Dublin talks progress well

Dual players: Talks between the Dublin hurling and football managements on the issue of dual players have been described as "extremely amicable", although no agreement has been reached on which players will be available to both codes for the league and championship season.

Earlier this week hurling manager Humphrey Kelleher sat down with his football counterpart, Tommy Lyons, and they hope to meet again this weekend with the intention of finalising some sort of agreement.

"We had a good, open discussion on where we stand on the issue," says Kelleher. "It was extremely amicable and each of us expressed the problems that we are facing. I still feel we don't have the right to be dictating to players what they should and should not be playing.

"But I also feel that in Dublin we have allowed football to dominate to the extent that hurling is now subservient to the game, and I think that is wrong. Part of the problem is that up to now no one has shouted stop."

Central to the discussions are players like Shane Ryan and Conal Keaney, who do appear capable of representing Dublin in both codes.

"Shane has told me that he would like to play hurling for Dublin," adds Kelleher. "And the fact is I don't have 30 players better than him. But we'll have to see what happens next. I'm not saying I'm confident we can reach an agreement, but at least we're both clear on what we want."

Kelleher has lined up a challenge game against Ulster club champions Dunloy for this Sunday, and by Wednesday hopes to have finalised a panel of 30 players. "And I'm still hopeful that panel can include you know who," he adds.

In football, meanwhile, Carlow and Offaly have announced their team selections for their respective O'Byrne Cup semi-finals on Sunday.

Offaly manager Gerry Fahey has made four changes from the team that beat DIT on Sunday for the meeting with Meath in Navan, calling in Colm McNamara, Shane Sullivan, Mark Daly and Basil Malone.

Carlow manager Mick Condon, still on a high from last week's win over Dublin, has found himself without several first-choice players through injury, including full back Brian Farrell, for the meeting with Westmeath in Mullingar.

Two vacancies have been left until prior to throw-in, with Philip Nolan and David Byrne among the possible replacements for the wing back and midfield positions

OFFALY (SF v Meath): C McNamara; B Mooney, C Daly, S Sullivan; M Mitchell, G Rafferty, K Slattery; M Daly, C McManus; C Farrell, P Kellaghan, B Malone; N McNamee, N Coughlan, T Deehan.

CARLOW (SF v Westmeath): J Clarke; P Cashin, S O'Brien, B English; J Kavanagh, G Walker, AN Other; T Walsh, AN Other; M Carpenter, J Nevin, B Carbery; B Kelly, P Hickey, S Rea.

Seán Moran adds: In Wednesday's issue of The Irish Times, Dr Niall Moyna was quoted as saying that no county managers had contacted him in his capacity as coach of DCU's Sigerson team about intercounty players. This should have read: "Not a single intercounty manager, with the exception of two, has contacted me about any of his players based here."