by James McMahon
A team with aspirations of winning a Leinster title and progressing further in the championship against an outfit who have struggled in recent years is what awaits in Portlaoise.
In the footballing charts, Kildare are currently vying for the No 3 spot in the country, and with silverware in the bag after their Allianz League success, they enter the championship fray in good spirits.
Offaly’s spring campaign saw them drop to Division 4 and confidence would not appear to be high within the county that they can have any real impact over the next few weeks.
The Lillywhites impressed when beating Tyrone in the Division 2 decider, with Pádraig Fogarty making a real impact when he came on. He won’t start on Sunday, with boss Kieran McGeeney only making one change to the team that had Croke Park success on 29 April.
Aindriu MacLochlainn comes in for Eamonn Callaghan who underwent surgery on a groin injury last week. Johnny Doyle will start at No 10, despite carrying a quad strain.
Seanie Johnston is still ineligible to play for the county, despite a newspaper report that his case would be considered 24 hours before Sunday’s match.
Johnston will have to play a club championship match in Kildare before he can be considered for inclusion. Will the fixture schedule within the county be altered any time soon? We’ll wait and see!
Offaly will have to plan without influential forward Niall McNamee, as he is still sidelined with a groin injury. Boss Tom Coffey has introduced four newcomers to the starting XV. John Moloney starts at full back, Michael Brazil at centre half back, Eoin Rigney at left half back and Daniel Currams at centre half forward.
Alan McNamee returns to partner Richie Dalton at midfield and his fellow Rhode club man Brian Darby captains the side.
Offaly are a proud county, with a great tradition. They will want to go down fighting at O’Moore Park, but Kildare’s greater power should ensure that they ease effortlessly on to the next round.
Verdict: Kildare
