Mayo make three changes in personnel from the side which defeated Fermanagh for Sunday's delayed National Football League clash with Kildare at Castlebar.
Ken Mortimer has been ruled out of the defence through injury and his place is taken by Noel Connelly, who returns to the side. There are two changes in the attack, with Crossmolina's Enda Lavelle and Kieran McDonald coming in for Ger Brady and Michael Smith. This will be the first occasion for Lavelle to start in a competitive match.
Mayo manager Pat Holmes, in only his third competitive fixture in charge, will be happy to welcome back the Crossmolina players, fresh from a club campaign which saw them set up a post-Christmas semi-final meeting with Dublin's Na Fianna. McDonald, who scored two goals and nine points in Crossmolina's quarter-final meeting with Hugh O'Neill's last Sunday, will be a significant addition.
Kildare manager Mick O'Dwyer has delayed naming of his team until after training tonight. In contrast to the two opening league fixtures, there shouldn't be any major problems with availability. Cathal Sheridan and Anthony Rainbow are over the injuries which kept them out of the last game against Derry, although a couple of players may be passed over for selection due to holidays.
Set to return are Sarsfields representatives Dermot Earley, Niall Buckley and Padraic Brennan.
If Kildare win they will join Derry at the top of the table, with five points each, while Mayo, with just the one victory, can join Sligo in second spot if they gain the points.
Sunday's Oireachtas hurling final between Galway and Kilkenny has been fixed for Nenagh (2.0). Galway, who came from behind to defeat Cork 2-12 to 210 in Pairc Ui Rinn last Saturday, will be looking for their fifth title of the decade, the most recent coming two years ago over Cork. Kilkenny, who were beaten in the 1996 final by Clare, haven't won the tournament since 1984.
Meanwhile, in his address at the Kerry county convention in Killarney last night, chairman Sean Walsh made a number of references to the proposed championships changes by the Football Development Committee, highlighting the benefits that could reduce the conflict of demands between the county, divisional boards and clubs.
"The proposals would help in this regard by freeing up at least four weekends at a vital time of the year when divisional and county boards are finishing their competitions," he said. "But this committee are not proposing change for change's sake, they are answering a call from the vast majority of players who are crying out for change.
"Confining the document to the wastepaper basket without a chance of working would be a chance lost to the greater good of the GAA for the modern era."
Walsh also addressed the matter of indiscipline within the game, which he said remains an unfortunate problem for all county boards. "We as a county board have a duty to act and not just be seen to pay lip service to matters of indiscipline," he said.
"I would like to advise clubs and district boards that they have a duty in matters of discipline and any deviation from the rule book is extremely dangerous."
Another pressing matter for Walsh and the county board is the enduring debt over Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney. While Austin Stack Park in Tralee has recently benefited from a £200,000 Government grant, there is still "a mountain to climb" in clearing the enormous debt for Fitzgerald Stadium.
"The stadium was developed primarily to hold Munster finals or semi-finals in Kerry," he said. "Building a stadium of this nature with the possibility of staging one major game every two years is not practical."
Walsh suggested that the Munster Council would have to host some hurling matches at a neutral venue in order to bring the debt to manageable proportions. They are also working to expand the capacity ahead of next June's Munster football semi-final meeting with Cork in order to gain maximum income.
Elsewhere, even though UCC claimed their third Munster club football championship last weekend, they will still have to play in the preliminary round of the Sigerson Cup next month, where they were drawn at home to Trinity.
With their poor showing in the Higher Education league, UCC miss out on a bye as it's only the teams who finished second or higher in their league groups who go straight into the first round. Holders IT Tralee, who will be looking for their fourth cup in succession, will play the winners of the preliminary meeting of Dundalk TT and Mary Immaculate of Limerick.
In the Fitzgibbon Cup, holders Waterford IT, who will host this season's tournament, will travel to either Trinity or Mary Immaculate in Limerick for their first-round game. UCC, winners for the previous three years, meet NUI Maynooth.
Mayo: P Burke; N Connelly, K Cahill, A Higgins; D Higgins, J Nallen, A Roche; P Fallon, D Heaney; E Lavelle, S Carolan, D Nestor; K O'Neill, K McDonald, K Filan.
