Westmeath duo on Leinster squad; strong Roscommon presence for Connacht

Two Westmeath players are part of the Leinster football squad which takes on their Connacht counterparts in the Allianz GAA Football Interprovincial Series at Croke Park this evening (throw-in 6pm).

Athlone's Ray Connellan and Multyfarnham’s Ronan Wallace are the two players from the Lake County on a squad managed by Dessie Dolan, who stepped down as Westmeath manager in the summer.

There are ten Roscommon players on the Connacht panel, including St Brigid's duo Brian Stack and Ruaidhrí Fallon and Clann na nGael's Ultan Harney.

Diarmuid Murtagh, an All-Star nominee this year along with Stack, is also among the Roscommon contingent.

The other Roscommon players are the Smith brothers (Enda and Donie), Daire Cregg, Ciarain Murtagh (brother of Diarmuid), Conor Carroll and Conor Cox.

The Connacht squad, managed by Pádraic Joyce, includes Mayo’s Aidan O’Shea and Galway’s Cillian McDaid.

The provincial squads are drawn from players whose clubs are no longer involved in their respective county championships this year.

The Leinster squad is led by Dublin’s nine-time All-Ireland winners Stephen Cluxton and James McCarthy.

Armagh’s All-Ireland winners have a strong presence in the Ulster ranks and are led by Oisín Conaty, Aidan Forker, and Rian and Oisín O’Neill.

Kerry’s experienced duo Tadhg Morley and Diarmuid O’Connor headline the Munster squad (see full squad lists below).

Tonight's Connacht vs Leinster clash will be followed by the meeting of Ulster and Munster at 8pm.

On Saturday the opening match sees the two beaten teams from Friday night meeting at 5.30pm, followed by the clash of the two Friday night winners in the Interprovincial final at 7.30pm.

Friday night’s games will be shown live on TG4 and Saturday’s games will be shown live on RTÉ.

The backdrop to the event is the trialling of the seven core enhancements put forward by the Football Review Committee (FRC), chaired by former Dublin manager Jim Gavin. These proposed Gaelic football rule changes will be the subject of a special Congress at the end of November.

Leinster: 1 Stephen Cluxton, Dublin. 2 Michael Bambrick, Carlow. 3 Mark Barry, Laois. 4 Sean Bugler, Dublin. 5 Ciaran Byrne, Louth. 6 Ray Connellan, Westmeath. 7 Peter Cunningham, Offaly. 8 Ciaran Downey, Louth. 9 Ross Dunphy, Carlow. 10 Kevin Feely, Kildare. 11 Daniel Flynn, Kildare. 12 Darren Gallagher, Longford. 13 Dean Healy, Wicklow. 14 Ryan Houlihan, Kildare. 15 Brian Howard, Dublin. 16 Killian Roche, Laois. 17 Ronan Jones, Meath. 18 Donal Keoghan, Meath. 19 Ciaran Kilkenny, Dublin. 20 Paul Kingston, Laois. 21 Craig Lennon, Louth. 22 James McCarthy, Dublin. 23 Eoin Murchan, Dublin. 24 Evan O'Carroll, Laois. 25 Lee Pearson, Offaly. 26 Eoin Porter, Wexford. 27 Kevin Quinn, Wicklow. 28 John Small, Dublin. 29 Paddy Small, Dublin. 30 Ronan Wallace, Westmeath.

Connacht: 1 Connor Gleeson, Galway. 2 Johnny McGrath, Galway. 3 Brian Stack, Roscommon. 4 Sean Mulkerrin, Galway. 5 Cillian McDaid, Galway. 6 John Daly, Galway. 7 Eoghan McLoughlin, Mayo.8 Jack Carney, Mayo. 9 John Maher, Galway. 10 Matthew Tierney, Galway. 11 Bob Touhy, Mayo. 12 Enda Smith, Roscommon. 13 Diarmuid Murtagh, Roscommon. 14 Aidan O’Shea, Mayo. 15 Daire Cregg, Roscommon. 16 Conor Carroll, Roscommon. 17 Ruaidhrí Fallon, Roscommon. 18 Mark Diffley, Leitrim. 19 Johnny Heaney, Galway. 20 Shane Brosnan, New York. 21 Ultan Harney, Roscommon. 22 Barry McNulty, Leitrim. 23 Conor Cox, Roscommon. 24 Donie Smith, Roscommon. 25 Ciarain Murtagh, Roscommon. 26 Diarmuid Duffy, Mayo. 27 Fergal Boland, Mayo. 28 Pat Spillane, Sligo. 29 Aidan McLoughlin, London. 30 Liam Gallagher, London. Standby players: 31 Paul Towey, Mayo. 32 Keith Byrne, Leitrim. 33 Shay Rafter, London. 34 Eddie McGinness, Sligo. 35 Cian Lally, Sligo. 36 Joey Grace, New York. 37 Shane Brosnan, New York. 38 Daire Rooney, London

Ulster: 1 Niall Morgan, Tyrone/ 2 Diarmuid Baker, Derry. 3 Mark Bradley, Tyrone. 4 Paddy Burns, Armagh. 5 Aidan Clarke, Tyrone. 6 Oisin Conaty, Armagh. 7 Padraig Faulkner, Cavan. 8 Aidan Forker, Armagh. 9 Niall Grimley, Armagh. 10 Daniel Guiness, Down. 11 Pat Havern, Down. 12 Marc Jordan, Antrim. 13 Conn Kilpatrick, Tyrone. 14 Barry McBennett, Monaghan. 15 Ronan McCaffrey, Fermanagh. 16 Sean McNally, Fermanagh. 17 Darren McCurry, Tyrone. 18 Eoin McElholm, Tyrone. 19 Joe McElroy, Armagh. 20 Eoin McEvoy, Derry. 21 Kieran McGeary, Tyrone.22 Peter McGrane, Armagh. 23 Ross McQuillan, Armagh. 24 Odhran Murdock, Down. 25 Dáire Ó Baoill, Donegal. 26 Rian O'Neill, Armagh. 27 Oisin O'Neill, Armagh. 28 Gerry Smith, Cavan. 29 Ciaran Thompson, Donegal. 30 Niall Toner, Derry. Standby players: 31 Frank Burns, Tyrone. 32 Mick Byrne, Antrim. 33 Joe Finnegan, Antrim. 34 Jason Irwin, Monaghan 35 Jason McLoughlin, Cavan. 36 Fionan O’Brien, Fermanagh.

Munster: 1 Josh Ryan, Limerick. 2 Darragh Brennan, Tipperary. 3 Damien Bourke, Kerry. 4 Darragh Cashman, Cork. 5 Eoin Cleary, Clare. 6 Jimmy Feehan, Tipperary. 7 Aran Griffin, Clare. 8 Emmet McMahon, Clare. 9 Brian McNamara, Clare. 10 Sean Meehan, Cork. 11 Tadhg Morley, Kerry. 12 James Naughton, Limerick. 13 Danny Neville, Limerick. 14 Colm O’Callaghan, Cork. 15 Diarmuid O’Connor, Kerry. 16 Chris Kelly, Cork. 17 Conor O’Currin, Waterford. 18 Sean O’Dea, Limerick. 19 Donal O'Sullivan, Kerry. 20 Chris Óg Jones, Cork. 21 Dermot Ryan, Waterford. 22 Maurice Shanley, Cork. 23 Killian Spillane, Kerry. 24 Mark Stokes, Tipperary. 25 Alan Sweeney, Clare. 26 Matty Taylor, Cork. 27 Caomhin Walsh, Waterford. 28 Tommy Walsh, Cork. 29 Sean Walsh, Waterford. 30 Paul Walsh, Cork.