Laois are unchanged for final challenge

Laois have named an unchanged team for tomorrow's Cadbury All-Ireland under-21 football final in Thurles against Cork. The team that defeated defending champions Mayo in the semi-final will be the first to represent the county at this stage for nine years.

Despite a strong presence at minor level in the past 10 years Laois have yet to win an under-21 All-Ireland. In 1998 they were defeated by a Kerry team managed by future senior manager Jack O'Connor and 12 months ago by Cork in the semi-final stage.

Manager Seán Dempsey has varied his approach to this year's championship. Formerly he completed a lot of hard work before Christmas whereas this season he didn't begin in earnest until the new year. The result has been a team that has improved throughout the championship even if it had to ride its luck in the early stages in Leinster.

The counties met last year in a replayed semi-final and Cork were narrow winners by 1-7 to 0-8. Of the teams that played in that replay 10 survive for Cork whereas seven of the Laois team are still at the age.

Cork manager Tony Leahy has made two changes to the side that hung on to eliminate Armagh in the semi-final. Kevin Harrington comes in for Gearóid O'Shea, another survivor from last year's campaign, at left corner back, and Seán Cahalane replaces the manager's son, Roy Leahy, at left corner forward. Ten of the team also played in last year's final against Mayo. There are a number on Billy Morgan's senior team, including Daniel Goulding, who scored 1-4, 1-2 from play, in the final 12 months ago.

Cork haven't won the under-21 All-Ireland since 1994 when they defeated Mayo but in recent years they have dominated the Munster championship, winning four titles in a row. This equals the best sequence Cork have ever put together in the province's 25 years ago between 1979-'82.

That was part of a remarkable sequence of seven Munster titles in eight years but the big difference is in the translation rate at national level. Two decades ago the county won five All-Irelands in 1980-'81 and '84-'86, a sequence which established the teams that won the county's first back-to-back senior All-Irelands in 1989-'90. Cork are also joint-top of the roll of honour with Kerry on nine titles each.

In the past three years the current teams have been defeated in semi-finals twice, by Galway and Armagh and in last year's final.

According to Des Cullinane, Cork's liaison officer and a former county under-21 manager, there are a couple of reasons for the lack of success at national level. "It's way more competitive in one sense and a lot of new counties have been making an impression but on another level maybe it's not as important as it was because the whole area of development squads has taken hold and they seem to be the priority in many counties. I think it's important for this team to win because they're nearly all footballers - I think only a couple are also hurlers - and it would help keep them together.

"An unusual aspect of the provincial success is that it doesn't reflect what happened at minor."

The venue, Thurles, has stirred up mixed feelings with some Cork supporters from the football heartland of the west county unhappy at an evening throw-in so far away but others believe the big pitch in Semple Stadium will suit the team.

For Laois it's a welcome change from Limerick where the counties met twice last year and also in the infamous minor quarter-final of 2004 when a mass brawl at the end of a drawn All-Ireland quarter-final resulted in heavy suspensions. The Gaelic Grounds was also the venue for the 1998 defeat by Kerry.

Fortunes have been better at Semple Stadium and it was there Carlow's Knockbeg College, with a number of Laois players in the team, won the All-Ireland colleges' title two years ago.

CORK:K O'Halloran; R Carey, M Shields, K Harrington; S O'Donoghue, D Limerick, E Cadogan; F Goold, A O'Sullivan; F Lynch, C Keane, P Kerrigan; C O'Neill, D Goulding, S Cahalane.

LAOIS:C Munnelly; C Healy, M Timmons, B Meredith; S Lalor, J O'Loughlin, N Donoher; B Quigley, C Óg Greene; D Brennan, C Rogers, S O'Leary; MJ Tierney, S O'Neill, D Conway.