Banty defends the Royal return of Geraghty

SEAMUS McENANEY has strongly defended his surprise decision to recall 38-year-old Graham Geraghty to the Meath panel.

The Monaghan native last night confirmed he had invited the two-time All-Ireland and All-Star winner back into the panel after he retired from inter-county football in 2008.

Geraghty, who turned 38 last Tuesday, has been in impressive form for his club, Clann na Gael, and McEnaney feels he is right to give the player a chance.

“For me, if a player is good enough, he’s good enough,” said McEnaney. “It doesn’t matter whether he’s young or old, I’m not looking for birth certs. I’m looking for good players. Graham has shown a good bit of form with his club and he’s going to get an opportunity over the next few weeks to see if he is still up to this level.”

McEnaney also revealed rumours about 35-year-old Darren Fay also rejoining the panel were inaccurate.

The Meath players have reacted positively to the news with one senior team member claiming it has added a bit of excitement to the camp.

Geraghty is making his second comeback to inter-county football after initially retiring in 2002 before returning to the panel the following year. The 1999 All-Ireland winning captain did not play in last night’s challenge game against Westmeath in Rosemount.

Meanwhile, just 1,000 tickets have been sold for tomorrow’s Ulster SFC clash at Celtic Park.

At the close of business yesterday, the Derry County Board had sold just 489 tickets to paying customers for the seated stand. 330 complimentary tickets, including the players’ allocation, were given out on top of that. That left 431 tickets unsold from the Oak Leaf county’s total allocation of 1,250.

Fermanagh board secretary Tom Boyle said yesterday that they still had a number of tickets waiting to be collected, but that their total sales were likely to be “around 500“. Their complimentary allocation to players and officials totals 200, which means that, in total, just over 1,500 tickets are accounted for between both counties.

However, it is a contrasting position for the two counties. While the uptake was a lot quicker in Derry for their Ulster quarter-final clash with Armagh last year, it was an all-ticket game. Fermanagh’s sales represent an increase on the number of tickets they shifted for their 2010 provincial opener against Cavan.

Meanwhile, Daryl Flynn is out of the Kildare team to play Wicklow tomorrow after suffering an ankle injury in training on Thursday night. The initial prognosis was that the midfielder had damaged ligaments but fears remain that he may have suffered a fracture as well and could be facing a lengthy period on the sidelines. His absence is a massive blow to the Lilywhites, who are already without Dermot Earley for the season due to a cruciate knee ligament injury.

Kieran McGeeney, Aidan O’Rourke and Niall Carew will wait until closer to throw-in to name a replacement.

KILDARE (SH v Wicklow): R Connolly; J Doran, F O Muineachain, N O Muineachain; J Byrne, R Hoban, T Byrne; K Divilly, B White; C Kenny, M Moloney, L Quinn; T Murphy, D Harney, M Fitzgerald.

LOUTH (SH v Monaghan): J Connolly; M Wallace, C Kerrigan, A Wallace; G Smyth, R Smyth, D Murphy; D Dunne, Donagh O’Sullivan; D Horan, S Callan, B Corcoran; Diarmuid O’Sullivan, W Morrissey, D Kettle.

TIPPERARY (JF v Kerry): J English; D O’Sullivan, D Lynch, R Kiely; D Leahy, J O’Callaghan, M O’Sullivan; Heffernan, E Kendrick; B Hewitt, A Moloney, G Ryan; J Egan, D Butler, A Walsh.