New boy Loughrey on Rebel bench
Accountant Loughrey, 27, originally from St Brigid’s in Belfast, moved to Mallow where his girlfriend hails from.
An interprovincial player with Ulster, the half-back was part of the Antrim team that reached the 2009 Ulster final.
Loughrey lined out for Avondhu against Duhallow in last week’s senior championship game in Fermoy.
Last night, a message from the official Antrim GAA page read: “Ah James.... those damn rebels won’t even know how lucky they are.”
Injured Alan O’Connor is the only absentee from the Cork team that lost to Kerry last month as they hope to secure a Division 1 semi-final spot by beating Mayo.
O’Connor was a late addition to the starting team that went down in Tralee and is replaced by Graham Canty, who resumes his midfield partnership with Aidan Walsh.
Colm O’Neill is Cork’s only long term concern as O’Connor joins Eoin Cadogan, Ciarán Sheehan and Patrick Kelly on the treatment table.
A draw in Páirc Uí Chaoimh will be good enough to see Cork into a semi-final against either Tyrone or Dublin.
However, Mayo must win to avoid the possibility of being relegated to Division 2 and they will be without Keith Higgins, Barry Moran and Tom Cunniffe, not to mention long term injury victims Andy Moran and Alan Dillon.
Tyrone manager Mickey Harte makes three changes from the team that beat Kildare in Newbridge for the visit of Kerry to Omagh.
Conor Clarke makes way for Justin McMahon at full-back while Matthew Donnelly and Conor McAliskey are replaced by Darren McCurry and Ronan O’Neill.
Justin McNulty introduces Kevin Meaney to midfield as they travel to Wexford with faint hopes of earning promotion to Division 2.
He is one of three changes to the team that won in Longford last day out — Conor Meredith coming in for Billy Sheehan and Colm Kelly for Padraig Clancy.
Apart from beating relegation-threatened Wexford by a sizeable margin, Laois must hope Westmeath beat Derry in Celtic Park although, having already gained promotion, Pat Flanagan has named a slightly weakened team for the trip north.
CORK (SF v Mayo): K O’Halloran; J McLoughlin, J O’Sullivan, M Shields; P Kissane, N O’Leary, T Clancy; A Walsh, G Canty; M Collins, F Goold, A O’Sullivan; D Goulding, B O’Driscoll, P Kerrigan.
Subs: D Hanrahan, E O’Mahony, B Shanahan, C O’Driscoll, D O’Connor, J Fitzpatrick, P O’Neill, L Shorten, D Crowley, D Goold, J Loughrey.
TYRONE (SF v Kerry): N Morgan; A McCrory, Justin McMahon, C McCarron; R McKenna, Joe McMahon, R McNamee; C Cavanagh, S Cavanagh; P McNiece, P Harte, Mark Donnelly; D McCurry, S O’Neill, R O’Neill.
LAOIS (SF v Wexford): E Culliton; P O’Leary, D Booth; P Begley; D Strong, J O’Loughlin, P McMahon; K Meaney, B Quigley; R Munnelly, C Meredith, C Begley; MJ Tierney, G Walsh, C Kelly.
OFFALY (SF v Tipperary): A Mulhall; P McConway, S Pender, S Sullivan; E Carroll, B Darby, M Brazil; A McNamee; R Dalton; G Guilfoyle, B Connor, W Mulhall; N Darby, N McNamee, K Casey.
ANTRIM (SF v Monaghan): J Finucane; K O’Boyle, M Johnson, S Finch; T Scullion, J Crozier, D McCann; L Carland, S McVeigh; C Murray, K Niblock, B Herron; P Cunningham, C Kelly, T McCann.
