MEATH BRING in four newcomers for this weekend's championship opener against Carlow in Croke Park.

Manager Colm Coyle has had to improvise to cover for the five players suspended after the final NFL match with Dublin and two injured forwards, Shane O'Rourke and Brian Farrell.

In the absence of Brendan Murphy, Séamus Kenny, Niall McKeigue, Shane McAnarney and Nigel Crawford, Coyle brings in Mick Aherne in goal, corner back Cormac McGill, centrefielder Brian Meade and wing forward Alan Nestor, a younger brother of All-Ireland winner Nigel. Chris O'Connor, who played against Tyrone in last year's All-Ireland quarter-final, plays in the other corner back position.

All Star forward Stephen Bray will captain the side from right corner forward and in the other corner Graham Geraghty starts 16 years after his debut season.

Joe Sheridan, who dropped out of the panel during last year's championship, is back on board and starts at full forward.

Meanwhile, Kildare manager Kieran McGeeney's first championship selection features two debutants for Sunday's Leinster first round against Wicklow. Both newcomers come from the county under-21s, who surprised a lot of people by emerging from Leinster and reaching the All-Ireland final where they lost out to Kerry two weeks ago.

Gary White, who captained the team in Thurles that night, is named at wing back but it will be no surprise if he gets game time at centre back where he was outstanding during the under-21 campaign.

Named at left corner forward is Alan Smith, who was also impressive during the under-21 campaign, playing at full forward.

McGeeney will have been relieved that top forward John Doyle appears to have shaken off the rib injury sustained in a recent challenge match with Cork and takes his place at right wing forward. Corner back Morgan O'Flaherty is also deemed fit after straining his neck.

Although Brian Flanagan, who was injured in the final NFL match against Laois, Karl Ennis, who has damaged ankle ligaments and Alan Barry, with a leg injury, don't make the cut Kildare welcome back centrefielder Killian Brennan and Pádraig O'Neill and Kevin O'Neill on the edge of either square.

Wicklow have delayed naming a team until this evening.

All-Ireland-winning Armagh manager Joe Kernan believes that his former captain McGeeney will be happy just to see the back of the county's former manager Mick O'Dwyer and his Wicklow team.

"I know from talking to Kieran that they were disappointed with their National League form," he said. "Kieran went into running a county team fairly quickly but the one thing you're guaranteed is that he'll give 100 per cent. They'll all live and die by what happens in the championship.

"If it had have been Meath or an Offaly or a Kildare or a Dublin it probably would have been easier - not easier to win but easier to get ready for it. He'll be looking just to win the match and it doesn't matter how they play because after that they'll probably improve.

"Not every county has leaders and we were very lucky to have Kieran for a number of years. Whatever the team plan was Kieran went and did it. Maybe sometimes he wouldn't agree but he wouldn't say and he'd go and do whatever suited the team. That probably led to a lot of our success that we had players of his calibre not holding back. I'm sure that's what he's trying to instil into Kildare."

Kernan said he was surprised that McGeeney had moved into top-level management as quickly as he had.

"I spoke to Kieran about this a few years ago and we thought that when he did retire he'd be managing a club for two or three years and then go into county management. It's just the way it happened that he got the offer and took it. It's a new challenge but he'll leave no stone unturned."

MEATH (SFC v Carlow): M Aherne; C O'Connor, D Fay, C McGill; E Harrington, K Reilly, C King; B Meade, M Ward; A Nestor, C Ward, P Byrne; S Bray (capt.), J Sheridan, G Geraghty.

KILDARE (SFC v Wicklow): T Corley; M OFlaherty, K O'Neill, E Bolton; A Rainbow, A McLoughlin, G White; K Brennan, D Earley; J Doyle, D Flynn, R Sweeney; M Conway, P O'Neill, A Smith.

CAVAN (SFC v Antrim): J O'Reilly; M Hannon, R Dunne, M Brides; D Sheridan, A Forde, M Cahill; M McDonald, D McCabe; M Reilly, R Flanagan, B Watters; C Mackey, S Johnston, J O'Reilly.