Cork and Galway set to keep faith with semi-final teams

CORK and Galway are almost certain to be unchanged for Sunday’s Guinness All-Ireland hurling final in Croke Park.

Both managements are in the happy position of being able to select from full-strength panels and when the Cork selectors sit down this afternoon to finalise their side before training, the belief is that they will name the same fifteen which started against Clare.

Galway, likewise, are expected to give a vote of confidence to their young team which shocked Kilkenny in their semi.

There has been speculation that the Cork selectors could make changes in the half-back line in relation to Ronan Curran's inability to recapture his best form and the half-forward line, where Timmy McCarthy again failed to impress last time out.

McCarthy gave way to Erin's Own utility player Kieran Murphy for the second half, while Curran was withdrawn at the same time as Brian Corcoran, ten minutes from the end of normal time. Wayne Sherlock came in for Curran, with John Gardiner taking over in the centre and showing excellent form. Additionally, McCarthy's replacement, Neil Ronan made a significant contribution against Brian Lohan, breaking the grip he had enjoyed against Corcoran up to then.

Corcoran had suffered a recurrence of the shoulder injury which forced him off early in the Munster final, but has since made a full recovery.

And in the interim period Curran turned in an outstanding display for St. Finbarr's in the county championship. It's considered highly unlikely that he would lose out this time, but clearly Timmy McCarthy's position will come under close scrutiny and it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that he could lose out.

Nevertheless, based on the track record of this management and last year's selectors, the expectation is that they will go with their tried and trusted formation.

Galway manager Conor Hayes confirmed last evening that he will have a full panel to pick from. The only change made against Kilkenny was to introduce Kevin Broderick for hat-trick hero Niall Healy near the end. However, that was done purely for the purpose of introducing fresh legs and giving Broderick a run-out after his recent operation.

In the circumstances, it's highly unlikely that one of the six forwards would be left out to make way for Broderick, even though in different circumstances he would be an automatic selection.