FOR SEVERAL years now the Cork hurling team has been a model of predictability, and although a fairly major makeover looked likely ahead of Sunday's Munster championship semi-final against Tipperary, the general consistency of their starting line-up remains, along with two championship debuts.
A number of new players were in the running for first championship starts for the sold-out game in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday, including Eoin Cadogan, Brian Corry and Patrick Horgan. Instead centre forward Kevin Canty and corner forward Paudie O'Sullivan will be the two championship debutants as Cork look to maintain their long-running winning streak at home over Tipperary - which incredibly stretches back to 1923.
O'Sullivan, of the famous Cloyne club, is the younger brother of long-serving full back Diarmuid, and made a name for himself as a potent scoring forward in the latter stages of the league.
Canty, of the Valley Rovers club, gets the nod for the centre forward position, and with Cathal Naughton named in the other corner forward position, there is no room for Kieran Murphy of Sarsfields, nor his namesake from the Erins Own club. Pa Cronin is also chosen at full forward ahead of last year's captain Joe Deane, who must also be content with a place among the substitutes.
Diarmuid O'Sullivan, meanwhile, is once again part of the highly familiar defence, alongside Shane O'Neill and Brian Murphy, and the half-back line of John Gardiner, Ronan Curran and Seán Óg Ó hAilpín.
Tipperary will name their team tomorrow evening, and manager Liam Sheedy is confident the former All Star defender Eamonn Corcoran will be fit to start despite his lack of training in recent weeks because of an ankle injury sustained in the National League win over Galway in April. Corcoran was not involved in last Sunday's training session at Páirc Uí Chaoimh as the Tipperary players familiarised themselves with the venue.
Willie Ryan is Tipperary's only other injury doubt. The centre forward Hugh Maloney will definitely miss out with a shoulder injury. Gardiner is in his first season as Cork captain and in talking about the enduring look to the team he indicated the younger players would still have a big part to play over the coming weeks.
"We have a very good mix now," he said, "probably more than any other year. Very young fellas, very experienced fellas, and a core group of the likes of myself in between . . . Ronan Curran, Tom Kenny. The likes of Seán Óg, Donal Óg, Diarmuid O'Sullivan, Timmy McCarthy, Joe Deane - they're all 30 or 31 now but there's a lot of hurling left in them. "They're quality players, big names for us, and we still need them playing well.
Of course, you don't know how much longer they are going to last. Ger Cunningham went on until he was 37, so I think Donal Óg will probably hang around until he's 38 or 39 just to beat that. It's a personal decision more than anything else. "It's always hard for a new fella coming into a team. This team has been around a while now, and for the past four years or so you could have named the Cork team, from one to 15.
The change is good, though. "We have to peak now, really. It's a very tough game to start off with. If you lose you're in the back door with Galway there, and no one wants to meet them. But I think we have made up the time we lost at the start of the year (with the players' strike). We were away in Spain for a week and that really brought us on a good bit. We had club games as well since, so we have to be happy with the preparations."
CORK (SH v Tipperary):D Óg Cusack; S O'Neill, D O'Sullivan, B Murphy; J Gardiner, R Curran, S Óg Ó hAilpín; J O'Connor, T Kenny; B O'Connor, K Canty, T McCarthy; P O'Sullivan, P Cronin, C Naughton.
