McGeeney opts to tweak a trusted formula

KILDARE MANAGER Kieran McGeeney has selected the same 15 players that beat Offaly on June 17th for Sunday’s Leinster football championship semi-final against Meath. It means the Armagh native resisted recalling fit-again midfielders like two-time All Star Dermot Earley or Gary White.

There are positional changes, however, as Michael Foley is needed at fullback to mind Joe Sheridan, so Rob Kelly and Emmet Bolton, a wing back by trade, form a new centrefield partnership.

“You try to pick the right players for the job, if they don’t play well the manager gets it in the neck and the players get it in the neck from me,” McGeeney told the Kildare Nationalist. “Rob has a lot to offer the team but he knows he is going to be up against it, with Daryl pushing hard again after his injury, Dermot is coming back and Chalky is pushing hard for midfield as well.”

McGeeney also feels the change in Séamus McEnaney’s Meath backroom team has led to a change in style. “John Evans and Trevor Giles are having more of a say and you can see the way they are going, they are going for strength and pace. They have a new structure up front in terms of the way they set things up, they play two inside and play two across the middle with midfield. They are strong and are going to be very, very difficult.”

Evans recently stepped down as Tipperary manager, while Giles won three All Stars and two All-Irelands in an 11-year intercounty career. Both were added to the coaching staff after Meath were relegated to Division Three.

The game also marks the 59th consecutive championship outing for John Doyle. The Kildare captain has been an ever present since making his debut against Louth in 2000. A sign of the county’s climb to All-Ireland contender status in recent years is the 34-year-old has made 27 of those appearances since leaving his 20s. Selected in the full-forward line alongside Tomás O’Connor and Eoghan O’Flaherty, Doyle has been utilised around midfield by McGeeney before and may drift out there if needs be on Sunday.

Elsewhere, Cork’s Eoin Cadogan will play for the footballers in the Munster final on July 8th, rather than with the hurlers in their qualifier against Offaly. The player had to make a choice with the s footballers and hurlers in action on consecutive days.

KILDARE (SFC v Meath): S Connolly; H McGrillen, M Foley, P Kelly; E Doyle, M O’Flaherty, O Lyons; E Bolton, R Kelly; J Kavanagh, M Conway, P O’Neill; J Doyle, T O’Connor, E O’Flaherty.