Paul Flynn's football championship predictions

Saturday

Group 1: Louth v Cork

The first game on Saturday sees Cork take on Louth in Tailteann Park.

Louth beat Cork this year in the league and that's something they will take in to this championship game and it’s always important when you can overcome your opposition in the league and take that into championship.

Two weeks after such an emphatic defeat to Dublin, it will be hard for Louth to press the reset and Cork on the other hand have had a disappointing loss to Clare.

I can see a narrow win for the Rebels, which would set them nicely up for the group and put Louth under pressure.

Verdict: Cork

Group 2: Armagh v Westmeath

Armagh take on last year’s Tailteann Cup winners Westmeath in their Group 2 opener.

After their brilliant performance in the Ulster championship, Armagh had a really devastating defeat at the end of a penalty shootout to Derry in the final. They will need to learn how to close out games

Now they have a chance in these group stages to figure those small things out in relation to game management and closing games out.

I think this will be the start of that for them this weekend.

Verdict: Armagh

Group 4: Derry v Monaghan

It’s a repeat of the Ulster semi-final last month.

The Ulster champions steamrolled the Monaghan men in the Ulster semi-final (1-21 to 2-10) and I find it hard to see any other result in this game.

It might not be in the same fashion – I think Monaghan will have learned a lot from that game - and the Farney men will come with an intent and keen to get a good performance under their belt.

They have two other games in the group, against Clare and Donegal, which they will definitely target as winnable games.

Verdict: Derry

Group 3: Dublin v Roscommon

While this group looks less competitive