Paris prize can't cure provincial wounded

Despite the bonus prize of a weekend in Paris it seems none of the teams contesting this weekend's interprovincial football semi-finals will be at full strength.

Defending champions Ulster take on Connacht at Castlebar and manager Brian McEniff was forced to look beyond several first-choice players. Ruled out by injury, club commitments or unavailability are Armagh's Steven McDonnell and Kieran McGeeney, Down's Benny Coulter, Tyrone's Owen Mulligan, and Derry's Seán Marty Lockhart.

Yet Ulster still have considerable talent to call on, including Fermanagh's All Star nominee Martin McGrath and three of Tyrone's most capable forwards - Brian McGuigan, Seán Cavanagh, and Stephen O'Neill.

Connacht have announced an impressive panel of players but have yet to finalise a starting line-up. Mayo's Ronan McGarrity is one concern because of other duties this weekend in both club football and basketball.

The bonus prize for the winning team is the trip to Paris to contest the final on Saturday week, November 13th, at the Stade Colombes.

The other semi-final, involving Leinster and Munster, takes place in Portlaoise. Leinster manager Luke Dempsey has had to plan without Dublin goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton and Westmeath forward Dessie Dolan.

Cluxton's place in goal has gone to Westmeath's Gary Connaughton, another All Star nominee on the back of helping his county win their first Leinster title. Dolan's club Garrycastle play Tyrellspass in the Westmeath semi-final on Sunday.

Dempsey, however, will have four members of the Irish team that comfortably defeated Australia in the International Rules series - Dublin's Alan Brogan and Bryan Cullen, Offaly's Ciarán McManus, and Wexford's Mattie Forde.

A Munster panel is due to be announced later today, following last night's meeting of the three selectors, all Kerrymen incidentally: Kerry selector Ger O'Keeffe, Limerick manager Liam Kearns and Clare manager John Kennedy.

Tomorrow's Special Congress in Croke Park, meanwhile, is primarily concerned with the recommendations of the Membership Committee, which have finally come to the approval stage after seven years in the works.

The committee was chaired by former GAA president Jack Boothman and their task dated from his term of office between 1994 and 1997. The report involves a small number of new rules, the alteration to some others, and the rearrangement of certain rule orders.

"We'd be confident that our proposals will be accepted," said Boothman. "Essentially, we are trying to tighten up membership, or at least have a more formal structure of membership.

"The membership of the association has always been very loose, and no one can ever be sure of how many members we even have. Hopefully if this report is adopted and then tweaked over the next year or two we'll have a database of our membership, where ultimately every member will sign up once, with the club still granting membership, but they will then get a specialist number. That should make the identity and ability to trace players a lot easier. And that's the most important aspect of it."

There are 25 recommendations set out in the report, and Boothman summarises them all together as bringing a modern approach to the correlating of membership figures.

"There's nothing drastic in here," he added, "like being stricter on membership or anything like that. For example, the youth members, or under-18s, the parents must also sign the form, and when they then become 18 they become adult members.

"We have also done a series of presentations at provincial level to instruct people who will be in attendance on Saturday. But we have tried to apply some logic to this grey area of membership, and what constitutes the duty of the association to its members, and vice versa. And hopefully we have arrived at a palatable format after so long."

The other main component of tomorrow's agenda has received slightly more attention this week, and concerns the revision of Rule 78, which deals with the submission of motions to Congress. Under the revision, the Motions Committee, made up of the present and past presidents, will now have to advise in writing in advance of Congress that motions may have to be resubmitted so that they won't be ruled out of order.

LEINSTER (SF v Munster): G Connaughton (Westmeath); K Slattery (Offaly), T Kelly (Laois), J Keane (Westmeath); D Healy (Westmeath), B Cullen (Dublin), K Fitzpatrick (Laois); N Garvan (Laois), C McManus (Offaly); E Kelly (Meath), P Barden (Longford), J Doyle (Kildare); A Brogan (Dublin), P Kelleghan (Offaly), M Forde (Wexford). Subs: F Byron (Laois), N McKeigue (Meath), P Wallace (Wexford), D Breen (Wexford), T Smullen (Longford), P Keenan (Louth), T Walsh (Carlow), S Rea (Carlow), P Davis (Longford).

ULSTER (SF v Connacht): M McVeigh (Down); E McNulty (Armagh), N McCusker (Derry), N McCready (Donegal); P McFlynn (Derry), B Monaghan (Donegal), R McMenamin (Tyrone); P McGrane (Armagh) capt, M McGrath (Fermanagh); B Dooher (Tyrone), B McGuigan (Tyrone), S Cavanagh (Tyrone); S O'Neill (Tyrone), P Bradley (Derry), E Muldoon (Derry).

CONNACHT (SF panel v Ulster): J Bergin; M Clancy, J Devane, M Donnellan; K Fitzgerald, P Joyce, D Meehan, M Meehan, B O'Donoghue (all Galway), D Casey, G Cox, S Curran, F Dolan, F Grehan, S O'Neill, J White (all Roscommon), P Gardiner, R McGarrity, C McDonald, J Nallen, G Ruane (all Mayo), M McGuinness, S Quinn (both Leitrim), M Brehony, E O'Hara (both Sligo).