Offaly U20 footballers make whole-scale changes for crunch clash with Dubs

THE Offaly U20 football management have made whole-scale changes for their crunch Leinster championship clash with Dublin on Wednesday evening in Faithful Fields – a 7.30pm throw in.

Beaten 1-17 to 0-14 by Westmeath in last Wednesday's opener, manager Mark Plunkett and selectors have made a host of positional and personnel changes.

There are call ups to the starting fifteen for Tullamore's Jack Daly and Patrick Kenna, Daingean's Cian Bracken and Doon's Luke Kelly with Darragh Bryant, Brian Carroll, Cillian Foran and Conor Fox losing out.

There are some big positional switches as well with Christian McKeon starting at full back and John Colgan moving out to centre half back. Last week's centre half back, David O'Rourke is named at midfield in a new partnernship with Clodiagh Gaels' Eoin Dunne – team captain O'Rourke had his hands full on a very good Westmeath centre forward last week but is a county senior footballer in the making and the Offaly management will be hoping he has a big influence on this must win game.

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They will also be hoping Niall Furlong stamps his class on this game and he will lead the attack from centre half forward with Luke Kelly selected at full forward. Their star player Cillian Bourke has not been named on the panel. The Tullamore man had made his mark with Offaly senior footballers during the league campaign and his absence with a knee injury is a cruel blow to the prospects of the U20 footballers.

Bourke looks to be the real deal and the U20s would be a lot stronger with him firing on all cylinders. It would not be unusual for injured players to be late call ups on a team or panel but Bourke has done very little training in recent weeks and while his injury is not as bad as first feared, the healing process is a slow one and needs time.

Offaly were very poor in the first half against Westmeath last week, trailing by 1-11 to 0-4 at half time but they played much better in the second half, even if the game was out of reach.

Dublin lost to Meath by four points in their first game and with two teams qualifying for the knockout stages, this is a make or break game for both teams. A draw between Meath and Westmeath will put the losers out. It is possible that the losers will be left with a thread to hang onto as three teams could finish on two points and scoring difference determining the final qualifier but both Offaly and Dublin really have to win this one.

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Dublin will be favourites and it will take a vastly improved Offaly display to turn it around here. It could happen and they have plenty of good footballers. Management will be banking on the changes injecting new energy into them and Offaly have a very big point to prove here.

OFFALY: Conor Meila (Bracknagh); Jack Daly (Tullamore), Christian McKeon (Clara), Patrick Kenna (Tullamore); Jake Maher (Ferbane), John Colgan (Cappincur), Harry Goulding (Edenderry); David O Rourke (Shamrocks, Captain), Eoin Dunne (Clodiagh Gaels); Steven Doran (Ballinamere), Niall Furlong (Tullamore), Dara Bates (Shamrocks); Cian Bracken (Daingean), Luke Kelly (Doon), Kaelem Bryan (Edenderry). Subs – Sean Kavanagh (Tullamore), Brian Carroll (Ferbane), Charlie Keogh (Bracknagh), Jack Maher (Tullamore), Darragh Bryant (Shamrocks), Davin Keegan (Tullamore), Conor Fox (Tubber), Billy Quinn (Rhode), Cillian Foran (Edenderry).