DOWN manager Peter McGrath has resisted the temptation to include fit again Ross Carr and Peter Withnell in the side which takes on Monaghan in the Ulster senior football championship quarter-final at Clones on Sunday.
The Down selectors have made just one enforced change from the team that beat National League finalists Donegal in the first round, Gerard Deegan being drafted in to replace Aidan Farrell, who aggravated a hamstring injury assisting Rostrevor in a club match.
Barry Breen, who was poised for a return to the team, is again missing. Breen sustained a heel injury in training last Monday night and has not recovered sufficiently to even find a place among the substitutes. Carr and Withnell will, however, be on the bench Withnell hasn't figured on a Down championship squad since the All-Ireland Final of 1994.
Gerard Deegan, who appeared as a substitute against Donegal, earns that full-forward berth and joins his brother Conor, who proved his fitness last night, in the side.
Monaghan manager Mick McCormack has performed major surgery on the team's defence for Sunday's showdown, with three changes from the side that fell to Cavan in the provincial semifinal last year.
Ger McGuirk has been named at full-back, Brian Morgan will make his championship debut in the left corner-back position, and Dermot Duffy will line out at right half-back. The trio replace David King and Martin Slowey who have both emigrated, and the injured Noel Marron.
Midfielder Padraic McShane, who was struggling to overcome injury, has been declared fit to play and will resume his partnership with Frank McEneaney.
Meanwhile, Kerry duo Seamus Moynihan and Sean Burke will miss the Munster senior football championship semi-final with Waterford on Saturday evening. Hamstring-victim Moynihan has been named among the substitutes, but Burke, also troubled by a hamstring strain, is not even included in the squad.
Kerry manager Paidi O'Se has made three changes in personnel and a further four positional changes from the team that overcame Tipperary in the first round. Stephen Stack, Killian Burns and Donal Daly are all drafted in to the side, with Burke, Johnny O'Driscoll who had aIso been hampered by injury and Anthony Gleeson who has been dropped from the panel. making way.
The positional switches see Mike Hassett moving from corner-back to full-back; John O'Connell going from midfield to centre half-back, and Maurice Fitzgerald moving from full-forward to centre half-forward in a direct swap with Liam Hassett.
The Armagh County Board has withdrawn its request to the Ulster Council for an investigation into the recent Ulster minor football championship match between Derry and Armagh, when Derry allegedly had 16 players for a portion of the game.
Armagh lodged an investigation request with the Ulster Council in the hope that a replay would be ordered. However, the rules of the GAA don't allow for a refixture and the only outcome would have been Derry's expulsion, which Armagh claimed in a statement last night was never their intention.
However, the statement adds that the Armagh County Board regards what happened to our minor team . . . as disgraceful and gravely unjust" and asks that it never be allowed to happen again.
