Inter-provincial Football Championship semi-final: Leinster v Connacht (holders) (today, Parnell Park, 6pm)?
PERHAPS fittingly for a competition whose ship appears to have sailed, there will be quite a maroon tinge to these two teams.
Holders Connacht will call largely on Galway while beaten Leinster finalists Westmeath will have the largest representation on the hosts’ team, with four of their players named.
Illustrating how far the stock of this series has fallen there is likely to be only one player off Dublin’s All-Ireland replay winning starting side – John Small – lining out this evening and just two from beaten finalists Mayo’s team, namely Diarmuid O’Connor and Jason Doherty.
That latter number should have been three, had Mayo not bizarrely omitted goalkeeper David Clarke for the replay. If he does start this time he is likely to be the only 2016 Allstar on the pitch.
There are reasons for the absence of some others – such as Diarmuid Connolly of Dublin featuring for his club St Vincent’s in tomorrow’s Leinster Club SFC final – but the timing of this fixture no doubt has also put off many top talents from being involved.
The wedding this weekend of Mayo veteran Alan Dillon has apparently claimed first call on the presence of certain men from that county.
Still, there will be good players on show, not least from Connacht champions Galway, the native county of the westerners’ boss John Tobin.
Even without any players from Connacht club champs Corofin, earlier this week Tobin was optimistic about including Allstar replacement Declan Kyne, plus David Wynne, Johnny Heaney, Gary O’Donnell, Damien Comer, and Danny Cummins.
There will be representatives too from the other three western counties: Emlyn Mulligan and Donal Wynne from Leitrim, Roscommon’s Sean Mullooly, Diarmuid Murtagh, and Enda Smith, plus Sligo’s Kevin McDonald and Niall Murphy among those named by Tobin.
Last year’s complete postponement of the Inter-pros, due to adverse weather, meant that Connacht managed to hold on to the trophy for the first time in 57 years, having won it for the first time in 45 years back in 2014.
Leinster themselves have not won this competition for a decade but are fancied to reach the decider.
