Kobe named in Mayo squad for trip to Monaghan

The possibility of seeing Leaving Certificate student Kobe McDonald playing his first competitive game for the Mayo senior football team has moved closer with the selection of the Crossmolina teenager among the substitutes listed for Sunday’s National Football League Division 1 game against Monaghan.

Manager Andy Moran has made four changes to the side that started last Sunday’s eight points defeat in Donegal, with McDonald’s clubmate Conor Loftus handed his first start in more than two years having impressed off the bench against the Tir Chonaill men.

Loftus has been selected at centre-half-back while David McBrien, Paddy Durcan and Fergal Boland all return to the first fifteen as well, with Rory Brickenden, Fenton Kelly, Diarmuid O’Connor and James Carr the men to lose out. Brickenden and Kelly do take their place on the bench alongside recent Sigerson Cup winners Cian McHale and Sean Morahan for the game that throws in at 1.45pm at St Tiernach’s Park, Clones.

Kobe McDonald, who is due to make a switch to AFL later this year, was part of the Gortnor Abbey secondary school team that lost to Balla in the Connacht Post Primary senior ‘C’ football championship final last Saturday. The last player to make their senior debut for Mayo as an 18-year-old was Aidan O'Shea in 2008.

See next Tuesday's Western People for full coverage of the Mayo v Monaghan game.

Mayo (v Monaghan): Rob Hennelly; Jack Coyne, Donnacha McHugh, Enda Hession; Sam Callinan, Conor Loftus, Paddy Durcan; Bob Tuohy, David McBrien; Jack Carney, Ryan O’Donoghue, Jordan Flynn; Darragh Beirne, Aidan O’Shea, Fergal Boland. Subs: Jack Livingstone, Rory Brickenden, Michael Plunkett, Stephen Coen, Fenton Kelly, Seamus Howard, Kobe McDonald, Cian McHale, Diarmuid Duffy, Sean Morahan, Paul Towey.