Moran makes big calls as Mayo team revealed for Farney test

Andy Moran has reacted decisively to Mayo’s Connacht championship loss to Roscommon by naming three debutants in his team to face Monaghan in Clones.

The Green and Red commence their All-Ireland Championship campaign on Sunday afternoon and Moran has made five changes in total – and a number of positional switches also – to the side beaten at home by the Rossies in the provincial semi-final.

Goalkeeper Jack Livingstone from Breaffy, Ballinrobe’s Diarmuid Duffy and Darragh Beirne from Claremorris are all set to play their first senior championship games for Mayo, replacing Rob Hennelly, Paddy Durcan and Can McHale respectively, while also into the team come Castlebar’s Donnacha McHugh and Hugh O’Loughlin from Kilmaine, in place of Rory Brickenden and Aidan O’Shea. It’ll be just O’Loughlin’s second senior championship outing having featured against London in the Connacht quarter-final.

David McBrien has been switched from midfield to centre-back, Jack Carney from wing-forward to midfield and Conor Loftus from centre-back to centre-forward, as Mayo look to move on from their 10-points defeat to Roscommon almost five weeks ago.

There are also a couple of notable inclusions on the bench as promising U20 defender Eoin McGreal from Garrymore is included for the first time since being injured on his senior debut against Galway in the opening round of this season’s National Football League, while Sean Morahan of Castlebar Mitchels is also preferred in the matchday 26 to the aforementioned Rory Brickenden.

Surprisingly, there is also no place in the squad for either Cillian O’Connor or Fergal Boland, or Matthew Ruane who had been rumoured as a potential midfield starter having come on against Roscommon after fighting back from long term injury.

Mayo (v Monaghan): Jack Livingstone; Jack Coyne, Donnacha McHugh, Enda Hession; Sam Callinan, David McBrien, Diarmuid Duffy; Bob Tuohy, Jack Carney; Hugh O’Loughlin, Conor Loftus, Jordan Flynn; Darragh Beirne, Ryan O’Donoghue, Kobe McDonald. Subs: Rob Hennelly, Fenton Kelly, Paddy Durcan, Eoin McGreal, Sean Morahan, Aidan O'Shea, Stephen Coen, Paul Towey, Diarmuid O'Connor, Tommy Conroy, Cian McHale.