MULLAGHBAWN, the Armagh and Ulster champions, will be at full strength for Sunday's All Ireland club football semi final against Carlow side Eire Og in Navan.
There's a few niggling injuries but we're not worried about any of them. Everyone's fighting fit," said club secretary Noel Murphy.
Mullaghbawn were surprise winners of the Ulster title and include two county men, goalkeeper Brendan Tierney and Ulster centre back Kieran McGeeney, who loses the opportunity of playing in the Railway Cup semi final in Clones.
According to Murphy, knowledge of Eire Og amounts to "not a lot". Their knowledge was not radically altered by the club's field trip last month.
"We saw Carlow play Dublin in the O'Byrne Cup but it wasn't very informative," is Murphy's charitable assessment of a dismal afternoon during which Carlow and their large Eire Og contingent looked less than interested and Dublin fielded virtually a third team.
Even the drawn Leinster final didn't afford Mullaghbawn a chance to see their prospective opponents as the newly crowned Ulster champions had to travel to London to plan Tara on the same day as the Eire Og An Tochar replay. "We would," says Murphy, "have walked to see it."
Neither Leinster nor Connacht have made voluntary changes to their football teams for Sunday's Railway Cup semi final at Navan. Both make two alterations in personnel and, in Connacht's case, a few positional switches from the sides selected for the original match date last month, which was postponed because of snow.
Leinster lose the midfield services of Laois's Tony Maher, who received a one month suspension for his interim sending off in the League match against Clare, and corner forward Colm `Rooster' Hayden, who is unavailable because of his involvement with Fire &g in the All Ireland club semi final, which leads off a double bill in Navan.
According to Leinster manager Mattie Kerrigan, Hayden was not considered for the starting line up but will take his place on the bench when the first match is over. His place in the attack is taken by Kildare's Niall Buckley and Maher's place goes to Brian Stynes of Dublin. Kerrigan has also added Dublin pair Dessie Farrell and Paul Curran to the panel.
Connacht have to plan without midfielder Colm McMenamon of Mayo, who has gone to England, and Sligo wing forward Eamonn O'Hara, who is under suspension.
Jason Ward (Leitrim) replaces O'Hara while Niall Finnegan (Galway) comes in for McMenamon with Nigel Dineen and Don Connellan dropping back to the half forward and midfield lines respectively. The original selection included AN Other at midfield. This was always intended to be Liam McHale and he is named there for the weekend.
Munster also make two changes. Donal O'Callaghan of Cork and Waterford's Niall Geary come into the team for Clare's Kieran O'Mahony, who is suspended after getting the line in last week's League match against Tyrone, and Brian Corcoran of Cork who will be lining out with the county's hurlers in Pairc Ui Rinn.
