Managers, team keyed up for Leinster final

Leinster SFC final

Laois v Westmeath preview, Croke Park, 4.15pm.

Laois and Westmeath lock horns in today’s much-anticipated Leinster football final at Croke Park, in a match that is as much about the managers as it is about the teams.

Former Kerry manager Mick O’Dwyer pits his Laois charges against his former Kerry captain, Páidi Ó Sé's Westmeath, with the Lakes County bidding to win their first senior title ever.

However, they are up against the defending champions in Laois, who will not relinquish their provincial title easily.

Westmeath All Star Rory O'Connell, who secured a High Court injunction to enable him to take part in today's game, has not made the starting line-up.

The Athlone man was hit with a 12-week ban for allegedly stamping on Offaly's Pascal Kelleghan in their Leinster championship game, and went to the High Court after his appeals were turned down by the GAC and the Management Committee. He begins the final on the bench.

Ó Sé has made one change from the side that beat Wexford in the semi-final. Fergus Wilson replaces Denis Mitchell at left half-forward.

Meanwhile, Laois have named an unchanged side from that which beat Meath by seven points in the other semi-final.

Mick O'Dwyer has made three positional changes. Chris Conway moves from left corner-forward to left half-forward and Padraig Clancy moves from there to midfield. Sean Fitzpatrick takes up Conway's vacated place in the full-forward line.

Ó Sé is hoping to bring Westmeath their first piece of senior silverware, but O'Dwyer is preparing to thwart his bid and see his charges retain their title for the first time since the 1930s.

Six of the Laois team were involved in the last meeting of the sides in 2000 - Fergal Byron, Tom Kelly, Joe Higgins, Colm Parkinson, Noel Garvan and Chris Conway. However, Westmeath emerged four-point winners that day.

LAOIS (SF v Westmeath): F Byron; A Fennelly, C Byrne, J Higgins; D Rooney, T Kelly, P McDonald; P Clancy, N Garvan; R Munnelly, B McDonald, C Conway; I Fitzgerald, C Parkinson, S Fitzpatrick.

WESTMEATH (SF v Laois): G Connaughton; J Davitt, D O’Donoghue, J Keane; M Ennis, D Healy, D Heavin; G Dolan, D O’Shaughnessy; B Morley, P Conway, F Wilson; A Mangan, D Glennon, D Dolan.