Tyrone play their ace card in Canavan

GAELIC GAMES/All-Ireland SFC Final/Kerry v Tyrone: Peter Canavan is back on the Tyrone team to face Kerry in Sunday's All-Ireland…

GAELIC GAMES/All-Ireland SFC Final/Kerry v Tyrone: Peter Canavan is back on the Tyrone team to face Kerry in Sunday's All-Ireland football final at Croke Park.

The veteran forward will be starting his third All-Ireland final and is the only surviving player on the first 15 from the All-Ireland of 10 years ago against Dublin.

This will be the first match Canavan has started since the drawn Ulster final against Armagh two and a half months ago, a match he couldn't finish because of injury, and only the fourth he has started all season.

The feeling in the camp seemed to be that if fully fit, the All-Ireland winning captain of two years ago is an automatic pick.

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Canavan replaces Brian Meenan who started at centrefield in the semi-final and takes his place at right wing forward in a reshuffled attack. Enda McGinley drops back to centrefield to partner Seán Cavanagh, a pairing that was selected for the replayed quarter-final against Dublin but disrupted when Canavan had to drop out of the selected team with a stomach ailment.

Ryan Mellon switches to the left wing from the right corner.

Elsewhere the full-back line remains the same with Michael McGee preferred to Shane Sweeney and Joe McMahon holding the full back slot with Chris Lawn, the only other survivor of the 1995 final, named on the bench.

Overall the side shows a surprising six changes from the team that comfortably beat Kerry in the 2003 All-Ireland semi-final whereas the All-Ireland champions will actually feature a greater number of players from that match, 10 as opposed to nine.

John Devine, Ciarán Gourley and Gavin Devlin are on the bench. Kevin Hughes and Gerard Cavlan have dropped off the panel and the late Cormac McAnallen filled the remaining place.

Canavan was dogged by injury two years ago as well and the build-up to the All-Ireland final against Armagh was dominated by the state of his ankle injury.

In the end he started, kicked five first-half frees before retiring at half-time and re-entering the fray towards the end where his experience helped calm things down in a match that was decided by just one score.

Mayo minor football manager Eugene Ivers has retained confidence in the same 15 who accounted for Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final four weeks ago ahead of Sunday's final against Down in Croke Park.

One positional switch sees Paraic O'Connor moved out to left wing forward with David Kilcullen named at full forward. O'Connor is the regular free-taker and scored four points in the narrow victory over Kerry, three from frees.

Right wing forward Aiden Campbell captains the team.

Meanwhile, motions of no confidence in the executive committee of Roscommon County Board will be tabled at next Thursday night's extraordinary general meeting of the board.

At least two powerful clubs in the county have taken decisions to seek the executive's total removal after the board fell into a €1.4 million financial crisis in recent months.

The chairman of the board Stephen Banahan resigned in July, and a fortnight ago it came to light that €60,000 had been transferred to the account of his company BLSB Ltd. This money was later repaid.

All clubs are expected to meet before next Thursday night's crucial meeting to study a Croke Park report which accused county board officers concerned with finance of acting "in a grossly negligent manner" when producing figures for the 2004 county convention.

These figures showed the board to have a financial surplus of €115,020 for last year, when in fact the true position was a deficit of €255,013.

The Croke Park study is also critical of the fact that a board finance sub-committee did not function, and added: "It also appears that specific individuals had significant control and a general lack of division of duties existed between elected officers. This was particularly relevant in the area of financial management and control."

GAA president Sean Kelly has also said that the size of the Roscommon executive - it has 23 members - is too large and needs to be pruned back.

The Aussie Rule Grand Final takes place tomorrow (12.0, live on TG4) and Kerryman Tadhg Kennelly makes his first bow in the main event with his club Sydney Swans taking on the West Coast Eagles.

MAYO (SF v Down): S Nallen; P Healy, G Cafferkey, D Conway; C Barrett, T Cuniff, D Hughes; P Collins, P Hanley; A Campbell capt, D O'Connor, P O'Connor; R O'Boyle, D Kilcullen, G O'Boyle.