Minors are left to restore Leeside pride
The Rebels’ Under 21 footballers were shocked by Waterford on Thursday night in the provincial semi-final, leaving the minors to salvage a season that has gone sour for football on Leeside.
Cork were beaten by Kerry in the Munster MFC final but defeated a highly rated Galway side in the qualifiers to reach this stage of the campaign. Dublin claimed the Leinster title with a five point defeat of favourites Laois, who have since progressed to the final.
Cork have been forced to make two changes from the side that defeated Galway in the qualifier. Gearóid O’Shea and Alan O’Connor both picked up injuries while playing hurling with their clubs and it hard on the two players to miss out tomorrow.
According to Cork coach Diarmuid O’Donovan, midfield is going to be the key area in the game and O’Connor’s height and mobility will be sorely missed.
“They are a very physical team with a number of very good forwards. The fact that they have played and won in Croke Park this year is bound to be a help to them. It’s going to take a supreme effort by our lads to win this one, but we have the work done and are ready to take them on,” said O’Donovan.
Dublin coach Shane O’Hanlon is quietly confident after the Leinster final success, but having met Cork twice in challenges this season, acknowledges that they face 60 searching minutes.
“We stole the win off them in Fermoy with a last minute goal, but they beat us in Dublin well in the return game. However those games were part of the process of putting our squad together and both teams have improved a lot since then.”
The Dublin team was being finalised after training last night.
CORK (MF v Dublin) - J Down; C Barrett, S O'Donoghue, K Harrington; M Shields, E Cadogan, N Horgan; P Kelly, F Gould; P Kerrigan, B Cotter, J Shanahan; D Goulding, C Weste, J Hayes.
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