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GAA Digest: Dublin's James McCarthy to start Leinster final

Tyrone's Joe McMahon comes in for injured brother Justin
Tyrone's Joe McMahon comes in for injured brother Justin

Dublin manager Jim Gavin has named his team for Sunday’s Leinster SFC final against Westmeath (Croke Park, 2pm).

The Leinster champions have made one change to the side which demolished Kildare in the semi-final.

James McCarthy, who appeared as a substitute against the Lilywhites, comes in at right wing-back with John Small dropping out of the starting line-up. 

Rory O’Carroll starts at full-back with Davy Byrne unavailable after suffering a broken nose in a challenge match last week.

Dublin: Stephen Cluxton; Jonny Cooper, Rory O’Carroll, Philly McMahon; James McCarthy, Cian O’Sullivan, Jack McCaffrey; Brian Fenton, Micahel Darragh Macauley; Paul Flynn, Ciaran Kilkenny, Diarmuid Connolly; Dean Rock, Kevin McManamon, Bernard Brogan. 

John Connellan, meanwhile, will start at corner-forward in what is the only change on the Westmeath team from which took the field against Meath in their semi-final.

Connellan lines out at number 13 in place of Lorcan Smyth. Positional switches made by manager Tom Cribbin sees Denis Carroon moving to midfield from the half-forward line and Paul Sharry reverting to number 11 after lining out at midfield against the Royals.

Tipperary’s Michael Breen will make his full championship debut when he lines out for the Premier County in Sunday’s Munster final against Waterford (Semple Stadium, 4pm).

The Ballina man is named at right-half back.

Making his return to action after being out with a shoulder injury is Cathal Barrett, who is one of two changes to the side that beat Limerick in the semi-final.

Tipperary: D Gleeson; C Barrett, J Barry, R Maher; M Breen, P Maher, K Bergin; J Woodlock, S McGrath; J Forde, B Maher (Capt), P Maher; J O’Dwyer, S Callanan, N O’Meara.

Davy Fitzgerald is happy with his Clare side that beat Offaly in the last round of the qualifiers and he names an unchanged team to play Cork in round 2 (Semple Stadium, 7pm).

Meanwhile, Patrick Donnellan returns from suspension and is named amongst the substitutes.

Clare: P Kelly; D McInerney, C Dillon (Capt), S Morey; B Bugler, P O’Connor, J Browne; C Ryan, T Kelly; J Conlon, C Ryan, S Golden; D Honan, S O’Donnell, C McGrath. 

Joe McMahon will make his first Tyrone start of the season in Saturday's All-Ireland SFC Round 2B qualifier against Meath at Healy Park.

The Omagh man comes in at centre back for younger brother Justin, who is ruled out by injury, in one of two changes made by manager Mickey Harte.

Niall Morgan returns in goal after a knee cartilage injury ruled Mickey O'Neill out of the game, with Sean Fox drafted into the panel as substitute goalkeeper.

Tyrone: N Morgan, A McCrory, R McNamee, C McCarron, R McNabb, Joe McMahon, P Harte, C Cavanagh, M Donnelly, T McCann, R O'Neill, R Brennan, D McCurry, S Cavanagh, C McAliskey.

Jimmy Barry-Murphy has kept faith with the same Cork side that started against Wexford for Saturday's All-Ireland SHC Round 2 qualifier against Clare.

Returning to the squad are Shane O'Neill and Luke O'Farrell. O'Neill is fit again after recovering from an ankle injury while O'Farrell is available after serving a one-match man following his sending off in the Munster semi-final against Waterford.  

Cork: Anthony Nash; Damien Cahalane, Stephen McDonnell, Brian Murphy; Aidan Walsh, Mark Ellis, Cormac Murphy; Daniel Kearney, Bill Cooper; Conor Lehane, Patrick Cronin, Brian Lawton; Alan Cadogan, Seamus Harnedy, Patrick Horgan.  

Seamus Hickey and Declan Hannon both return to the Limerick starting side for Saturday’s All-Ireland SHC qualifier against Dublin.

The duo are the only two changes from the side that defeated Westmeath in Mullingar in last Sunday’s qualifier.

Hickey comes in for the injured Tom Condon at corner-back while Hannon replaces Seanie Tobin in attack at centre-forward.

Limerick: Nickie Quaid; Seamus Hickey, Richie McCarthy, Sean O’Brien; Paudie O’Brien, Gavin O’Mahony, Wayne McNamara; James Ryan, Paul Browne; David Breen, Declan Hannon, Shane Dowling; Graeme Mulcahy, Kevin Downes, Cian Lynch.

Meanwhile, Dublin are unchanged for the clash from the team that saw off Laois last weekend.

Michael Carton left the Dublin panel ahead earlier this week. Long-serving Carton was an unused sub in the Laois victory, despite the continued absence of regular full-back Peter Kelly, and decided to quit the panel shortly afterwards.

Carton was nominated for an All Star in 2013, when Dublin won the Leinster title.

Dublin: Gary Maguire; Niall Corcoran, Cian O’Callaghan, Paul Schutte; Chris Crummey, Liam Rushe, Shane Barrett; Johnny McCaffrey, Ryan O’Dwyer; Cian Boland, Eamon Dillon, Danny Sutcliffe; Paul Ryan, Conal Keaney, Mark Schutte.

Tipperary football manager Peter Creedon has been forced to make a number of changes to the side that lost to Kerry in the Munster semi-final for Saturday’s All-Ireland Round 2B qualifier against Louth.

Four players coming in are from this year’s U21 side which reached the All-Ireland Final.

Jimmy Feehan makes his Senior Championship debut at corner back, while Ian Fahey lines out in midfield. 

Up front, Liam Casey and Kevin O’Halloran make their full senior championship debuts also, both having previously been introduced as replacements against Kerry, while Casey also got a run out against Waterford in the Munster quarter-final.

Steven O'Brien and George Hannigan have both been ruled out by injury.

Tipperary: Evan Comerford ; Ciarán McDonald, Paddy Codd, Jimmy Feehan; Seamus Kennedy, Peter Acheson, Alan Campbell; Colin O’Riordan , Ian Fahey; Brian Fox, Conor Sweeney, Liam Casey; Kevin O’Halloran, Michael Quinlivan, Philip Austin.

Wexford have named their team for Saturday's All-Ireland Round 2B qualifier against Derry in Owenbeg: Anthony Masterson; Rob Tierney, Naomhan Rossiter, Joey Wadding; Simon Donohoe, Graeme Molloy, Adrian Flynn; Syl Byrne, Brian Malone; Tiernan Rossiter, Ben Brosnan, Kieran Butler; Ciaran Lyng, Michael O'Regan, Kevin O'Grady.

Meanwhile the Derry team has also been named.

Derry: Thomas Mallon; Oisín Duffy, Chrissy McKaigue, Dermot McBride; Liam McGoldrick, Brendan Rogers, Sean Leo McGoldrick; Niall Holly, Fergal Doherty; Benny Heron, Mark Lynch, Enda Lynn; Daniel Heavron, Eoin Bradley, Cailean O’Boyle.

The Clare Camogie Board has said it took "appropriate actions within viable timelines to avoid or change" a clash of fixtures which will see the dual players within their county having to decide between codes.

They were responding to a statement issued by the Camogie Association on Tuesday, which said the best way to avoid such clashes was in the planning stages, with draft fixtures having been issued back in November.

Clare's board say they did notify the national association of a potential clash between their players and the county's footballers in November, and again within 48 hours of Clare's footballers having qualified for the Munster Intermediate Final last month.

Dublin’s Davey Byrne has been ruled out of their Leinster football final clash with Westmeath on Sunday (Croke Park, 2pm) after suffering facial injuries in a challenge match last week.

Jim Gavin’s men took on Armagh last Thursday and the Ballymun Kickhams midfielder is believed to have suffered a broken nose and fractured eye socket in the incident and required a two-night stay in hospital.


Meanwhile, Antrim defender Tony Scullion has announced the end of his inter-county career.

The Cargin man, 32, told The Irish News that it was “time for somebody else to step up to the plate. I've done what I can.”

Antrim were knocked out of the qualifiers by Fermanagh on Sunday

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