Weekend All-Ireland Football match predictions and GAA betting tips

Best bets

Down -5
4pts Evs Boylesports

Down to score over 1.5 goals
2pts Evs bet365

Mayo to score over 2.5 goals
3pts 6-5 bet365

Cork +9
4pts 8-11 Boylesports

Cork to lead at half-time
1pt 11-2 Paddy Power

No goal in Monaghan v Donegal
1pt 14-1 Paddy Power

Under 2.5 goals in Monaghan v Donegal
2pts 13-8 Paddy Power

Galway -3
2pts 5-6 Boylesports

Weekend Gaelic Football predictions

Fermanagh vs Down

BBC, 4pm Saturday

Down are dark horses for the Ulster championship and they can start their campaign with a big win away to Fermanagh.

These two sides ended the league in very different fashions. Down produced their best display by beating subsequent Division 2 winners Monaghan away in Clones, whereas Fermanagh succumbed to an eight-point loss to Laois on home soil in Enniskillen.

Fermanagh conceded two goals in that loss to Laois, while Offaly scored three goals against them in round six as did Antrim earlier on in the campaign. They have been leaking a lot of goals and odds of evens about Down finding the net at least twice make plenty of appeal.

Pat Havern is a scoring machine and, if Ryan Magill and Odhrán Murdock can continue their rich vein of form from the end of the league, Down could run out emphatic winners. The five-point handicap ought to be negotiated with ease.

Leitrim vs Mayo

GAA+, 4.30pm Saturday

Appearing in a league final the previous weekend wouldn't have helped Mayo's cause before their provincial opener against Sligo and they had to work hard to see off the Yeats County in their Connacht clash, eventually obliging by 2-20 to 2-17.

Don't expect such a stern examination from Leitrim, who were the laughing stock of the league after forfeiting points to Fermanagh because they couldn't field a team.

Sligo scored 0-32 in the final group game in Division 3 and Mayo could run amok here.

Goals will surely be on the menu and it's hard to believe you can get odds-against about Mayo finding the net three or more times. Kevin McStay's side will surely create at least six or seven goal chances at the very least and it will be merely a matter of how clinical they are when those opportunities present themselves.

It wouldn't come as any great surprise if they got four or five.

Cork vs Kerry

GAA+, 6pm Saturday

Far too much has been read into Kerry's late surge to lift the Division 1 league title.

The Kingdom are now clear favourites for All-Ireland honours and as short as 2-1 in some spots, which seems a drastic overreaction to a team who were hitting top gear in the league while a lot of their rivals were cooling down and planning for the championship.

There are cracks in this Kerry side and Cork could expose a few at Pairc Ui Chaoimh in this Munster opener. Indeed, the 9-1 on offer about a home win is very tempting indeed.

A slightly safer play may be backing Cork to lead at half-time at 11-2 instead.

Kerry stumbled over the line in the corresponding fixture last year when narrowly winning 0-18 to 1-12. And, when the Munster rivals clashed in the All-Ireland series during the 2023 championship, there were only two points between the sides - 1-14 to 0-15.

Cork already have the benefit of a comfortable Munster win over Limerick by 11 points, and they ended the league with a two-point victory over Cavan.

The layers seem to think this will be a walk in the park for Kerry, but it could be anything but and backing Cork with a nine-point headstart looks the best bet of the whole weekend.

Monaghan vs Donegal

GAA+, 2pm Sunday

If Donegal revert to the style of play we saw in the early rounds of the league, when they waltzed by some top teams, goals will not be on their radar when they visit Clones for their Ulster championship opener with Monaghan.

Jim McGuinness placed far more importance on two-pointers during the spring and remarkably in their seven league outings, Donegal scored only only two goals.

They failed to find the net against Dublin, Kerry, Armagh, Galway and Tyrone. Even when they did find the net, they scored only one goal against Mayo and Derry.

In beating Kerry during the league, Donegal racked up 0-23 and that's the sort of scoreline they will be aiming for in Clones.

Monaghan scored plenty of goals on the way to the Division 2 title, but they didn't come up against a solid defence and machine-like structure such as the one Donegal possesses so they will find it extremely hard to break through.

It is worth having a small nibble on no goals at 14-1 but the best bet on the match coupon is for under 2.5 goals at 13-8.

Roscommon vs Galway

RTE, 4pm Sunday

Connacht doesn't matter much to Galway in 2025. But for that big worry, backing them at a shade of odds-on to defy a three-point handicap would be a glorious wager.

The All-Ireland is the only thing that matters to the Tribesmen this year and they certainly won't be peaking for a trip to Dy Hyde Park.

That said, even Galway in third gear should have too much for Roscommon, who were absolutely awful in the second-half of their Division 2 league final loss to Monaghan.

Roscommon looked stale there and if Galway decide to turn it on here, it could get ugly.

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