Pete’s Picks – Sunday’s Live GAA Analysis & Tips

Kerry are 1/5 with BoyleSports to qualify for the All-Ireland SFC final against either Dublin or Mayo as Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s defending champions tackle Tyrone on Sunday afternoon at headquarters.

And I am confident the Kingdom will justify that prohibitive quote with Colm Cooper orchestrating a classic team display to copper-fasten, as if he needed to, his status as the greatest footballer of this generation.

The Gooch is 13/2 to score the first goal and 11/4 to raise a green flag at any time in the contest. Mickey Harte’s side, though, have been watertight defensively up until now.

Martin McElhinney is the only player to register a major against Tyrone which occurred in their Ulster SFC preliminary round.

Since then Harte’s defensive blockade has yielded shut-outs against Limerick, Meath, Tipperary, Sligo and Monaghan.

Of those sides, you would have fancied Meath, Tipp and Monaghan to possibly breach Tyrone’s defence so five clean sheets on the spin is a statistic to be mindful of.

Nevertheless, Kerry’s attack has practically no equal when in full flow and BoyleSports’ 13/8 about the Munster champions engineering two goals or more is slightly enticing. Kerry’s goalscoring prowess in the Championship thus far is well-documented.

And even if James O’Donoghue, despite being named in Fitzmaurice’s starting 15, does not partake from the off on Sunday, the Kingdom’s offensive arsenal is such that creating goalscoring opportunities will still not be diminished in any way.

Paul Geaney or, possibly, Darran O’Sullivan, are more than able ‘deputies’ and will also cause Tyrone, 4/1 in the match betting and 3/1 to qualify, problems.

Kerry, merely 1/4 to generate a winning total in regulation-time, have scored 12 goals in four Championship outings this year so will carve out chances irrespective of the excellence of the northerners’ rearguard.

And should the Kingdom manage to raise at least two green flags they’ll go a long way to ensuring Kerry score over 18.5 points in the semi-final.

Both Sligo and Monaghan accrued 0-14 against Tyrone and so Kerry should be more than capable of adding five points to that figure.

The temptation was to recommend Kerry -3 at 4/6 however we will opt instead to back them to total at least 19 points.

Cooper should be the conductor pulling the strings and he is the star to be on at 6/1 in the RTÉ Man of the Match market.

The Dr Croke’s clubman scored 0-5 (0-1 free) against the same opposition in an All-Ireland qualifier in 2012 and can be vital to the outcome again on this occasion.

Others to consider are Anthony Maher, Donnchadh Walsh and Kieran Donaghy, all at 16/1. O’Donoghue may not feature yet while David Moran was given the award as Kerry demolished Kildare. This time, Cooper can shine.

Pete’s Picks
Colm Cooper RTÉ Man of the Match @ 6/1
Total Kerry Points Over 18.5 @ evens
Over 1.5 Kerry Goals @ 13/8