THE IMPRESSIVE thing about Cork reaching the National Hurling League quarter-finals is not just how quickly they've recovered from the elongated break caused by the players' strike, but also how they've discovered some exciting new faces along the way.

Last weekend's win over Waterford, which secured Sunday's showdown against Limerick at the Gaelic Grounds, came with a largely redesigned Cork team, including such unheralded names as Eoin Cadogan, Steven White, Lee Desmond, Fintan O'Leary and Shane O'Neill.

For the first time in almost five years, some of Cork's most seasoned players are looking over their shoulders, even those on that once unbreakable half-back line of John Gardiner, Ronan Curran and Seán Óg Ó hAilpín.

Curran had a good excuse for missing last Sunday's game. A groin injury has curtailed his training since the strike ended, and while he does expect to play some part against Limerick, he admits the team is undergoing something of a metamorphosis.

"It's more of a wear and tear injury," he says. "I actually felt it coming on halfway through last year, and sore towards the end of the summer. With the break over Christmas the pain went away, but when I came back to hard training it flared up again. It just means getting plenty of physio but I think it's behind me now.

"But the league is also about looking at the younger players, and giving them the chance to push on. And I think we've done that. We had been struggling the last four or five years to bring players through, and if you go back to 2003, there haven't been too many new players on this Cork team. Maybe one or two changes, but certainly not the turnaround that, say, Kilkenny or Tipperary had.

"This year we've had a good few additions now, and they have been doing very well. So we're beginning to get those new faces, which is what you want. Players pushing for places is always what you need. The league is all about building towards the championship, and getting the best 15 out on the pitch. If it does change the team then well and good."

Not that Curran, at 27, is about to surrender his place in the half-back line just yet: "I would hope that I'm not considered as one of the older ones just yet. Maybe middle of the road. Sure, the Cork half-back line has been the same since maybe 2003, but Eoin Cadogan is having a good go at it, at wing back and centre back, and Kieran McGann has been tried there as well. And Kevin Hartnett played very well there last week."

Team captain John Gardiner also missed the last game, but will return for Sunday. Curran believes Cork's focus on the league was, if anything, intensified once they put the strike behind them, and it's therefore not a great surprise that they've come this far.

"We had been training away with out clubs, just not up to the same pace. A lot of it was about getting a good start against Dublin. We struggled in that game, but got there. With hurling it's always about match fitness, and we knew we'd get better with each game after that.

"And I suppose after the longer break than usual we were even hungrier to get back. But of course we won't know until the year goes exactly how good or bad it all turns out. But for us the league was massive this year, to have any chance of getting up to championship pace for the summer. We'd hope to go as far as we could, and the league is set up for a good climax, and that's great for us. Every hard game we can get is welcome."

Curran, however, expressed some sympathy for Wexford, who have been relegated from Division One without the chance of a play-off even if, strictly speaking, the Cork strike didn't directly impact on that. "I do feel sorry for Wexford. There are only a certain amount of counties that can win the All-Ireland, and Wexford are still viewed as one of them. And we're trying to promote the game in these counties, rather than set it back, so it is hard on them.

"We need to keep the best counties in the top leagues, and bring them all on, so that there will be more competition at the top."