GAELIC GAMES/ALL-IRELAND LADIES SFC SEMI-FINAL:A REPEAT of the National League final, which Cork won to capture their fourth successive national title and indicate a return to the dominant heights of previous years. Of course, they relinquished their grip on the All-Ireland last season to an impressive Dublin side but appear keen to prove their era of dominance isn't over yet. They are seeking a sixth September triumph from seven attempts.

The league final coupled with the return of several vastly experienced players like Valerie Mulcahy and Amy O’Shea makes Cork clear favourites. They impressed when coming from six points down to beat Dublin in the quarter-final but have had just seven days to recover.

O’Shea says Cork won’t be taking the challenge lightly: “Laois will bring hunger and determination. They’ll come out with absolutely nothing to lose. They overcame Tyrone in extra-time in what was a superb game of football and they’re going to say, ‘right, Cork have just a week to come down and get back up again’. That can work to their advantage – we haven’t had two weeks to recover like they’ve had.”

Laois boss Joe Higgins has reported a clean bill of health as his team looks to claim another massive scalp. The former Laois senior footballer said: “We’re as well prepared as we can be. We’ll respect them a lot but we won’t fear them at the same time.

“Cork showed their steel the last day. They were down by six but showed their experience and guile to come back and win it. They were very impressive in the last 15 minutes.

“But we’ll have learned a good bit from the League final. It was a great experience for our younger girls and we hope they can carry it through to Saturday. We stayed with them for 50 minutes but Cork are very good at pulling away in the last 15 or 20 minutes of games.”

Laois do have a fabulous teenage full-forward in Sinéad Doogue but with the likes of Briege Corkery raiding forward from wing back the smart money is on the Rebelettes to progress to another All-Ireland final.

CORK: E Harte; A Marie Walsh, A Walsh, D O’Reilly; B Corkery, B Stack, G O’Flynn; J Murphy, R Buckley; N Cleary, M Kelly, G Kearney; V Mulcahy, R Ní Bhuachalla, A O’Shea.

LAOIS: C Dollard; L Hyland, G Dunne, E Healy; A Taylor, J Moore, M McEvoy; A Casey, T Lawlor; M Kirwan, A Moore, M Dunne; M Kirwan, S Doogue, G Weston.

Referee: G Corrigan (Down).