It has been a quiet few weeks from ourselves as we have been on extended vacation, but this is not to say we haven't kept our readers in profit, with our NAP in the Derry and Tipperary game landing nicely last weekend.

This leaves us with a 75 point profit from the start of the championship season, meaning if you back all our recommended bets as singles with a £10 stake you would be in £750 profit. 

This weekend is probably the busiest of the the whole GAA calendar, and for @TheGAAmbler1, with four massive games all taking place at Croke Park and we plan to cover all the games comprehensively, with two previews for both the Saturday and Sunday games.

In today's article we focus on the clashes of Donegal and Cork as well as Westmeath versus Mayo later in the day.

When trying to read into the form of Cork at any time of the year is quite an arduous task, as over the last two to three years they have shown their potential as well as falling flat on their face many times.

Surprisingly, the same can be said about Donegal once they enter the realms of Croke Park. They've enjoyed many memorable performances in 2012 and 2014 but in recent years they have been on the wrong end of a few drubbings most notably from Mayo last year and Dublin in this year's league semi final.

For a team that has been noted for their tight defence they have conceded 15 goals in 8 games in headquarters since 2012, only keeping two clean sheets in that time.

This kind of form, and taking into the account the manner of their defeat to Tyrone, may lead to quite an open affair between two fragile teams.

This game is undoubtedly the final final roll of the dice for this Donegal team. It's rumoured many of their stars committed this year with the view this would be their last year. This could well lead to the shackles being taken off which is something Rory Gallagher has facilitated at times this year.

It would not be surprising to see Donegal put up a big score against a very weak and fragile Cork defence who also will be missing star defender and man marker James Loughrey who is suspended.

This should lead to Paddy McBrearty having a field day with no recognised man marker on the pitch to pick him up, which is why 9/1 on him receiving Man of the Match is a good bet with a 1 point stake being advised. 

Overall, Donegal should have the system and intensity in their locker to prevail over the Rebels in what I think should be a fast paced high scoring game. Our main bet being advised is Donegal over 16.5 points at 8/13 with Ladbrokes, a three points stake being placed here.

Our NAP comes from Saturdays second game in which Mayo are very short 1/20 favourites with a massive 11 point spread being offered by some bookmakers.

This is a very enticing spread and I would certainly not put anybody off backing Westmeath at +11 points.

But the bet that really sticks out for me is the highest scoring half bet. Bet 365 offer odds of even money on the second half of this game being the highest scoring, this is considerably generous when compared with the 4/6 and 8/11 being offered by Ladbrokes and Paddy Power respectively for the same market.

Looking at the stats in relation to this bet, in all of Westmeath's games this year the second half has been the highest scoring, crucially two of which were in Croke Park, the venue for today's games. 

Mayo on the other hand have had higher scores in the first half of their games, with only the Galway game being higher scoring in the second half.

Although upon closer analysis they put up a big score against a very bad London team, only scored 1-4 in the first half of their game against Fermanagh scoring a much more impressive 1-10 in the second half.  

It is also important to note than in their game after losing the Leinster final last year, Westmeath were drawing 0-5 each with Fermanagh at the interval, with the second half ending on a scoreline of 1-13 to 0-7 to Fermanagh.

I'm expecting a similar showing today with a tight first half with the game opening up and Mayo putting up a decent score in the second half, a 4 point stake is being advised here.

A second bet that sticks out in this game is the 8/13 being offered on Donal Vaughan to not score against Westmeath.

Donal is a great defender and has been a stalwart for Mayo for many years. He lines out at midfield today and I would be quite surprised if he played the game from that position. He is more likely to drop back or a number of changes could be made for him to revert back to a more defensive position. 3 points stake is advised here with Paddy Power.

Recomended bets:

• Donegal over 16.5 points at 8/13 with Ladbrokes. 3 points stake
   
• Paddy McBearty Man of the Match 9/1 with Boylesports. 1 point stake
   
• (NAP) Westmeath/Mayo second half to be the highest scoring. 4 points stake
   
• Donal Vaughan under 0.5 points at 8/13 with Paddy Power. 3 points stake

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