Countdown to the weekend's big championship matches: Ian O'Riordan on how Kerry hope the introduction of the inexperienced Bryan Sheehan will prove a success.

At some point this week the Kerry football management made a couple of the toughest decisions since they first came together around two years ago. It wasn't just that they were dropping such experienced forwards as Dara Ó Cinnéide and Mike Frank Russell for Sunday's All-Ireland semi-final against Cork, but also that they were introducing such a relatively inexperienced player as Bryan Sheehan.

Ó Cinnéide and Russell featured throughout Kerry's All-Ireland winning run last summer - either starting in the team or coming on as substitutes - while Sheehan didn't feature at all. They both started in this year's Munster final win over Cork and the All-Ireland quarter-final victory over Mayo, while Sheehan made late appearances as a substitute.

In fact Sheehan has never started a senior championship match for Kerry - and Sunday's game is clearly the biggest test so far in their efforts to retain the All-Ireland title.

Recalling Paul Galvin as the indirect replacement for Ó Cinnéide tempers the risk involved, and yet there will be no disguising the pressure on Sheehan come Sunday. If, as expected, he takes over the free-taking duties, the spotlight will quickly fall on his young shoulders. Obviously then this was a decision the Kerry management thought long and hard about.

"Let's say it was a difficult decision for the management when it came to picking players for a number of positions," explains Kerry selector Ger O'Keeffe. "In fact it was very, very tight when it came to quite a few players, not just with Bryan.

"But Bryan has come in for us in quite a few games in the league earlier this year, especially in the latter stages. He's also played plenty of underage football between Coláiste na Sceilge and the Kerry minors and under-21s. So he has actually had plenty of experience."

When O'Keeffe talks about Sheehan's high level of underage experience he's not exaggerating. Though only 21, it's not just his years of underage service that impresses, but also his range of service. He first came to prominence with the celebrated Coláiste na Sceilge team under the wing of current Kerry manager Jack O'Connor, who at this stage knows the heights of Sheehan's ability better than anyone.

While most of Kerry's finest young talents are known for their versatility, Sheehan epitomised that to the extreme by playing in goal with the Kerry minor team in 2002. A year later, however, he was at full forward - where he's continued to shine at every opportunity since.

He scored 0-6 in helping Kerry win the Munster minor title in 2003, and that later gave him his first taste of playing in Croke Park, where Kerry eventually lost out to Laois. That same year he was called into the under-21 team, also managed by O'Connor, but they were sensationally beaten by Waterford.

His move from goalkeeper to full forward, says O'Keeffe, was nothing more than natural progression: "At this stage he's played some of his football in goal, some at midfield, and the rest at full forward. So he's one of the truly versatile kind of players.

"But I think it was just a natural progression for him once he developed, because he is a very stylish kind of footballer. Once he got a little older I think he was always going to play out the field."

It's playing out the field that Sheehan found probably his greatest claim to fame so far - sharing the forward line with the great Maurice Fitzgerald. That came about primarily through his club St Mary's, Cahirciveen, and then reached a peak last November when they were both part of the South Kerry team that collected the county title at the expense of Laune Rangers.

It could be some time yet before Sheehan is compared to Fitzgerald, but he has already proven himself a competent free-taker, no doubt catching a lesson or two from the old master.

For the Kerry management, however, Sunday's performance is all that matters for the time being. O'Keeffe admits that Sheehan's introduction shouldn't be seen as reflecting any worrying drop in form from either Ó Cinnéide or Russell.

"We'd regard both those players as very much in the frame of 20, in that they will be used at some stage. But Bryan has been going well in training, and deserves his chance."