Murphy at full-forward for Cork

NICHOLAS MURPHY, Tomás Ó Sé and Paul Galvin are all set to start from the off in Sunday’s All-Ireland SFC quarter-final double-header in Croke Park after both Conor Counihan and Jack O’Connor named the experienced figures in their respective Cork and Kerry line-ups last night.

The serious strain that has been put on Cork’s attacking resources by a succession of recent injuries has been reflected in the selection of Murphy at full-forward. A recognised midfielder over the last decade, Murphy has endured his own injury travails in recent seasons and has not started a championship game for Cork since the 2009 All-Ireland final defeat to Kerry. His injury struggles have persisted and fitness problems may yet cause the Cork management to reconsider his selection before throw-in against Mayo on Sunday. In that eventuality, Fiachra Lynch would be in pole position for inclusion from the off.

Murphy has been named instead of the injured Daniel Goulding in the sole alteration from last weekend’s qualifier victory over Down with Donncha O’Connor switched over to corner-forward. Apart from that Conor Counihan has stuck with the side that romped to success over the Mourne men with 10 of the team that faced Mayo in the 2010 National League final included for this rematch.