Longford set to experiment against Westmeath in the O’Byrne Cup
O’Byrne Cup Senior Football Tournament Quarter-Final: throw-in 1.30pm
The Longford senior footballers start the new season on Saturday and the manager Paddy Christie is expected to experiment in the O’Byrne Cup quarter-final against Westmeath at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park, throw-in 1.30pm.
Christie and his fellow mentors opted to field a strong side on their way to winning the 2023 tournament which was tainted by a few walkovers in the group stage and including the Louth v Offaly semi-final.
Thus the Leinster GAA Council have made the decision to run the 2024 O’Byrne Cup on a knockout system.
Nearly all of the counties in the Leinster competition avail of the opportunity to have a look at the fringe players along with the newcomers and Paddy Christie should follow the same route in the build up to the start of the National League Division 4 campaign away to Laois on Saturday January 27.
Longford or Westmeath will be away to Meath or Louth in the semi-final and there will be another pre-season warm up exercise for the losers of the midlands derby in the semi-final of the reborn O’Byrne Shield competition on Saturday January 13.
The quarter-final fixtures are as follows:
Saturday January 6
Wexford v Kildare
Offaly v Dublin
Meath v Louth
Longford v Westmeath
Semi-Finals
Saturday January 13
Laois, Offaly or Dublin v Wexford, Wicklow, Carlow or Kildare
Meath or Louth v Longford or Westmeath
Final - Saturday January 20 Venue TBC
O’Byrne Shield
Round 1 - Saturday January 6
Wicklow v Carlow
Winners Wicklow or Carlow v Laois
Losers Longford or Westmeath v Losers Meath or Louth
Glennon Brothers Pearse Park or TEG Cusack Park
Final - Saturday January 20 Venue TBC
Longford squad v Westmeath: 1. Micheal Hughes (Killoe), 2. Barry O'Farrell (Carrickedmond), 3. Oisin O'Toole (Dromard), 4. Liam Hughes (Killoe), 5. Ruairí Harkin (Colmcille), 6. Patrick Fox (Mullinalaghta), 7. Iarla O'Sullivan (Rathcline), 8. Darren Gallagher (Granard), 9. Ryan Moffett (Killoe), 10. Daniel Reynolds (Sean Connolly’s), 11. Daniel Mimnagh (Killoe), 12. Dylan Farrell (Killashee), 13. Jayson Matthews (Mullinalaghta), 14. Bryn Peters (Rathcline), 15. Cathal McCabe (Colmcille), 16. Paddy Collum (Fr Manning Gaels), 17. Conor Keenan (Fr Manning Gaels), 18. Darragh Finlass (Ballymahon), 19. Diarmuid Farrell (Ardagh Moydow), 20. Jordan Shiels (Granard), 21. Dylan Lynch (Sean Connolly’s), 22. Daire Duggan (Sean Connolly’s), 23. James Kiernan (Granard), 24. Ronan Kavanagh (Killashee), 25. Michael Farrell (Killashee), 26. Dessie Reynolds (Sean Connolly’s).