The All-Ireland Hurling 2024 Championship Odds: Limerick On Top Ahead Of Munster Final
Daire Walsh
Following another busy weekend of action, the best betting sites are yet again exploring the main contenders for this year’s All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship title.
After reigning supreme in the competition for each of the previous four summers, Kilkenny secured their fifth successive Leinster Senior Hurling Championship crown with a convincing 3-28 to 1-18 triumph over Dublin at Croke Park last Saturday evening.
Supplementing a 2-6 haul from the evergreen TJ Reid, Adrian Mullen (0-7), Eoin Cody (1-2) and Cian Kenny (0-4) also chipped in with handsome scoring tallies as Derek Lyng’s charges came out on top at GAA HQ.
Less than 24 hours later, Limerick defeated Clare for the third year on the bounce in the final of the Munster Senior Hurling Championship and thus claimed provincial honours for a sixth year in a row.
Gearoid Hegarty’s 1-2 contribution was important in its own right, but with 10 players getting their names on the scoresheet, it was a massive team effort from the Treaty County on the day.
Meanwhile, the weekend’s hurling had started on Saturday when midlands neighbours Offaly and Laois locked horns in the second-tier Joe McDonagh Cup.
In the end, it was the former side – for whom Brian Duignan, Eoghan Cahill and Charlie Mitchell excelled in the scoring stakes – who took the spoils in Croke Park on a score of 2-23 to 0-26.
Limerick On Course For Another All-Ireland Title
As has been the case in recent times, both Offaly and Laois will now enter the All-Ireland championship at a preliminary quarter-final phase with home games against Cork and Wexford respectively this weekend.
This means that they are in the race for top honours in the Liam MacCarthy Cup, but with bookmakers valuing their chances at 1,000/1, it seems highly unlikely that either of them will come away with a shock top-tier success.
At the opposite end of the All-Ireland betting, Limerick have been favourites to claim a groundbreaking fifth consecutive national title since the very beginning of 2024.
Having enjoyed a six-point victory against Clare in the Munster final last weekend, John Kiely’s men very much remain out in front for this top prize as far as betting apps are concerned.
Despite missing key players like Seamus Flanagan, Peter Casey, Sean Finn and Darragh O’Donovan, Limerick had too much for the Banner at Semple Stadium in Thurles.
After picking up their latest piece of silverware, the Treaty are rated at 4/6 to maintain their stranglehold on the Liam MacCarthy Cup for another year.
Kilkenny Closing The Gap In Betting Market
As the only unbeaten team remaining in the competition, Kilkenny have managed to establish themselves as the ‘best of the rest’ at 9/2 to win their first All-Ireland SHC title since 2015 on GAA betting sites.
This wouldn’t be seen as a barren spell for most counties, but such is the success that the Cats have enjoyed, that it feels like an eternity from their point of view.
Ahead of their aforementioned showdown with Offaly in Tullamore, it is a resurgent Cork that find themselves just behind Kilkenny as third favourites for the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
After losing to Waterford and Clare in the opening two rounds of the round-robin series in Munster, the Leesiders bounced back with magnificent wins over defending champions Limerick and Tipperary.
Cork And Clare Also In The Mix For All-Ireland
You have to go back to 2005 for the last time the Cork senior hurlers climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand in Croke Park, but there is an air of confidence about their play under Pat Ryan at the moment.
At 36, Patrick Horgan remains a potent force in their attack and has contributed 4-37 for the Rebels in just four championship fixtures thus far in 2024. Cork are 9/2 hopefuls for All-Ireland honours.
Having now lost twice to Limerick in this year’s championship – and being forced to work hard for round-robin triumphs against Cork, Waterford and Tipperary – there are some doubts over Clare’s All-Ireland credentials.
Aidan McCarthy, Peter Duggan and David Fitzgerald all kept the scoreboard ticking over at times against Limerick last weekend, but their performance levels were well off what they delivered in the 2022 and 2023 Munster finals.
National Hurling League champions earlier this year, there is pressure on Clare to push forward in the All-Ireland series and at the very least reach a Liam MacCarthy decider for the first in 11 years.
While Limerick, Kilkenny and Cork are ahead of them in the betting, Brian Lohan’s Banner side are still an enticing option at 8/1.
Odds Are Stacked Against Wexford And Dublin
Clare are looked upon a lot more favourably than either Wexford or Dublin, who will enter the All-Ireland championship at different stages over the next fortnight.
Wexford made the trip to Portlaoise this Saturday to take on Joe McDonagh runners-up Laois in a preliminary quarter-final, while Dublin will take on the winners of Cork and Offaly in the last-eight of the Liam MacCarthy Cup the following weekend.
Despite not making the provincial showpiece in the east, Wexford are 33/1 for All-Ireland glory. With Lee Chin currently the second highest scorer in this year’s championship, the Slaneysiders do have the firepower to cause problems for any team they face in the remaining weeks of the competition.
Thanks to his haul of 2-59, Dublin’s Donal Burke currently leads the way in the hurling championship scoring charts.
Yet this isn’t enough for the Sky Blues to be viewed as genuine contenders for the All-Ireland title, which comes as little surprise given how far off the capital side were in their Leinster final reversal to Kilkenny last Saturday.
Dublin’s Liam MacCarthy Cup chances are 100/1 to claim a shock victory in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship.