of the Match
1pt 18-1 Paddy Power 

Already advised  

Galway to win All-Ireland Championship
1pt each-way 14-1 April 5

Galway to reach All-Ireland semi-finals
4pts 6-4 April 5

Weekend championship previews

Down vs Laois predictions

RTE2, 3pm Saturday 

Down froze on the big stage last year, going into the Tailteann Cup final as red-hot favourites only to play poorly and lose to Meath. 

Fast-forward 12 months and they are back in the decider of the competition with a ticket to the 2025 All-Ireland series once again in the palm of their hands. Don't expect them to fluff their lines this time.

Down have a huge score to settle at Croke Park having lost last year's Tailteann Cup final and the Division 3 league decider to Westmeath as well. Now they have the chance to set the record straight and they should do it in emphatic style. They are much further down the road than Laois. It is hard to imagine the O'Moore men giving All-Ireland semi-finalists Armagh an almighty fright in an Ulster championship clash, but that's exactly what Down did this year. 

Down to win by six or seven is the suggestion, and a three-point handicap should be covered with ease. 

Armagh vs Kerry predictions

RTE2 & BBC NI, 5.30pm Saturday 

Kerry finally got their act together and woke up for the final few minutes of their snorefest with Derry in the All-Ireland quarter-final. They won ugly and, in truth, there hasn't been a whole heap of pretty displays from the Kingdom in 2024. They have been efficient rather than effervescent. 

In the immediate aftermath of that 0-15 to 0-10 success, Kerry looked as if they could go all the way and lift the Sam Maguire given that Dublin had been defeated by Galway. But as their last-four encounter with Armagh draws near, it's hard to escape the feeling that the betting is completely wrong.

How can an Armagh side, who outplayed Donegal for most of the Ulster final, destroyed Derry by 11 points in the All-Ireland series, carved out a draw with Galway and the coasted by Roscommon in the quarter-final, be as big as 3-1 to win in 70 minutes? It makes no sense. 

Bar a penalty shootout loss to Donegal, Armagh are unbeaten in this year's championship and they have the potential to hurt Kerry. Their running game suits Croke Park and the big difference with this Armagh side and others of the Kieran McGeeney era is the strength and depth of the squad. The ability to bring on Stefan Campbell, Oisin O'Neill, Aidan Nugent, Ross McQuillan and Jason Duffy to inject new life into the closing stages is a big plus. 

The key man for Armagh could be Rory Grugan, though. There are few more elegant attackers in the game. He didn't score in the quarter-final and was taken off after 55 minutes, but he could be a crucial scorer from distance this time and looks overpriced at 18-1 to be awarded RTE's Man of the March. If Armagh are to win, they can't do it without Grugan operating at the peak of his powers. He's had a superb year and is a big-game player.

Donegal vs Galway predictions

RTE/BBC, 4pm Sunday

Pádraic Joyce's record against Ulster opposition as Galway manager is remarkable and, when you delve deeper into those 19 games, it becomes even more extraordinary.

Joyce has won 14 of those games - a staggering 74 per cent success rate. He has drawn two and lost only three. 

Indeed, that record could easily be more impressive. Shane Walsh missed a penalty and a late free when they lost out by a point to Armagh in the group stage last year, while in the Division 1 relegation play-off in 2021, Monaghan staged a miraculous late surge with a Darren Hughes injury-time goal forcing extra-time and the Farney army went on to prevail by a point. 

The only time they have been comprehensively defeated by an Ulster side was when they faced Derry in round four of this year's league, when Joyce was missing a whole host of his first team through injury. 

It could easily be the case that Joyce had lost just one of his 19 clashes with Ulster sides during his tenure and his style of play obviously suits setting up against the northern outfits. 

You only have to look at this year's stats to understand why. Galway have conceded just one goal in the 2024 championship and that was a kick-out catastrophe which should have been avoided against Armagh. 

To have coughed up a solitary goal in seven championship matches and to have kept clean sheets against Dublin, Derry and Mayo takes some doing. This is a defensive structure that is solid and works. Everybody knows their job and Galway have yet to concede more than 16 points in any game. 

Galway need Shane Walsh and Damien Comer fit. If both start, alongside Robert Finnerty who has had a terrific 2024, it is the most dangerous inside forward line in the country.

Punters taking on Galway will point to the fact they stumbled over Sligo and were woeful against Westmeath. But the way they set up means the better the opposition, the better they are. 

Galway have done the heaviest bit of lifting by dethroning Dublin and they did so despite going in four points down at the break. It takes significant mental strength to recover from that deficit against the All-Ireland champions. 

Galway are only marginally odds-on with most firms, but they should be shorter and backing them to win by two points or more at 11-8 looks a shrewd play. 

Cork crept in for three goals against Donegal in a crucial group-stage encounter in the All-Ireland series and the advice is to get on Galway to net two or more. 

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