O'Rourke at midfield for O'Byrne Cup

Meath manager Mick O'Dowd will be hoping that Shane O'Rourke makes it to the starting line for Sunday's O'Byrne Cup first round game against DIT at Navan after the Simonstown player missed last week's SFT game against Cavan at Millbrook.

O'Rourke is named at midfield with Conor Gillespie for the first game of 2014 while Donaghmore/Ashbourne's Sean Curran will line out at full-back.

Meath will be without Bryan Menton who is expected to play for DIT while Padraic Harnan will also be an absentee as he will be on duty with UCD.

Sunday's game will also mark the first game of 2014 in which the new blacks cards will apply - the cards were in use in the games during December as part of the learning process as Meath played in the Fitzsimons Cup and last week against Cavan in a tournament organised by Oldcastle GFC.

The Meath team is - Paddy O’Rourke; Caolan Young, Sean Curran, Michael Burke; David Dalton, Eoghan Harrington, Paddy Gilsenan; Conor Gillespie, Shane O’Rourke; David Larkin, Damien Carroll, Graham Reilly; Eamon Wallace, Stephen Bray, Michael Newman.

Throw in on Sunday at Pairc Tailteann is 2pm.

Conall Collier