The New York footballers will return to Tailteann Cup activity. Photo by Tom Beary/Sportsfile
Tailteann Cup preliminary quarter-finals
Saturday June 7
Offaly v New York, Glenisk O'Connor Park, Tullamore, 2pm, GAA+
Losing to Laois last weekend cost Offaly top spot in Group 2 and forced them down the preliminary quarter-final route.
It has thrown up a novel home tie against New York for the side jointly managed by Mickey Harte and Declan Kelly.
New York have yet to win a game in the Tailteann Cup, losing to Laois at this stage in 2024 and Carlow in 2023, though they were highly competitive in both games, losing by four and five points respectively.
More significantly with this weekend in mind, Offaly beat New York by 3-17 to 0-11 in 2022 when the Exiles entered that season's competition at the quarter-final stage.
Galway beat New York 3-28 to 0-20 in April's Connacht SFC encounter and manager Ronan McGinley has made four team changes, drafting in Shane Bolger, Bill Maher, Gavin O'Brien and Killian Butler from the start this time.
Dual players Adam Loughlin Stones, a Lory Meagher Cup winner last weekend at Croke Park, lines out again while the bench is stacked with talent including Kildare man Jack Robinson and Cavan's Michael Argue.
Offaly are unchanged from the side that started against Laois and have included Cormac Egan on the bench after a quad injury.
OFFALY: Paddy Dunican; Lee Pearson, David Dempsey, Daire McDaid; Aidan Bracken, John Furlong, Rory Egan; Jack McEvoy, Jordan Hayes; Kyle Higgins, Cathal Flynn, Cillian Bourke; Keith O'Neill, Jack Bryant, Shane Tierney.
Subs: Sean O'Toole, Marcas Dalton, Cormac Egan, Robbie Gallagher, Dylan Hyland, Oisin Keenan-Martin, Aaron Kellaghan, Aaron Leavy, Shane O'Toole Greene, Ruairi McNamee, Morgan Tynan.
NEW YORK: Joey Grace; Cian O'Dea, Sean Wilson, Shane Bolger; Bill Maher, Rob Wharton, Tiarnan Mathers; Kieran Murphy, Gavin O'Brien; Shane Brosnan, Eoghan McElligott, Adam Loughlin Stones; Frank O'Reilly, Bobby O'Regan, Killian Butler.
Subs: Ryan Corrigan, Tadhg O'Riordan, Matthew Queenan, Mike McCarthy, Jack McKenna, Michael Argue, Conall Kennedy, Jack Robinson, Joe Hagan, Morgan Garry, Mickey Brosnan.
Westmeath v Laois, TEG Cusack Park, Mullingar, 5pm, GAA+
Laois could count themselves unlucky when finishing third in the Group 2 table given that they registered four points, the same as Wicklow and Offaly.
Scoring difference cost them in the end, leaving the 2024 finalists with a tricky away preliminary quarter-final fixture against the 2022 winners.
Still, Laois impressed in Round 3 when beating Offaly and manager Justin McNulty was satisfied enough with his team to name an unchanged lineup for this knock-out encounter.
Westmeath were stunned by Emmet Rigter's late winning point for Limerick in Round 3. A draw would have been enough for Westmeath to advance to a quarter-final as group winners. Instead, they have a testing mini-Leinster championship derby date to navigate.
Dermot McCabe has made changes to his Lake County team. Daniel Scahill and Brandon Kelly both came on against Limerick and have retained their places in the team.
Luke Loughlin has arguably been the attacker of the tournament so far and keeps his place at corner-forward for Westmeath.
WESTMEATH: Conor McCormack; Daniel Scahill, Sam Smyth, Jamie Gonoud; Joseph Moran, Ronan Wallace, Sam McCartan; Ray Connellan, Eoghan McCabe; Matthew Whittaker, Kevin O'Sullivan, Nigel Harte; Luke Loughlin, Stephen Smith, Brandon Kelly.
Subs: Joe Hyland, Kieran Martin, Tadhg Baker, Robbie Forde, Danny McCartan, Lorcan Dolan, Shane Allen, Shane Ormsby, Jack Geoghegan, Brian Guerin, Brian Cooney.
LAOIS: Killian Roche; Ben Dempsey, Trevor Collins, Liam Knowles; Pa Kirwan, Patrick O'Sullivan, Aaron McEvoy; Seamus Lacey, Damon Larkin; Mark Barry, Ronan Coffey, Conor Heffernan; Niall Corbet, Kevin Swayne, Brian Byrne.
Subs: Conor Brown, John Brennan, Jamie Conway, Jake Darcy, Michael Doran, Josh Hogan, Jonah Kelly, Cathal Lee, Jack Lennon, Sean O'Neill, Cian Ryle.
Wexford manager John Hegarty. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Sunday June 8
Wexford v Antrim, Chadwicks Wexford Park, Wexford, 1pm
Croke Park hasn't been a happy hunting ground for Wexford so far this year.
They lost the Division 4 league final there, to Limerick, and were beaten by Fermanagh at GAA HQ in their final Tailteann Cup group game last weekend.
They could yet make it back to Croke Park in this competition but need to string a few wins together. Home advantage should help against 2023 and 2024 semi-finalists Antrim.
Robbie Brooks came on against Fermanagh last Sunday in Dublin and has kept his spot in the starting team, the only change to John Hegarty's lineup.
Antrim's Round 3 win over London was their first of the campaign and secured them the last preliminary quarter-final spot. Andy McEntee will be desperate to begin a winning streak that takes them deep into the knock-out stages again.
He has brought in Patrick Finnegan and full-forward Ruairi McCann for this one.
Antrim showed just how aggressive and potent they can be in the first-half of their Ulster SFC clash with All-Ireland holders Armagh and need to summon that form again.
WEXFORD: Darragh Brooks; Michael Furlong, Gavin Sheehan, Liam O'Connor; Eoin Porter, Glen Malone, Pairic Hughes; Liam Coleman, Niall Hughes; Martin O'Connor, Tom Byrne, Mark Rossiter; Kevin O'Grady, Robbie Brooks, Sean Nolan.
Subs: Colum Feeney, Sean Barden, Ruairi Martin, Dylan Furlong, Cathal Kehoe, Cathal Walsh, Jack Higgins, Conor Carty, Michael Kinsella, Ben Brosnan, Sean Ryan.
ANTRIM: Michael Byrne; Eoghan McCabe, Eunan Walsh, Kavan Keenan; James McAuley, Dermot McAleese, Patrick Finnegan; Conor Hand, Marc Jordan; Ronan Boyle, Adam Loughran, Patrick McBride; Ryan McQuillan, Ruairi McCann, Dominic McEnhill.
Subs: Luke Mulholland, Calum Higgins, Conor Stewart, Daniel McNicholl, Eunan Quinn, Fionn Nagle, James McDonnell, John Morgan, Joseph Finnegan, Niall Burns, Ryan Murray.
Sligo v Carlow, Tubbercurry, 2pm
Sligo are one of the teams that have shown serious pedigree in the Tailteann Cup over the years but without winning it, so far.
The 2022 and 2024 semi-finalists pushed Kildare hard last weekend, putting 1-24 on the board and producing a stirring fightback to leave just four in it at full-time.
Tony McEntee will hope they bring that momentum from the start this time and that they can keep up their 100 percent success rate in games at the Tubbercurry grounds.
He has named an unchanged side which means starts again for the exciting Canice Mulligan, who took the game to Kildare strongly, and Alan McLoughlin who hit the Lilywhites for 0-10.
Carlow could have topped their group if they'd beaten Longford last weekend but lost by five points to the side already destined to finish fourth. It was a halt to the previous strong form shown under new Carlow manager Joe Murphy.
The only change to the Carlow team comes in defence where Murphy has opted for Colin Byrne instead of Lee Moore.
SLIGO: Aidan Devaney; Evan Lyons, Eddie McGuinness, Paul McNamara; Brian Cox, Darragh Cummins, Jack Lavin; Canice Mulligan, Patrick O'Connor; Alan Reilly, David Quinn, Cian Lally; Alan McLoughlin, Niall Murphy, Shane Deignan.
Subs: Daniel Lyons, Ross Doherty, Lee Deignan, Mikey Gordon, Paul Kilcoyne, Eoghan Smith, Donal Conlon, Pat Spillane, Luke Towey, Peter Laffey, Ciaran O'Dowd.
CARLOW: Johnny Furey; Paddy McDonnell, Mark Furey, Colin Byrne; John Phiri, Niall Hickey, John Murphy; Kyle Nolan, Conor Doyle; Ross Dunphy, Darragh Foley, Mikey Bambrick; Conor Crowley, Kevin Murphy, Sean Murphy.
Subs: Ben McCarron, Paddy Regan, Lee Moore, Shane Clarke, Ciaran Moran, Liam Brennan, Mark Mullen, Aaron Amond, Liam Gavin, Jamie Clarke, Adam Burgess.
