Barry leaves door open

Team news: Meath manager Eamonn Barry is hopeful some of the county's old guard will return to action during the Allianz Football League.

Eight of the players who helped Meath claim the O'Byrne Cup last Sunday made their debut under Barry in recent weeks, while more experienced faces such as Trevor Giles, Darren Fay and Ollie Murphy have yet to show.

Sunday's opening match away to Down represents another step up for Barry's young panel, and while the response of the younger players has been hugely satisfying, he insists the door remains open to anyone.

"It's definitely an open-ended panel," said Barry, "but right now a lot of those younger players have staked a claim on a starting place. And naturally we'll start some of them again against Down on Sunday. But right now we have about 45 players in the panel, and hopefully we can still work with that until the end of February. After that we'll have to decide on a more settled panel for the rest of the league."

Barry was last in contact with Giles before Christmas, but is happy to give the former footballer of the year all the time he needs to decide on his future.

"I know Trevor was still carrying a shoulder injury from last year, and needed time to get over that. But I've left the door open to all those players to come back in if they want to get involved again. Maybe it's time to start making a few phone calls to see if they are interested."

Kildare manager John Crofton has had no such problems keeping his old guard involved, with both Anthony Rainbow and Glenn Ryan set to feature during their upcoming league campaign.

"Both Glen and Anthony came in at very start and decided to see how they get through it. They definitely still have the enthusiasm and it's not like they're 100 years old. Glenn is only approaching his 33rd birthday."

Crofton finds himself without several newcomers for Sunday's daunting trip to Crossmaglen to face league champions Armagh as the county under-21 team are in action on Saturday afternoon. Karl Ennis and Ronan Sweeney are also out injured.

"All that compromises us a little bit," added Crofton. "And there can't be a tougher draw than an away match against the champions in Crossmaglen. They played in front of 20,000 last week against the All-Ireland champions, so that was the ultimate warm-up match. And playing quite strong teams as well. It's almost not normal. But we're looking to be competitive, and I expect we will."

Wexford, the beaten league finalists from last year, have named a strong team for their opening game against Laois. Matty Forde is back on board having sat out the O'Byrne Cup, while John Cooper is selected ahead of Anthony Masterson in goal. Brendan Doyle joins Diarmuid Kinsella at midfield, while Redmond Barry also returns to the half-forward line after a recent holiday.

There is one debut in the Limerick team for their Division 2A clash against Roscommon, with Séamus Gallagher getting his chance at corner back.

Donegal will have five debuts in their meeting with Leitrim - Neil McGee, Stephen McHugh, Ciarán Bonner, Leon Thompson and Michael Doherty.

LIMERICK (SF v Roscommon): S Kiely; S Gallagher, J McCarthy, P Brown, C Mullane, D Reidy, S Lavin; J Galvin, S Lucey; P Ahern, T Carroll, S Buckley, M Crowley, J Murphy, M Reidy.

WEXFORD (SF v Laois): J Cooper; C Morris, P Wallace, N Murphy; P Curtis, L O'Brien, D Murphy; B Doyle, D Kinsella; C Deeley, D Fogarty, R Barry; J Hegarty, J Hudson, M Forde.

DONEGAL (SF v Leitrim): M Boyle; N McGee, R Sweeney, K Lacey; E McGee, B Monaghan, S McHugh; B Boyle, S McDermott; C Toye, C Bonner, M Caulfield; L Thompson, A Sweeney, M Doherty.

CORK: (SF v Offaly): A Quirke; K O'Connor, G Canty, A Lynch; N O'Leary, G Spillane, S Levis; N Murphy, D Hurley; F Gould, C McCarthy, K McMahon; D Goulding, BG O'Sullivan, K O'Sullivan.