So we’ve reached the end game. I didn’t want to be accused of starting something that I couldn’t finish, so stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before. How soon is now I hear you say? Well, as Bigmouth strikes again, I’ll try to keep the waffle to a minimum.  

“Please, please, please let me get what I want” is something that all the quarter-finalists will be saying, but there is a light that will never go out for only 1 player, and as we progress through to Magic Monday, it will be interesting to see when the going gets tough who refuses to panic? Heaven knows I’m miserable now at the thoughts of just how inaccurate some of these predictions have been. It could be a case that I’ll have serious egg on my face by Monday evening, and it could be obvious to all that joke isn’t funny anymore.

So really, what’s the difference? Well if all the texts and comments are anything to go by, the previews have added a bit of flavour and taken the edge off some of the players. Hope you enjoyed them and I’m sure I’ll bump into you all over the weekend...So here we go:

In the top half of the draw I speculated that we could see 4 finalists consisting of:
Terry McMorrow; Paul Nolan; Chris Gallagher; Ray Murphy;

With the bottom half comprising of
Sean Downes; Thomas Hanley; Mark Millar; Sean Goggin;

That is a lovely blend of youth (ish), experience, old-stagers and new-comers. To give a detailed analysis on matches that are dependent on so many random factors almost borders on the farcical, so I’ll just give my gut feeling.
I think home territory is going to come into play in a big way, and for that reason I can see Terry McMorrow making Monday morning. I would love to say that he’ll meet Chris Gallagher as it would be a huge boost for the young players, a huge boost for Dublin, and a huge boost for Leinster. However he needs to beat Murphy, and I’m not sure he’s caught up enough, or that Murphy has slipped enough for it to happen. So I think Murphy has to be looking to the semi-final, and by extension I think he’ll probably have too much for McMorrow.

At the other end, Downes I would fancy to take Thomas Hanley, and face the winner of what would be a juicy fixture, the clash of Millar and Goggin. I fancy Millar here, and also I think if he gets to the semi-final, he’ll account for Downes.

So, my fantasy final? Sugar Ray and Mark Millar. Millar to reclaim his crown after too long a wait, Dublin gets its champion, and Leinster get’s a shot in the arm.

Tschuss!