Meath, now firmly established as favourites for the Leinster football title following the defeat of Dublin by Kildare last Sunday, have announced an unchanged side for Sunday's Leinster semi-final clash with Louth in Croke Park.

In the past Meath have suffered from injury problems in the run-up to important matches, but this time they have announced that their full squad is available and that seems to suggest that they are confident of forcing their way through to a match against either Kildare or Laois in the Leinster final.

Louth, too, have been able to name a strong team and they are hopeful that players such as Stephen Melia, Cathal O'Hanlon and Stefan White will be able to put sufficient pressure on the solid Meath defence to give the county a chance of advancing.

The Armagh team for the clash with Derry in the Ulster football semi-final in Clones is also unchanged, which means that Ger Houlahan, who came on as a sub for Cathal O'Rourke in the match against Down, returns to the bench. There is still some doubt about O'Rourke's fitness as he tries to recover from a leg injury.

Brendan Kilcoyne and Gerry McGowan, who came on as substitutes in the match against London, retain their places at centre back and left corner forward, respectively, on the Sligo team to play Roscommon in the Connacht semi-final at Hyde Park.

Ronan Kane again misses the game because of a hamstring injury and his place at right half back goes to David Durkin, who moves from left half back, with Nigel Clancy switching from midfield to left half back.

Eamonn O'Hara moves from centre back to midfield. Sligo surprised many with a victory over Roscommon in last year's semi-final and their performance against Mayo in the Connacht final subsequently and they are favourites again to reach the final against Galway.

However, the former Sligo Rovers player Johnny Kenny has dropped out of the Sligo squad. He has joined Newry Town, who have instructed him that he must devote his entire attention to soccer in the run-up to the new season. Roscommon have named no fewer than six championship debutants for Sunday's match. In fact there are nine changes from the side which failed to Sligo in Markievicz Park in the semi-final last year.

The newcomers for Sunday are the goalkeeper Derek Thompson, corner back Ronan Owens, left corner back, Michael Ryan, midfielder Gerry Keane, left half forward Eddie Lohan and right corner forward Francis Grehan. The left corner forward position has been left vacant pending fitness tests on Lorcan Dowd, Rossa O'Callaghan and Fergal O'Donnell.

Brian Corcoran has been awarded the Eircell All Star "Player of the Month" award for May.

Corcoran, a dual player of considerable prowess, has won many awards, including an All Star award. He was "Hurler of the Year" in 1992.