Gaelic Games

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Gerard Walsh is expected to be available for Antrim's Leinster Hurling Championship opener against Wexford on Saturday (14:00 BST) despite a recent family bereavement.

The Rossa player's younger sister Fionnuala's funeral took place on Saturday but he returned to county training on Tuesday and is set to be in the matchday squad for the Wexford Park contest when Davy Fitzgerald names his Antrim selection on Thursday evening.

Saturday's game will come too soon for half-forward Niall McKenna who is still a few weeks away from full fitness.

Corner-forward Conor Johnston, who had an impressive Allianz Hurling League campaign for the Saffrons, is also set to miss the encounter after picking up an injury.

Antrim go into the championship after holding on to their Division 1B League status after drawing with Carlow in their penultimate game before hammering relegated Laois in their final fixture.

Wexford, who Davy Fitzgerald previously managed, will Antrim in Division 1B next season after losing their Division 1A status despite beating current All-Ireland champions Clare and previous Liam McCarthy Cup kingpins Limerick.

Defeats by Cork, Tipperary, Kilkenny and Galway meant that Keith Rossiter's side suffered the drop in spite of the victories over the two most recent All-Ireland champions.

Following Saturday's opener, Antrim will have home advantage for contests against Kilkenny and Dublin on 27 April and 10 May.

The Saffrons will conclude their Leinster campaign with away games in Galway and Offaly on 17 May and 25 May.

The top three teams in the six-strong Leinster round-robin series will go on to compete in the All-Ireland Championship with the bottom side relegated to next year's second-tier Joe McDonagh Cup.

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Kilcoo have appointed former Monaghan and Clontibret player Martin Corey as their new manager, succeeding Karl Lacey.

Corey will be assisted by former Derry boss Paddy Crozier and Tyrone's two-time All-Ireland winner Joe McMahon.

Corey and McMahon stepped away from their roles in the Meath backroom team under Robbie Brennan last month, while Corey also coached Monaghan during his brother Vinny's time in charge.

Crozier has worked with Kilcoo previously and led Derry to the Division One title in 2008. He also worked with McMahon at Tyrone club Galbally.

McMahon won All-Ireland titles as a Tyrone player in 2005 and 2008 and was also a selector under Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher for the county's 2021 Sam Maguire triumph.

Former Donegal star Lacey stepped down as Kilcoo boss in January after losing the Ulster Club final to Errigal Ciaran.

Kilcoo have won six Down championships in a row. They also lifted Ulster titles in 2019 and 2021 and won the All-Ireland title in 2022 under Mickey Moran.

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Listen to the GAA Social as Down legend Ross Carr sits down with Thomas Niblock and Oisin McConville to discus the Mourne County, asking if he was good enough and the fragility of life.

You can listen to the GAA Social here.

BBC Sport NI pundit Owen Mulligan picks his highlight of the Ulster Championship quarter-final between Tyrone and Cavan.

The Red Hands advanced to a semi-final with Armagh thanks to their 1-24 to 0-20 victory in Omagh.

Read more.

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Antrim beat fellow Ulster county Fermanagh by a score of 2-07 to 0-11 in the Ladies National Football League Division Four final, while Cavan claimed the third-tier crown with victory over Wexford.

The Saffrons were two points behind in the 52nd minute when replacement Aoibhinn Monaghan found the net to turn the final on its head in Clones.

After the sides traded points in the opening minutes Maria O'Neill had found the net for Antrim.

But with Eimear Smyth, who provided a personal haul of 0-7, in fine shooting form the Ernesiders led 0-9 to 1-3 at half-time.

Bronagh Devlin's 0-4 kept Antrim in touch before an eventful closing eight minutes featured not only Monaghan's crucial goal but three yellow cards, two for Fermanagh and one for Antrim.

Things were more comfortable for Cavan who enjoyed a seven-point margin of victory over Wexford in Drogheda.

Their 2-10 to 0-9 win came courtesy of a goal in either half from Lauren McVeety and Ellie Brady.

McVeety also provided a pair of points, while Aisling Gilsenan scored 0-3.

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Armagh's hopes of back-to-back Ladies National Football League Division One titles were dashed in a 4-14 to 0-11 defeat by All-Ireland champions Kerry in the decider at Croke Park.

Having lost out to Armagh in last year's top-tier decider – a few months before their All-Ireland triumph – the Kingdom emphatically reclaimed a trophy they had most recently won in 2023.

Niamh Carmody hit Kerry's opening goal in the seventh minute with a shot that looped over Armagh keeper Anna Carr.

Livewire corner-forward Danielle O'Leary notched Kerry's second major six minutes later after a Siofra O'Shea goal attempt had come back off the woodwork.

After Kerry's lightning start, a Lauren McConville point finally got Armagh off the mark which was quickly added to by a brace of Eve Lavery points for the Ulster champions.

As Niamh Henderson and Niamh Reel kicked further Armagh points, the Orchard County women seemed to be finally getting a foothold into the contest but they were then rocked by another Kerry goal just half-time as Jadyn Lucey netted.

Trailing 3-4 to 0-5 at the break, an Armagh comeback looked a big ask.

Aoife McCoy and Niamh Henderson went close to rattling the Kingdom net after the resumption but any small hopes they had of getting back into the contest were ended when a speculative shot by Lucey ended up in the Armagh net on 37 minutes.

Kerry kept the scoreboard ticking over with four points without reply courtesy of Carmody, O'Shea, Niamh Ni Chonchuir and O'Leary.

To Armagh's credit, they did persevere with their challenge during the closing quarter of the game with substitutes Caoimhe McNally and Kelly Mallon finding the target to supplement four additional points from Reel.

But with O'Leary (two), O'Shea and Rachel Dwyer all firing over scores of their own, Kerry eased towards a deserved victory.

As I touched on last week, Armagh will be putting a lot of energy into the Ulster Championship this year.

They have lost the last two Ulster finals on penalties and I have no doubt they will throw everything at this championship to try and lift the Anglo-Celt for the first time since 2008.

Some of their - the likes of Stefan Campbell, Rory Grugan and Aidan Forker - have been knocking on the door of Ulster for a long time and their desire to add a provincial title to their CV is part of what makes Armagh dangerous in this series.

Kieran McGeeney is obviously without the services of Rian O'Neill at the moment. His absence could hurt Armagh later in the summer, but they should have enough depth and scoring power to see off Antrim on Saturday.

Armagh's Ulster wins over Antrim in 2021 and 2023 had 13 and nine-point margins. If Armagh click into gear early on Saturday, it could be a similar story.

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Armagh's team for Saturday's Ulster Football Championship contest against Antrim at Corrigan Park (12:30 BST) includes only six of last July's All-Ireland Final starting side.

While changes to the squad announced on Thursday night are highly possible, as it stands Paddy Burns, Barry McCambridge, Connaire Mackin, Rory Grugan, Tiernan Kelly and Andrew Murnin are the players retained from the All-Ireland Final line-up.

The changes include Ethan Rafferty replacing Blaine Hughes in goal with championship debutant Tomas McCormack, Ross McQuillan and Greg McCabe drafted into the defence.

All-Ireland winning captain and All-Star Aidan Forker, who was troubled by injury during the league campaign, is named on the bench.

Callum O'Neill and Ciaran Mackin form the midfield partnership with All-Ireland centrefield starters Niall Grimley and Ben Crealey not in the matchday squad.

Crealey is among four of the six Armagh All-Stars from last season who, as it stands, will not be involved with Rian O'Neill, Oisin Conaty and Conor Turbitt also missing from the 26-man squad.

McCambridge and skipper Forker were Armagh's two other 2024 All-Stars.

Rian O'Neill remains absent after not featuring during the Allianz Football League, with Kieran McGeeney saying last month that he didn't expect the Crossmaglen man to play for the county this year.

With Tiernan Kelly switching from centre half-back to right full-forward, Darragh McMullen is handed a championship debut in an attack that also includes Peter McGrane and Stefan Campbell, who set up Aaron McKay's crucial second-half goal in the All-Ireland decider.

McKay and Joe McElroy are the other All-Ireland starters from last July not named in the matchday squad.

Antrim have named 10 of the team that started in last year's Ulster defeat by Down.

Andy McEntee has handed championship debuts to Jack Lenehan at centre half-back and Fionn Nagle at wing-forward.

The other changes from the Newry game last year see James McAuley, Eunan Quinn and Niall Burns drafted into the side.

Antrim: M Byrne; E McCabe, E Walsh, K Keenan; J McAuley, J Lenehan, D McAleese; C Hand, E Quinn; P McBride, N Burns, F Nagle; R McQuillan, R McCann, D McEnhill.

Subs: L Mulholland, A Loughran, C Johnston, C Stewart, J McDonnell, J Morgan, M Jordan, P Finnegan, P King, R Boyle, R Murray.

Armagh: E Rafferty; P Burns, B McCambridge, T McCormack; R McQuillan, G McCabe, Connaire Mackin; C O'Neill, Ciaran Mackin; D McMullen, R Grugan, P McGrane; T Kelly, A Murnin, S Campbell.

Substitutes: B Hughes, G Murphy, C Higgins, A Forker (capt), J Og Burns, C McConville, J Hall, S Martlan, O'Neill, S Conlon, C O'Hanlon

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Paul Devlin insists Loughmacrory talent Eoin McElholm is "100% committed" to the Tyrone under-20 squad but his non-involvement in Wednesday's U20 win over Antrim potentially keeps the door open to him featuring in Sunday's Ulster SFC game against Cavan in Omagh.

McElholm missed the defending All-Ireland U20 champions' Ulster contest against Donegal last week as he travelled to Portugal with the Tyrone seniors for a pre-championship training camp.

He was a late inclusion on the bench for Wednesday night's win over Antrim but didn't come on and was scarcely needed as the Red Hands earned a dominant 2-24 to 0-10 win in Dungannon.

"Eoin will be ready to go when we need him. We just felt tonight there was plenty of time to give other fellows game time," said Devlin after his side's 20-point victory at O'Neill Park.

"A few rumours going around, papers and stuff, that Eoin's committed to the seniors but Eoin is committed to ourselves 100%.

"He was away on that training camp last week. [And] You give an opportunity to another lad last week to see where he is."

The Tyrone U20s will take on Armagh in a straight knockout Ulster quarter-final next Wednesday in Dungannon after completing their group matches in the competition

Devlin's Tyrone U20s have won two of the last three All-Ireland titles with McElholm ing the likes of Ruairi Canavan, Seanie O'Donnell, Niall Devlin and Liam Gray in making the transition into the senior .

"It's the desire they have. They want to push on into senior football. It's a big commitment and lifestyle and everything and it's great to see them pushing on at that level," added Devlin.

"It takes a bit of time to bed in. The defenders they come up against have a lot more physicality so you have to be patient with lads like that coming through.

"Great talents that they are, if we force them too much, they could be sitting on the sideline and not getting much football out of them. It's worked well over the last couple of years and long may it continue."

Cavan took Tyrone to extra-time in the Ulster SFC at Breffni Park last year and Devlin is expecting the seniors to have a tough battle again, with Red Hand county great Stephen O'Neill also part of Raymond Galligan's management team.

"We know the coach that Stevie is, a fantastic coach. We had him a couple of times at the under-20s helping out.

"It'll be a tough game and one Tyrone will be wary of but if they get everything right and all their players available they'll be in a good place."

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Ger Houlahan and Oisin McConville reminisced fondly on this week's GAA Social BBC gaelic games podcast about their time together in the Armagh football squad.

Houlahan, who secured an All-Star in 1993 and was part of the county's Ulster Championship winning squads in 1999 and 2000, said McConville was "the difference between Armagh being an ordinary team and being an All-Ireland team".

"We had some great games but just couldn't get over the line. With him around, you always got over the line," said Houlahan, who made his county debut in 1983 and remained part of the squad until 2000.

"I Joey Donnelly who was a corner-back trying frees…..John Rafferty when you [McConville] were coming into the set-up taking frees but they were never free-kick takers.

"It just came so naturally to Oisin and he was ballsy enough to score the big ones. That was the difference."

In a highly entertaining podcast, McConville laughed as he recalled Houlahan's attempts to console after his sending off in the Ulster Football Championship replay against Donegal in 1999.

"Houlie [who was on the bench] followed me just to make sure I was OK because I went straight into the changing-room. I was absolutely devastated. I was accused of elbowing Niall McCready. I actually ended up getting it rescinded on the video evidence.

"I saying at the time 'That's us.....we're up the left now' and Houlie said 'yeah….you were our only chance'. But we actually won the game. [Diarmaid] Marsden had an absolute stormer."

McConville added that he had watched the Pearse Ogs man "for 10 years with club and county".

"He was an absolute wizard. His left foot was wonderful," added the current Wicklow manager.

"But he was so encouraging to me because he instilled confidence in me.

"Every single free-kick on the pitch, he's be saying 'that's your free-kick'…..no matter where it was on the pitch. He wanted me on it. I came on the at 18 and if you have that sort of backing, it's nice. We had great fun too."

Their fun included owning a greyhound together with a couple of other Armagh squad which raced on local tracks.

Houlahan's sporting career included a soccer stint at Sligo Rovers and he revealed that then Portadown FC manager Ronnie McFall attempted to sign him at one point.