Kerry's two changes for Sunday's All-Ireland football final mean that team captain Mike Hassett, fit again after missing the semi-final victory over Cavan, has not been able to reclaim his place. In Hassett's absence the team will again be captained by his brother and Laune Rangers clubmate Liam.

Laune maintain their representation, however, as last year's captain, Billy O'Shea, comes into the team at right corner forward as an indirect replacement for Brian Clarke. Sean Burke, Mike Hassett's replacement at corner back for the semi-final, is dropped to make way for Killian Burns, who has recovered from the illness which kept him out of the semi-final.

Laune Rangers' manager John Evans, who took the club to last year's All-Ireland, disagrees with the decision to leave off Hassett.

"You could use the word 'surprise'," he says, "but I'm shocked to a degree. It's hard when one of your own clubmen is involved, but I'd place Mike in the top three backs available to Kerry, not just the top six. I would have to emphasise that I'm not working with the team and watching them in training, but with his experience, Mike Hassett would be on any Kerry team of mine.

"Captaincy can be a disadvantage in that a player sometimes feels he has to prove himself better than anyone else, not just the best in his position. My point is not that Killian Burns is better or worse than him, but that there aren't three backs better than him.

"He's been unlucky in that he got injury-struck earlier in the year and that coming back has been difficult because of the high standards he's set. When he hasn't matched those heady heights, he's suffered."

According to Evans, Billy O'Shea has travelled in the opposite direction. "If you go back to December, January, February and beyond, Billy was only seeing out the League and knew he was for the chop. I spoke to him around that time and said that if he was still there, that they'd look down the bench one day and he'd get his chance again. So he worked hard, and now he has his reward."

Despite Evans's strong views, the omission of Mike Hassett was foreseen given his difficulties with both injuries and form. Killian Burns had been favoured to regain his place and a good showing by Stephen Stack - the only member of the team with an All-Ireland medal, as substitute, from 1986 - in the other corner ensured no place for the captain.

Clarke's relegation is more of a surprise. An accomplished basketball player, he has been the target man for the Kerry attack this year and was the outstanding full forward in the NFL final victory over Cork, out-shining his illustrious corner men Maurice Fitzgerald and Dara O Cinneide.

Injury caused him to miss the early stage of the championship and he had been substituted in both matches against Clare and Cavan. Dispensing with his services is a fairly radical move just before an All-Ireland. His full-forward role will be taken by O Cinneide who played there regularly last year.

O'Shea played well as a replacement against Cavan and was challenging for a starting place, as was his clubmate Michael Francis Russell whose goal buried Cavan in the semi-final, but Paidi O Se and Seamus MacGearailt have evidently decided to keep the 19year-old under wraps on the bench from where he will certainly make an appearance at some stage on Sunday.