Known facts first. Cork football manager Conor Counihan has completely revamped his team for Saturday's qualifier against Galway in Croke Park.
There are six changes and a raft of positional switches from the team that lost the Munster final to Kerry, with Graham Canty named at centre back and Aidan Walsh moved to centre forward to facilitate a new midfield combination.
Or rather an old partnership is reunited as Alan O’Connor and Pearse O’Neill are down to contest the throw-in.
That’s according to the official Cork GAA website.
Noel O’Leary, Paul Kerrigan, Donnacha O’Connor and Fintan Goold are the main players to lose out in the reshuffle.
Goalkeeper Ken O’Halloran also makes way for Alan Quirke, as a member of the 2010 All-Ireland winning team goes in the opposite direction to the four Counihan has cut.
Thomas Clancy gets the nod at corner back ahead of Paudie Kissane; Mark Collins is at wing forward in place of Goold, while Ciarán Sheehan’s return means O’Connor is dropped.
Last night’s team announcement was interesting simply because the squad Counihan named for the Munster final defeat to Kerry on July 7th had significantly changed by throw-in three days later.
Regular starters O’Leary, Walsh and O’Connor were named as substitutes despite being match fit. Sure enough, all three started, in place of Clancy, O’Neill and Patrick Kelly.
O’Neill came in at half-time, while Sheehan, another highly-rated Cork forward who was expected to start, didn’t replace O’Connor until the 55th minute.
Due to the manner of Cork’s defeat to Kerry, Counihan’s dummy team was heavily criticised. It also raises doubts about the validity of last night’s announcement.
Galway are expected to recall defender Keith Kelly for Saturday's 5pm throw-in.
Weakened defence
In hurling, Cork manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy is sending a team out to face Kilkenny with a severely weakened defence. Brian Murphy is already ruled out of Sunday's All-Ireland quarter-final in Thurles and now Shane O'Neill's ongoing hip problem has further disrupted preparations.
O’Neill played full back, lasting the entire 70 minutes, in the Munster final defeat to Limerick, when he exacerbated the injury.
“We’ll leave the decision as late as possible,” said Barry- Murphy. “It’s the hip flexor muscle; we are hoping he will be okay but it is 50-50 at the moment.
“Kilkenny are Kilkenny, we know where we are at. The league final last year told us how far we need to travel to be back at that standard. I thought we played quite well against them in Nowlan Park this year, so I am hoping that will give us a bit of encouragement.
“Obviously it is going to be difficult after the Munster final to get the lads going. That was a knock to our confidence. We thought we were going to go down and win. We know we have a long way to go to beat Kilkenny but we have a good chance. We are very hopeful.”
Paudie O’Sullivan is also unavailable due to injury but Patrick Horgan was cleared to play despite being sent off against Limerick. The team will be released after training tonight.
Kilkenny manager Brian Cody will name his team tomorrow but 2011 hurler of the year Michael Fennelly is expected to return at midfield.
Cavan selection
Back to the football qualifiers, Cavan have held off naming a side to face London due to a number of knocks. Conor Gilsenan's ankle problem rules him out, so Alan O'Mara will be retained in goal, while Jason McLoughlin (hamstring) and Niall McDermott (concussion) must be assessed tonight.
Both Tyrone and Meath report clean bills of health ahead of the only televised football game this weekend. Both teams are expected to use similar personnel to last weekend’s victories over Kildare and Wexford.
Tyrone manager Mickey Harte may be tempted to start Aidan Cassidy ahead of Colm Cavanagh after the impact the midfielder made in Newbridge. Kyle Coney is another option but Darren McCurry’s free taking should keep him in the side.
Laois also report a fit squad ahead of their meeting with All-Ireland champions Donegal in Carrick-on-Shannon. The same cannot be said about Donegal as the BBC reported yesterday Mark McHugh will be out for at least a month having suffered concussion early in the Ulster final defeat to Monaghan.
McHugh’s loss is significant as he is instrumental to Jim McGuinness’ game plan, sweeping in front of the defence and initiating counter-attacks.
However, his brother Ryan McHugh may benefit with promotion to the starting line-up. Declan Walsh and David Walsh are other options.
Finally, Dublin and Kerry have injury problems of their own as they wait to find out who they will face in the All-Ireland quarter-finals over the August Bank Holiday weekend.
Alan Brogan's hamstring strain denies the 2011 footballer of the year a return after 10 months out with a groin problem. James O'Donoghue and Jonathon Lyne are not expected to fit enough to feature for the Munster champions.
CORK (SFC v Galway): A Quirke; E Cadogan, M Shields, T Clancy; D Cahalane, G Canty, J Loughrey; A O'Connor, P O'Neill; M Collins, A Walsh, J O'Rourke; D Goulding, C Sheehan, B Hurley.
