All-Ireland qualifiers: Tyrone ring changes for Meath test

Richie Donnelly also started the 2015 All-Ireland qualifier win against Meath

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte has made four changes to his team for Saturday's All-Ireland qualifier against Meath.

Full-forward Richie Donnelly, brother of captain Mattie, will make his first start of the season for the Red Hands.

Michael McKernan and Hugh Pat McGeary come into the defence while Padraig McNulty starts in midfield.

The deposed Ulster champions are without the suspended Peter Harte while Lee Brennan and Mark Bradley will miss the trip to Navan because of injury.

The absence of Brennan, Bradley and Peter Harte, as well as the injury to Declan McClure, meant that the Tyrone management were always going to have to make changes from the side that began their Ulster quarter-final loss to Monaghan.

Royals aim to regroup from Longford defeat

Richie Donnelly will take Bradley's place in the full-forward line with his brother switching from midfield to attack to replace Brennan.

McNulty partners Colm Cavanagh in midfield while wing-back McKernan makes his first championship start and McGeary replaces Cathal McCarron in a further change at corner back.

Tyrone have twice beaten Meath in the qualifiers; they defeated the Royals at Croke Park 2013 and also won their 2015 encounter in Omagh.

Meath were shocked 0-16 to 0-14 by Longford in the Leinster quarter-finals as Andy McEntee's side were made to pay for missing a couple of glorious goal chances in the opening half.

Shane McEntee's second-half sending off also didn't help the Royals in the Leinster contest and he is automatically suspended for Saturday's game.

Meath will hope that they can exploit the absence of Red Hand orchestrator Harte.

The speedy Eamonn Wallace must be in contention for a start after coming on late against Longford while Graham Reilly, Donal Lenihan and Mickey Burke are all capable forwards.

Emmet Bradley (right) performed valiantly in Derry's attack against Donegal

Busy day of qualifier action

On a busy day of qualifier action, other Ulster counties Derry, Cavan, Antrim and Armagh are also in action.

Derry will be aiming to regroup from their Ulster quarter-final defeat against Donegal when they face Kildare at Owenbeg.

Emmet Bradley performed well in Derry's attack against Donegal but received little support as Declan Bonner's side were always in control.

While Derry suffered a shocking relegation to Division Four of the League this year, Kildare have not won a competitive game since last year's Leinster semi-final.

Their loss against Carlow came after seven straight defeats in Division One in the Spring so Derry should be competitive against Cian O'Neill's side.

Cavan will face a Wicklow side that finished bottom of Division Four in the Spring and were crushed 4-25 to 1-11 by All-Ireland champions Dublin two weeks ago.

The Breffnimen were well beaten by Donegal in the Ulster preliminary round but should be good enough to progress against John Evans' side.

Armagh minus suspended Grimley

Armagh will be without the suspended midfielder Niall Grimley for their game against Westmeath in Mullingar while Ben Crealey is also expected to be unavailable because of injury.

Kieran McGeeney's side did comfortably beat Westmeath 2-17 to 1-11 at Cusack Park in February on the way to securing promotion but Armagh's display against Fermanagh three weeks ago was woeful.

With Grimley and Crealey both missing, Stephen Sheridan could be tasked with curbing Westmeath's star midfielder John Heslin.

Antrim are likely to face a tough task in Tullamore despite the recent strife in Offaly football after their underwhelming performance against Down in Newry.

UCD history lecturer Paul Rouse is now in charge of Offaly after Stephen Wallace was sacked following the Leinster Championship defeat by Wicklow.

Brian Darby, Johnny Moloney and Eoin Rigney have all returned to the Offaly panel since Rouse's appointment.

With Morale said to have improved considerably in Offaly since Rouse's appointment, Antrim will do well to emerge from O'Connor with a victory even though Offaly were beaten by a Wicklow team that finished bottom of Division Four.

Tyrone: N Morgan; P Hampsey, R McNamee, HP McGeary; T McCann, F Burns, M McKernan; C Cavanagh, P McNulty; M Donnelly, N Sludden, C Meyler; C McShane, R Donnelly, C McAliskey.

All-Ireland Football Qualifiers Round 1

Saturday

Sunday