Kealy’s day arrives as Kerry begin title defence

KERRY football boss Jack O’Connor has named ten of last September’s All-Ireland winning team for the opening clash of their All-Ireland title defence in Sunday’s Munster SFC quarter-final against Tipperary in Semple Stadium.

The five new players in are goalkeeper Brendan Kealy, who is the sole championship debutant in the starting 15, midfielder Michéal Quirke, left half-forward Donncha Walsh, full-forward Kieran Donaghy and left corner-forward Bryan Sheehan.

That quintet fill the voids left by the retirements of Diarmuid Murphy and Darragh O Sé, and the departure of Tadgh Kennelly and Tommy Walsh to pursue careers in Australian Rules. Last year’s captain Darran O’Sullivan drops to the bench with this year’s captain Sheehan taking his place. Of the 11 players O’Connor has named on his bench only three were involved in last year’s campaign with David Hennessy, Adrian O’Connell, Kieran O’Leary, Barry John Keane, Niall O’Mahony, Pat Corridan and Brendan Guiney all new to this year’s squad.

Tipperary have handed championship debuts to left half-back Ciaran McGrath and right half-forward Peter Acheson. Loughmore-Castleiney player McGrath made his senior football debut in this year’s NFL as did Moyle Rovers player Acheson, the man-of- the-match winner at midfield when Tipperary defeated Kerry to take Munster U21 honours in March.

In total manager John Evans has made three changes from last year’s All-Ireland SFC qualifier defeat against Sligo with Niall Curran also coming into the team at full-back, and Christopher Higgins, Brian Fox and Brian Coen the trio to make way.

Derry boss Damien Cassidy has named two championship debutantes in his starting 15 for Sunday’s Ulster SFC preliminary round clash against Armagh in Celtic Park, but it is the omission of James Kielt from the Oak Leaf attack that is the biggest surprise.

Kielt was a regular starter for Derry in last season’s championship and this spring’s league, but he has to be content with a place on the bench.

Left half-back Michael Bateson and left half-forward Declan Mullan are the two newcomers to championship football while corner-back Brian Óg McAlary makes his first championship start, having been introduced as a sub during action last summer.

There are only eight survivors from the team that started in Derry’s championship exit in the qualifiers against Donegal last summer, with Bateson, Mullan, McAlary, Kevin McGuckian, Dermot McBride, Barry McGuigan and Raymond Wilkinson all drafted into the team. Kevin McCloy, Barry McGoldrick, Joe Diver, Brian Mullan and Kielt all drop down to the bench for Sunday’s game, while Sean Marty Lockhart has retired and Chrissy McKaigue switched codes to join AFL outfit Sydney Swans.

Armagh manager Paddy O’Rourke has made one change for the clash with Derry from the team that lifted NFL Division 2 honours three weeks ago against Down. Malachy Mackin comes into the team at right half-forward with Barry Shannon the player to make way. That switch necessitates a positional reshuffle as Kieran Toner goes to full-back, Brendan Donaghy to left corner-back and Charles Vernon switches to start at midfield alongside James Lavery.

Nicky Mernagh has been handed his championship debut at left half-forward on the Wicklow team to face Carlow in their Leinster SFC opener in Portlaoise on Sunday. Mernagh is one of only two changes from the team that exited last year’s championship against Kildare, as JP Dalton moves to midfield in place of Thomas Walsh who will be lining out in the colours of opponents Carlow. The other switch sees Alan Byrne replace the injured Ciarán Hyland in the full-back line.

Meanwhile, Kildare midfielder Dermot Earley is almost certain to recover in time for their Leinster SFC opener against Louth or Longford on June 6th despite a knee injury which has sidelined him since March, but Longford look certain to be without Brian Kavanagh for their tie on Sunday week against Louth as he is suffering from a broken bone in his ankle.

KERRY (SF v Tipperary): B Kealy; M O’Sé, T Griffin, T O’Sullivan; T O’Sé, M McCarthy, K Young; S Scanlon, M Quirke; P Galvin, Declan O’Sullivan, D Walsh; C Cooper, K Donaghy, B Sheehan.

Subs: D Hennessy, Darran O’Sullivan, P Reidy, A Maher, A O’Connell, K O’Leary, BJ Keane, N O’Mahony, P Corridan, B Guiney, D Moran.

TIPPERARY (SF v Kerry): P Fitzgerald; P Codd, N Curran, C McDonald; C Aylward, R Costigan, C McGrath; K Mulryan, G Hannigan; P Acheson, P Austin, H Coghlan; S Carey, B Grogan, B Mulvihill.

Subs: M O’Donnell, A Morrissey, E Kearney, C Morrissey, B Jones, A Rockett, B Fox, B Coen, C Sweeney, A Moloney, J Cagney, J Tierney, S Hahessy, R O’Dwyer, D Buckley.

ARMAGH (SF v Derry): P Hearty; A Mallon, K Toner, B Donaghy; P Duffy, C McKeever, F Moriarty; C Vernon, J Lavery; M Mackin, A Kernan, G Swift; B Mallon, S McDonnell, R Henderson.

Subs: P McEvoy, V Martin, B Shannon, K Dyas, J Clarke, M McNamee, T Kernan, S Forker, M Ferris, F Hanratty, P McKeown, J Feeney, E McNulty, M O’Rourke, R Clarke.

DERRY (SF v Armagh): B Gillis; B Óg McAlary, K McGuckian, D McBride; G O’Kane, B McGuigan, M Bateson; F Doherty, Patsy Bradley; SL McGoldrick, M Lynch, D Mullan; Paddy Bradley, E Bradley, R Wilkinson.

Subs: M Dunne, M Craig, K McCloy, O Duffy, C Mullan, B Doyle, B Mullan, B McGoldrick, J Diver, E Muldoon, J Kielt, C McKeever, E McGuckian, E Brown, L Moore.

WICKLOW (SF v Carlow): M Travers; S Kelly, D O’hAnnaidh, A Byrne; P McWalter, B McGrath, D Hayden; J Stafford, JP Dalton; L Glynn, T Hannon, N Mernagh; D Odlum, S Furlong, P Earls.