Munster junior final wide open

Brendan Larkin

The junior side are first into battle for the Munster crown at Pairc Uí Rinn (7.30), with the minors and seniors completing the trilogy on Sunday.

Cork beat Kerry at the semi-final stage last year before losing the junior final to Waterford. The previous year Kerry beat Cork in the final and also denied the Leesiders in the semi-finals of 2002 and 2000.

Cork have to go back six years for their last success over their great rivals, winning 1-15 to 0-14, and current trends suggest there will be nothing between the teams tonight.

Kerry were almost caught at the first hurdle by Tipperary before progressing by a point, and were taken to a replay by Limerick. Cork struggled to see off a dogged Clare side in their semi-final.

The Kerry selectors have made two changes from the side that beat Limerick by two points (0-9 to 1-4). Maurice Corridan, who replaced Shane Cremin, is at centre-forward and also takes over the captaincy, while Martin Horgan is preferred to Conor Daly at left corner-forward.

Cork have also made a number of changes, from the side that struggled to beat Clare, 1-10 to 0-12.

Michael Fehilly (O’Mathunas) comes in at right half-back for Niall Buckley; Jonathan Buckley (St. Vincents) takes over at right half-forward from Niall O’Riordan while Seamus Hayes (Carbery Rangers) is preferred to Conor Brosnan at centre-forward. Corner-back Michael Prout takes over the captaincy in the absence of any representative from last year’s junior and intermediate champions.

This will be Kerry’s fourth outing in this championship, which could prove a considerable benefit, although they struggled in all their previous outings.

Still, this final should go right down to the wire.

KERRY: M Drummond; S O’Sullivan, J Costello, P Reidy; S Hegarty, S Flynn, D Griffin; S Scanlon, A O’Sullivan; D O’Sullivan, M Corridan (captain), M Horgan; F O’Rahilly, F O’Sullivan, K Foley.

Subs: S Óg Ó Ciardabháin, D O’Sullivan, D Geaney, M Murphy, K Quirke, S Cremin, C Daly, M O’Mahony, L Sheehan.

CORK: A. Quirke; C. Murphy, D. Wiseman, M. Prout; M. Fehilly, G. Spillane, E. Wiseman; A. O’Connor, S. O’Sullivan; J. Buckley, S. Hayes, J. Russell; D. Goulding, V. Hurley, P. Dunlea.