Finnerty is in for Mayo as Brady gets start for Meath

MAYO and Meath have each made one change for Sunday's Bank of Ireland All-Ireland football replay at Croke Park. Co-incidentally, both starting right corner forwards from the drawn match 10 days ago have been dropped.

Veteran Anthony Finnerty comes in for David Nestor on Mayo's team, whereas Colm Brady replaces Evan Kelly in the Meath line-out. Subsidiary news from both camps involves the dropping of Kevin O'Neill from the Mayo bench, and the fact that Meath corner forward Barry Callaghan didn't train last night but is confidently expected to be fit for Sunday.

In each case the change, if not certainly expected, was unsurprising. Kelly was the quietest of the Meath's forwards over the last two matches, whereas Brady who replaces him, was impressive when introduced at midfield which presumably he will buttress on Sunday.

David Nestor can be regarded as unfortunate because he didn't receive particularly good ball and was consequently largely dominated by Martin O'Connell, despite making a few incisive runs which were not picked up by his colleagues.

Perhaps a decision to switch around the full forward line might have worked, allowing Nestor to play in the left corner, where he gave a spectacular performance against Kerry in last year's drawn All-Ireland under-21 final.

Nonetheless, few will argue with the decision to give Anthony Finnerty a start, over seven years after he came on a substitute in the 1989 All-Ireland final to score a goal and narrowly miss another that might have beaten Cork.

Ten days ago, he also took the field as a substitute, but with the momentum swinging against Mayo, he was denied the opportunity to make much of an impact. But when the counties faced each other in last March's league quarter-final, Finnerty was prominent in Mayo's defeat of Meath at Hyde Park, Roscommon, and his absence from the starting lineup for the drawn match was regarded as a close-run thing.

John Maughan, Mayo's manager, and his selectors will have pondered long and hard the decision to change the team. But with performances in training the primary yardstick by which team selections are judged, the elevation of Finnerty has obviously been well justified.

A more striking aspect of the team's selection is the omission of O'Neill from the substitutes. O'Neill had been pushing very hard for a place on the team for the drawn match and was brought on during the confusion in which the match ended.

Unfortunately for the Knockmore player, below-par performances in training since the drawn match, combined with the good showing of a number of other forwards on the panel, have resulted in his being left off the final list of 24.

Into his place comes Tom Reilly, the 3-year-old Bank of Ireland official, whose experience and good form have promoted him into the reckoning. In last April's league semi-final against Derry, Reilly was the most impressive of Mayo's forwards when deployed in a team severely under-strength because of injury.

Meath's replacement of Kelly with Brady will be seen as an attempt to supplement the team's midfield which was well beaten in the drawn match. Brady will be expected to act as a third man in the central area. His place might have gone to Jody Devine, who came on as a sub the last day, but Devine's energy and pace is obviously viewed as better deployed from the substitutes' bench.

Brady's selection is not without its sceptics. Although he has made a considerable impact on being introduced in the last two matches, against Mayo and Tyrone, there is a feeling in the county that Brady makes his optimum contribution when he is sprung off the bench.

Two years ago, Dublin's selectors were similarly beguiled into starting Vinnie Murphy in the All-Ireland final against Down - on the basis of an excellent cameo against Meath in that year's Leinster final plus a more questionable performance as starting centre forward in the All-Ireland semi-final against Leitrim.

Murphy didn't have a great final on Barry Breen and might well have had more of an impact had he been introduced during the match. Similarly Brady, whose ability to last 70 minutes (given the legacy of his injuries) has also been called into question, might prove a more effective replacement than a starting player.

If, however, he is capable of reproducing even a fraction of the form displayed when taking the field this season as a substitute, he will be a worthwhile addition to the team.

On the Meath team, Jimmy McGuinness and Paddy Reynolds will be perceived as being lucky to escape replacement after indifferent performances in the drawn final, but McGuinness had been carrying an injury whereas Reynolds has been otherwise reliable throughout the season.