Conway called in as Ó Sé regroups

Gaelic Football News round-up: Manager Páidí Ó Sé has made just the one enforced change to the Westmeath team to play Dublin in Sunday's Leinster football quarter-final, calling in Paul Conway as an indirect swap for the suspended midfielder Rory O'Connell.

Conway is named at centre forward and Gary Dolan, who held that position against Offaly last time out, moves to midfield to partner captain David O'Shaughnessy.

Conway, in fact, made a late appearance in the Offaly match and won't be short of championship experience, although Shane Colleary was also in contention for the call-up. Dolan has also operated at midfield.

Ó Sé has made clear the huge loss O'Connell's absence represents, the result of the straight red card issued in the 46th minute of the Offaly match for an apparent off-the-ball incident with Pascal Kellaghan. While it does represent a setback there is some consolation in that the panel is free from injury, with the obvious exception of Martin Flanagan, a long-term absentee.

As is now the custom, the Dublin team will be kept under wraps until just before throw-in. A team was submitted for match-programme purposes yesterday but even that won't be divulged to the public. Teams were similarly submitted during the league but none matched Dublin's actual starting line-up.

Manager Tommy Lyons can pick from an injury-free panel. It also seems certain dual player Conal Keaney will feature despite the demanding schedule facing him in the weeks ahead.

There was bad news yesterday though for hurling manager Humphrey Kelleher, who will be without Shane Martin - a victim of the dreaded cruciate knee injury - for the rest of the summer.

The last time the two counties met, four years ago, Dublin progressed with six points to spare, 1-14 to 0-11, and Westmeath will be seeking their first win over Dublin since 1967, when they edged past by a point.

The Leinster Council again advised the early purchase of tickets for Sunday, with over 50,000 expected for the double bill. The Dublin-Westmeath game has a 2.15 start, followed by Kildare against Wexford at 4.0.

The double bill at Croke Park will also decide two of the three remaining teams to go into the hat later that evening in the draw for round one of the All-Ireland football qualifier series. The losers of the Tyrone-Fermanagh quarter-final in Ulster will complete the 16-team line-up.

There was some speculation that London would withdraw from the series after last Sunday's hammering by Galway, which ended 8-14 to 0-8. Yesterday, however, county board secretary Tommy Harrell confirmed they would travel for their fixture: "The lads were out training again last night," said Harrell, "and we'll definitely be participating. Of course we'll be hoping for a reasonably soft draw, if such a thing exists any more.

"But we're still putting some of that heavy defeat to Galway down as a bad day in the office. And Galway aren't the kind of team you want to have a bad day against."

So far 13 of those 16 qualifier teams are known: Sligo and London from Connacht; Longford, Louth, Offaly, Wicklow and Carlow from Leinster; Derry, Down, Monaghan and Antrim from Ulster; and Tipperary and Clare from Munster. The three others will be the losers of Westmeath-Dublin, Wexford-Kildare, and Tyrone-Fermanagh.

The draw will go out live on RTÉ television on Sunday evening, and all eight games are scheduled for the following weekend, June 12th-13th. As usual the only restriction in the draw is that counties who have already met in the provincial series can't be drawn against each other.

Elsewhere, the Cork footballers will definitely be without forward Philip Clifford for Sunday week's Munster football semi-final against Kerry. Clifford requires a minor operation on a knee cartilage, while defender Anthony Lynch is trying to shake off a shoulder injury.

Colin Corkery and Brendan Jer O'Sullivan are also unavailable after being sent off against Roscommon in last year's qualifier. Kerry are still awaiting fitness confirmation on John Crowley.

WESTMEATH (SF v Dublin): G Connaughton; J Davitt, D O'Donoghue, J Keane; M Ennis, D Healy, D Heavin; G Dolan, D O'Shaughnessy; B Morley, P Conway, A Mangan; F Wilson, D Glennon, D Dolan.