Harte recalls men who turned tide against Kerry

Conor Gormley, Conor Clarke and Martin Penrose in for semi-final against Kildare

Tyrone's Martin Penrose will start against Kildare. Photograph: Russell Pritchard/Presseye/Inpho
Tyrone's Martin Penrose will start against Kildare. Photograph: Russell Pritchard/Presseye/Inpho

Mickey Harte can hardly disguise the significant changes to his Tyrone team for their Allianz Football League semi-final against Kildare, recalling three of the players who made such a telling difference against Kerry in Omagh last Sunday.

Conor Gormley, Conor Clarke and Martin Penrose all resume starting positions – all three of whom helped turn the tide back in Tyrone’s favour last Sunday, when despite trailing by 12 points in the first half, they eventually lost out to Kerry by just one, 2-12 to 1-16.

Clarke takes over from Justin McMahon at full back, Gormley starts at wing back in place of Ronan McNamee, and Penrose starts at corner forward in place of Ronan O’Neill, who is injured – with other changes including the return of PJ Quinn at corner back, and Dermot Carlin at wing back.

That makes for much changed defence, with only Cathal McCarron retaining his position, as Joe McMahon moves up to wing forward

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Johnny Doyle is one of the big name returnees to the Kildare team, named at corner forward alongside Alan Smith and Seánie Johnston.

Sunday’s other semi-final pairings – Dublin and Mayo – will announce their starting line-ups today.

Elsewhere, Cork hurling manager Jimmy Barry Murphy has made two changes for Sunday’s winner-takes-all showdown against Clare at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick, as the losers here are automatically relegated to Division One B.

Shane O’Neill and William Egan are both recalled to the starting 15, O’Neill replacing Kilian Murphy at corner back, and Egan at wing back in a switch with Cian McCarthy.

Ian O'Riordan

Ian O'Riordan

Ian O'Riordan is an Irish Times sports journalist writing on athletics