Brewster likely to get a reprieve

Team news: Fermanagh will have midfielder Paul Brewster available for this Sunday's Ulster football semi-final against Down, the only provincial championship match that takes place this weekend.

Doubts had surrounded Brewster's availability after indications that the Games Administration Committee were set to examine the video of Fermanagh's quarter-final against Donegal on June 1st where the television pictures had caught Brewster in an apparent striking incident with Donegal's John Gildea.

At this point, however, Fermanagh have yet to receive notification of any possible disciplinary measures.

"The position with Paul Brewster right now is that he is available for selection on Sunday," said Fermanagh manager Dominic Corrigan yesterday. "As far as we are aware some incidents were to be examined, but it doesn't appear they are going to be looked at now before Sunday"

Corrigan will finalise his team for Sunday's game in Clones after training this evening, and along with Brewster's availability, there is also some encouraging news about two of Fermanagh's main injury concerns.

Ciarán Donnelly, their top scorer during the league, and defender Justin Gilheaney both missed the largely forgettable win over Donegal, but have now returned to light training. Tom Brewster has also been sidelined with a hamstring injury in recent weeks but he too has shown considerable improvement.

"I will still only expect to make the minimum of team changes for Sunday," added Corrigan. "Every one of the players know that they will have to improve substantially on the Donegal performance or else we are not going to be good enough to beat Down.

"And there are lots of areas we can improve. Out attack was very wayward the last day, we gave a lot of ball away, and there were huge lapses in concentration. But if we work on all those things I think we can be very competitive."

Down will start as marginal favourites after their quarter-final win over Monaghan, yet Corrigan would relish the shot at Tyrone in the Ulster final on July 13th. "There's no doubt that Tyrone are number one in Ulster right now, and out there on their own. But it's up to teams like us now to try to chase them down, and pull them back as far as we can."

Monaghan, meanwhile, face Meath in the most anticipated of Saturday's second round of the All-Ireland football qualifiers. That game has been confirmed as RTÉ's live broadcast on Saturday afternoon (from 4.0), while Sunday's live broadcast will feature the Donegal-Sligo qualifier (from 2.0), and then the Fermanagh-Down game at 4.30.

Meath are once again likely to include Ollie Murphy among their substitutes list, although it is less likely he is ready to resume playing. Murphy was a late addition to the Meath team last Saturday night for the Leinster semi-final against Kildare, which Meath lost by a point.

Meath manager Seán Boylan explained that the intention was just to get Murphy onto the sideline. He had only returned to training the previous week after missing out with a shoulder injury since the start of May.

Nigel Crawford was also on Meath's substitute list last Saturday and he is much closer to regaining full fitness. Definitely out is defender Donal Curtis, who yesterday learned of a 12-week suspension handed down by the GAC as a result of his straight red card for a head-butting incident in the drawn quarter-final against Westmeath on June 1st. Seamus O'Hanlon of Louth also received a 12-week suspension after being sent off against Dublin over three weeks ago at Croke Park.

Elsewhere, five of the Dublin senior hurlers who played in last Sunday's unsuccessful All-Ireland qualifier against Offaly are out again this evening in the Leinster under-21 championship game against Westmeath, which has a 7.30 throw-in at Mullingar.

The five who started on Sunday are Philip Brennan, Ronan Fallon, Stephen Hiney, Conal Keaney and Michael Carton.

Dublin's Intermediate hurlers are also out this evening in Birr against Offaly.

DUBLIN (U-21 Hurling v Westmeath): G Maguire; K Elliott, S Daly, P Brennan; D O'Reilly, S Hiney, C O'Brien; S McCann, R Fallon; M Carton, P Fleury, C Keaney; S O'Neill, S O'Connor, F Chambers

DUBLIN (IH v Offaly): D Maguire; P Kenny, J Cullen, A Dooley; R Potts, S Cullen, P Loane; A Breathnach, E Patterson; N Murphy, R Brennan, D Curtin; E Carroll, D Daly, D Sweeney.