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Back in the day - Down shuffle Minor deck for All-Ireland clash with Dublin - The Irish News, Aug 27 1999

THE Down minor management last night decided to reshuffle their forwards in order to fill a problem in defence ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland minor semi-final against Dublin.

With left cornerback Colm Murtagh suspended from the Ulster final replay win over Donegal, manager Gerry Dougherty has made several moves which effectively see his right half-back Mark Doran take the number four jersey.

Down have resisted bringing in a direct replacement for Murtagh, and instead have moved Doran back with Brendan Kearney switching from left half-back to the right wing to accomodate the Longstone man’s absence from the halfback line.

Castlewellan’s Damien McGrady moves from right half-forward to left half-back to fill the role Kearney has played throughout Down’s highly impressive Ulster campaign.

The main beneficiary from Colm Murtagh’s suspension is the new right half-forward Gary Digney of Saval, who obviously impressed the management after coming on as a substitute for John Fegan in the replay victory.

The only other change in personnel comes in the right corner with Gary Morgan coming in as a direct replacement for last year’s minor captain PJ McAlinden.

The Burren forward has struggled with his fitness after coming back from injury and despite coming on in the drawn game for Morgan and then retaining his place for the replay, the Attical youngster has been preferred to him on this occasion.

Both fullback Brendan Grant (calf) and Ronan Sexton (groin) have overcome their slight injuries and are able to take up their accustomed slots at fullback and left corner-forward respectively.

Down (MFC v Dublin): J Sloan, J Clarke, B Grant, M Doran, B Kearney, L Doyle, D McGrady, L Sloan, B Coulter, G Digney, M Walsh, R Murtagh, G Morgan, J Fegan, R Sexton.

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TYRONE’S new senior football manager will come from within the county, the county’s leading official confirmed last night.

County chairman Cuthbert Donnelly quashed all speculation linking various high profile names around the country to the job of succeeding Danny Ball as Tyrone senior team manager.

Martin McHugh, Peter McGinnity, Brian McEniff and even Mick O’Dwyer have been mentioned in dispatches since Ball confirmed he was stepping down on Monday evening.

However the chairman stated the new manager will definitely hail from Tyrone

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MICHAEL Johnson’s status as the biggest star in modern day athletics was reemphasised by his world record performance in last night’s men’s 400m final in Seville.

An evening of magnificent track and field action also proved fruitful for Ireland with Ciaran McDonagh claiming a surprise place in Saturday’s long-jump final thanks to his becoming the first Irishman over eight metres with a leap of exactly that. But while McDonagh’s achievement delighted, Johnson’s run left one with a sense of awe.

This feat was no surprise because Johnson’s abilities are such that he seems capable of ducking well under 43 seconds for the one lap distance.

The 32-year-old took .11 off Butch Reynolds’ 11-year-old mark with a run of 43.18 to ignite the 41,000 stadium crowd.

Johnson’s 43.95 clocking in the semi-final suggested that a world record might be on.

However in previous major championships over 400m, the Dallas-based American had clocked faster semi-final times than in the final, so there were doubts whether Reynolds’ record would fall.

Johnson firmly answered those doubts with a performance which yet again emphasised his magnificence.