Fennell earns start at midfield for Dublin

DUBLIN MANAGER Paul Caffrey has named two senior championship debutants for Sunday's Leinster football quarter-final against Louth in Croke Park.

Eamonn Fennell is rewarded for his consistently good showing throughout the National League with a midfield place alongside the experienced Shane Ryan.

And, in a slightly more surprising selection, Paddy Andrews is named at left wing forward alongside Colin Moran and centre forward Jason Sherlock.

Fennell, from the O'Tooles club, has proved one of the major additions to the Dublin panel this season, and his promotion to the championship team will help compensate for the absence of Ciarán Whelan, one of the four Dublin players - along with Paul Flynn, Diarmuid Connolly and Bernard Brogan - still serving the eight-week suspensions handed down after the infamous league clash with Meath in April.

Sherlock has recovered from the hamstring injury that forced his withdrawal in the Division Two final defeat to Westmeath, while team captain Alan Brogan is part of the full forward line which also includes Conal Keaney and Tomás Quinn of St Vincent's, who gets the nod as Dublin's starting free-taker ahead of Mark Vaughan.

Ross McConnell returns from his four-week suspension to take the full-back position, flanked by David Henry and Stephen O'Shaughnessy, who makes a welcome return to the starting team.

Paul Casey, Brian Cullen and Barry Cahill complete a familiar half-back line. Paul Griffin is back after a trip to Australia, but he wasn't expected to start.

Louth haven't beaten Dublin in the championship since 1973, and went down by a massive 13 points in the last meeting in 2003. Manager Eamon McEneaney is due to announce his line-up this evening.

Meanwhile, the Competitions Control Committee of the Leinster Council last night agreed to revise the throw-in time for the provincial hurling semi-final between Dublin and Wexford on Saturday week - thus facilitating RTÉ to provide live television coverage as was originally agreed. It will now have a 4.15pm start at Kilkenny's Nowlan Park, instead of 6.30pm.

As expected, however, there is no alteration for this Saturday's football quarter-final between Offaly and Westmeath, which remains 6.30m, and therefore won't be televised live, as was also originally agreed.

This partly resolves last week's crisis following RTÉ's commitment to show the European Championships soccer matches on the next two Saturday evenings, starting with Switzerland against the Czech Republic, and Sweden against Spain on Saturday week. Both kick-off at 5pm on RTÉ 2.

RTÉ informed the GAA in March that the preference was to screen both their matches live, but in an apparent mix-up with the GAA, the throw-in times clashed with the soccer. RTÉ then offered 4.15pm as the latest throw-in, which the Leinster Council have now reverted to.

Also discussed last night was the clash between the Leinster football semi-final involving Laois against Wexford on Sunday, June 22nd, and the Féile na nGael competition in Laois that weekend. Having considered all the options, the council decided to stick with the original fixture, and Laois-Wexford therefore goes ahead in Croke Park as scheduled at 2pm.

DUBLIN (SF v Louth):S Cluxton; D Henry, R McConnell, S O'Shaughnessy; P Casey, B Cullen, B Cahill; E Fennell, S Ryan; C Moran, J Sherlock, P Andrews; A Brogan, C Keaney, T Quinn.