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Football

Kerry name four debuts in team for Munster semi-final with Clare

Paul Geaney and James O'Donoghue both return to Kerry's starting 15 for their 2019 Munster Senior...



Kerry name four debuts in team...
Football

Kerry name four debuts in team for Munster semi-final with Clare

Paul Geaney and James O'Donoghue both return to Kerry's starting 15 for their 2019 Munster Senior Football Championship opener against Clare in Ennis tomorrow evening.

Former Footballer of the Year O'Donoghue hasn't started for the Kingdon this season, and is one of seven fresh faces in Peter Keane's side, from the Allianz Football League final defeat to Mayo at the end of March.

Keane's starting 15 to take on the Banner sees four championship debuts, while it also shows eight personnel changes from the team that lined out in Kerry's final game of the 2018 championship against Kildare last August.

The first of those debuts comes in goals, as Shane Ryan starts for the first time after a promising league campaign.

With Peter Crowley ruled out for the season due to a serious knee injury, Tadhg Morley takes on the job of marshaling the full-back line, escorted on either side by Jason Foley and Tom O'Sullivan.

Gavin Crowley makes his first championship appearance at wing back, while injured captain Paul Murphy is replaced at centre-back by Jack Sherwood, alongside Shane Enright.

There's also a Championship debut for Templenoe's Adrian Spillane, accompanied by veteran midfielder David Moran.

In the half-forward line, it's the same trio that started the league final, with Stephen O'Brien and Sean O'Shea joined by the last of the Championship debutants Diarmuid O'Connor, while Geaney and O'Donoghue come back into the team to join David Clifford in a star-studded front three.

There's also the possibility of a fifth debut on the Kerry bench, in the form of Graham O'Sullivan from Dromid Pearses.

A win for the Kingdom would book their place in a seventh Munster final in the row, having won the tirle on each of the last six occasions.

Kerry: Shane Ryan; Jason Foley, Tadhg Morley, Tom O’Sullivan; Gavin Crowley, Jack Sherwood, Shane Enright; David Moran, Adrian Spillane; Diarmuid O’Connor, Sean O’Shea, Stephen O’Brien; David Clifford, Paul Geaney, James O’Donoghue

Subs: Brian Kelly, Mark Griffin, Brian Ó Beaglaíoch, Michael Geaney, Graham O’Sullivan, Tommy Walsh, Jonathan Lyne,  Micheál Burns, Robert Wharton, Conor Geaney, Gavin White

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David Moran James O'donoghue Kerry Munster Senior Football Championship Peter Keane