THE winter intake of oarsmen has tightened Neptune's stranglehold on senior rowing, but the show of force being paraded in Galway tomorrow hides growing concern that the Dublin rowing empire is beginning to over extend itself.

Neptune's unprecedented 16-boat entry at the Tribesmen Head of the River reveals their current strength in depth, with two eights and three fours among the crews in the men's open division. Newcomers from Trinity, Clonmel and Galway supplement the core of last year's championship squad, and three of the Olympic lightweight four are also due to row in the small boats race.

However, while Neptune club captain Gerry Farrell acknowledged that many of his crew will start as favourites on the Corrib, he added that the crew lists Denis Crowley strokes one eight and Martin Murphy the other - reveal the difficulties in managing an 18-strong senior squad.

"The problem is that with so many people on our hands this season it's taking quite a while to assimilate all the different styles and expectations," Farrell said. "We should be separating crews into `A' and `B' streams over the next few weeks, but for the moment it means that we are having to keep the numbers mixed up.

In the meantime, Farrell has brought in the 1986 Ladies Plate winner Alan Thomas to assist Peter Buckley in the coaching role, and has taken delivery of two new eights. Resources are nevertheless stretched, with novices being turned away for the lack of coaching staff and Neptune's intermediates racing the Tribesmen Head in a borrowed eight.

But Neptune's biggest challenge in next month will be to hold on to their personnel. Senior rivals Defence Forces have recently sighed up international heavyweight Donal Hanrahan and Johnnie Haynes from the Limerick club St Michael's, and are also known to be targeting a number of oarsmen from their Islandbridge neighbours to bolster their title challenge.

The defection of reserve seniors could still disrupt early season plans at Neptune. A provisional eight selection proved to be on pace with Imperial College last month, and next weekend the club sends an eight to the London Head with realistic hopes of a top 20 placing from a field of 110 boats.

"The intention is to see whether we have a Ladies Plate potential for Henley, and obviously moving the national championships back to July means that we will have to look again at what new combinations we have for Inniscarra," Farrell said yesterday.

The Neptune captain clearly anticipates that the national lightweight four will be available for selection in July. The four begin a busy schedule in Galway tomorrow, with under-23 international Paul Flannery joining Tony O'Connor, Neville Maxwell and Sam Lynch in the bow.

Flannery has been training with pair partner Keith Flynn as part of the lightweight squad, and replaces Derek Holland, who is resting a back injury.