Limerick hurlers opt for experience

Limerick manager TJ Ryan has selected an experienced side for Sunday's Munster hurling semi-final in Thurles and the first defence of the county's provincial title. There are no championship newcomers in the side, which shows only two changes to the team that lost last year's All-Ireland semi-final to eventual champions Clare.

Back on the field, having sustained a cruciate knee ligament injury after just 15 minutes of that match is Séamus Hickey, who played wing forward last August but who is named in the position he started his championship career seven years ago, corner back.

Stephen Walsh and David Breen are the players not included, as Shane Dowling and Kevin Downes start. An interesting aspect of the team is that when the counties met in Limerick’s Gaelic Grounds last year it was the home side’s replacements who made the difference.

Three of the four forwards substitutions, who made such an impact when introduced both in the Tipperary match and the Munster final defeat of Cork will not be available on Sunday’s bench, with Downes and Dowling now starting whereas Niall Moran has retired.

Tipperary hurling manager Eamon O’Shea won’t be releasing his team for Sunday’s semi-final until tomorrow lunchtime.

Meanwhile the GAA have played down the significance of Wednesday night’s meeting of football referees, which took place at Croke Park. It was brought forward to discuss some recent high-profile inconsistencies in the application of the new black-card rule.

“It was a scheduled meeting brought forward,” according to GAA Head of Media Relations Alan Milton, “not a knee-jerk reaction to a couple of recent controversies. Referees met, went through video clips and discussed the issues. It was part of the educational process and allowed them share their experiences and analyse best practice. Of course there’s going to be mistakes but the aim is to keep them to an absolute minimum.”

Elsewhere Limerick football manager John Brudair has named a new-look team for tomorrow evening’s Munster football quarter-final against Tipperary. Veteran centrefielder John Galvin, who has returned from a second cruciate injury, is kept is reserve, as six debutants are given their championship start.

Antrim footballers welcome Niall McKeever back to championship football after five years. McKeever played for Antrim in the county's first Ulster final appearance in 39 years but left to take up a contract with AFL club the Brisbane Lions. He returned this year and will line out in Sunday's championship match against Fermanagh.

Their opponent will wait until this evening to name their team and the only injury concern is left corner back Tiernan Daly, who tore a hamstring playing for his club Derrygonnelly and will miss Sunday’s match in Enniskillen.

Yesterday the Gaelic Players Association launched "We Wear More Than Our County Colours," an internal campaign to promote emotional health and wellbeing amongst inter-county players.

The GPA believes that by encouraging county players to engage in conversations about emotional wellbeing that this can have a positive impact on communities all over Ireland, encouraging young people in clubs, schools, colleges and in wider society to talk about their problems.

The campaign features the following county players: Michael Murphy (Donegal), Pádraig Brehony (Galway), Séamus Hennessy (Tipperary), Alan O’Mara (Cavan), Pádraic Collins (Clare), Conal Keaney (Dublin), Richie Hogan (Kilkenny), Colm Begley (Laois), Eoin Cadogan (Cork), Rob Hennelly (Mayo), Jonny Cooper (Dublin), Ciarán McKeever (Armagh), Lee Chin (Wexford), Niall McNamee (Offaly).

There is more detail about the campaign on www.wewearmore.ie.

LIMERICK (SHC v Tipperary): N Quaid; S Hickey, R McCarthy, T Condon; P O'Brien, W McNamara, G O'Mahony; J Ryan, P Browne; S Dowling, D O'Grady (capt.), D Hannon; G Mulcahy, K Downes, S Tobin.

WEXFORD (SHC v Antrim): M Fanning; L Ryan, M O'Hanlon, K Rossiter; L Chin, A Shore, C Kenny; D O'Keeffe, H Kehoe; P Morris, P Doran, J Guiney; R Jacob, C McDonald, L Óg McGovern.

ANTRIM: C O'Connell; O McFadden, C McKinley, M Bradley; A Graffin, N McAuley, N McManus; E Campbell, Ciarán Johnson; C McCann, C Carson, C Clarke; Conor Johnson, P Shiels, PJ O'Connell.

LIMERICK (SFC v Tipperary): D O'Sullivan; C Moran, J McCarthy, S O'Dea; I Corbett, S Lucey, P Browne; T Lee, D Tracey; M Brosnan, C Sheehan, S Buckley (captain); E Hanrahan, G Collins, I Ryan.

ANTRIM (SFC v Fermanagh): P Flood; K O'Boyle, R Johnston, N Delargy; M Johnston, J Crozier, J Laverty; M McCann, N McKeever; C Murray, M Sweeney, P McCann; B Neeson, K Niblock, T McCann.