Door open for Galway brothers

Galway manager John O'Mahony has made it clear that he had no choice but to leave the Donnellan brothers out of the team to face Leitrim in Sunday's Connacht football championship meeting in Tuam.

The omission of both Michael and John - regarded as two pivotal men in the Galway line-up - was the source of widespread speculation yesterday but O'Mahony played it all down by insisting that it was purely a problem of availability.

"It was confirmed to me at training on Tuesday night that neither John or Michael would be available for Sunday," said O'Mahony. "Neither of them were at training that night and we had a team to select. We chose our 15 players on the basis of who was available and I can fully justify the selection that we did make.

"The only other thing I can say is that Galway is always an open-ended panel and we will review our players after the game on Sunday because we will have another game to play whether we win or lose. We always want the best players on the Galway team and of course the Donnellan's are among the best players in Galway."

Michael's place at midfield is taken over by Sean O Domhnaill, while John's usual position at left full-forward was given to dual player Alan Kerins.

The question remains as to why both players suddenly became unavailable. The one rumour that kept repeating itself yesterday was that John was informed earlier this week that his place would be going to Kerins, and that resulted in neither John nor Michael showing up for training on Tuesday.

O'Mahony didn't want to be drawn into any such rumour, but it is known that the county board is fully behind the manager's decision. The assumption now is that both players will be shown an open door if they want to return to the panel after Sunday.

A vacancy has been left at right corner forward but that is expected to go to Derek Savage. He broke his thumb in the league final and the cast is due off tomorrow but he is still the man most likely to be considered.

"Overall this has been a quick run up to the championship," added O'Mahony "and that is different to recent years. I am delighted to see Jar back in the team and Tomas Mannion as well but right now we are thinking about nothing else except getting over Sunday."

Mayo midfielder David Brady was yesterday named as Eircell Player of the Month for April, and he will receive his award at the Downhill Hotel in Ballina next Monday.

RTE will show their first live Saturday match of the season when they broadcast the Ulster preliminary round replay between Fermanagh and Donegal. Coverage begins at 6.00pm.

The drawn game last Sunday was also RTE's televised game and the station has decided to cover the replay, which may run to extra-time. The other Ulster derby, between Tyrone and Armagh in Clones will also be shown live.