Hyland hands debuts to five Cavan players
Cavan manager Terry Hyland
New Cavan manager Terry Hyland has named five Championship newcomers in his starting line-up for Sunday's Ulster preliminary round clash with Donegal.
Hyland guided the Cavan Under-21s to back-to-back provincial titles and a number of those players are pushing for senior selection.
The SFC newcomers are Cavan Gaels defenders Kevin Meehan and Robert Maloney-Derham, wing forward Niall Smith and corner forwards Jack Brady and Brendan Fitzpatrick.
Brady is the only member of this year's Cavan U-21 panel to be included, while last year's U-21 captain Gearoid McKiernan is back at midfield after missing the last rounds of the league with an ankle injury.
Brady is the only player not to have played during the league campaign, with his impressive season already including Ulster U-21, Hastings Cup and Sigerson Cup honours.
For the game at Breffni Park, which has a 3.30pm start time, John McCutcheon will take on the centre-back role after recently rejoining the panel.
Captain Padraic O'Reilly has recovered from a hamstring strain to start at corner back with David Givney joining the returning McKiernan in the engine room.
The winners of Sunday's tie will meet Derry at the quarter-final stage on June 16. Reigning Ulster champions Donegal are odds on favourites - 2/7 or 3/10 currently - to beat Cavan's young guns.
CAVAN (SFC v Donegal): James Reilly; Padraic O'Reilly (capt), Damien Reilly, Ronan Flanagan; Kevin Meehan, John McCutcheon, Robert Maloney-Derham; David Givney, Gearoid McKiernan; Fergal Flanagan, Mark McKeever, Niall Smith; Jack Brady, Eugene Keating, Brendan Fitzpatrick.
Substitutes: Keith Fannin, Killian Clarke, Jason McLoughlin, Darragh Tighe, Fergal Slowey, Thomas Corr, Joshua Hayes, Kevin Tierney, Niall McDermott, Ray Galligan, Ray Cullivan.
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