Sport

Final serving still to come from under-21s

This year's feast of hurling is not quite over yet

By PAT ROCHE
Fri Sept 18 1998 - 01:00

This year's feast of hurling is not quite over yet. Still to come is the All-Ireland under21 final between Cork and Galway which is fixed for Thurles on Sunday.

The mouth-watering prospect is a repeat of last year's final which was won by Cork who will welcome the opportunity to emulate the recent All-Ireland success of the county's minors. The bottom line in any attempted evaluation of the current depth of hurling talent in Cork must be that if star minors such as Jason Barrett, Eoin Fitzgerald, Aidan Fitzpatrick and Cathal McCarthy, cannot command even a substitute place in this side, the game is in a healthy state in the Munster capital. Galway's manager, Noel Lane, is so tied up with the interests of his under-21 charges that he is not concerned about his possible appointment as senior boss in place of Cyril Farrell. "It is not an issue with me," he said yesterday. Lane has had to make two changes because of injuries. Regular goalkeeper Nigel Murray is sidelined with an ankle injury while wing forward Darren O'Shaughnessy has broken a toe in training.

Terence Grogan takes over between the posts and there is a welcome recall for the talented Rory Gantley at right wing forward.

Cork call up Timmy McCarthy of Castlelyons to lead the attack and Sean O'Farrell of Carrigtuohill moves inside to full forward to the exclusion of John Anderson (Glen Rovers). Anderson was replaced by Ben O'Connor in the second half of the semi-final against Antrim. If match practice wins matches, Galway will be at a huge disadvantage. Their only game so far has been against Kilkenny, while Cork have been chalking up big tallies in disposing of Clare, Waterford, Tipperary and Antrim. Their top scorer is the gifted corner forward Joe Deane. He has accounted for 8-23 of Cork's 16-66 total so far.

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Galway, though, will be heartened by the fact that they can include four senior players in Vinnie Maher, Alan Kerins, Kevin Broderick and Eugene Cloonan.

CORK: D Og Cusack, M Prendergast, D O'Sullivan, W Sherlock, D Barrett, D Murphy, S Og O hAilpin, A Walsh, L Mannix, N Ronan, T McCarthy, M O'Connell, B O'Keeffe, S O'Farrell, J Deane.

GALWAY: T Grogan, L Madden, V Maher, J Feeney, F Healy, M Healy, G Linsky, P Walsh, A Kerins, R Gantley, C Connaughton, M Cullinane, K Broderick, M Kerins, E Cloonan.