TEAM NEWS/Cork name unchanged side: Cork have made no changes to the team that will face Kilkenny in Sunday's All-Ireland hurling final in Croke Park. This means that manager Donal O'Grady will have sent out the same 15 for all five matches in this year's championship. Seán Moran reports
The announcement wasn't unexpected with the only speculation surrounding the possible switch of Pat Mulcahy and Diarmuid O'Sullivan into the left corner back and full back roles in which they are expected to play at the weekend.
But O'Grady has decided to leave Mulcahy on the edge of the square - at any rate for the purposes of naming the team.
In all matches to date - with the exception of the Munster final, which O'Sullivan had to leave because of the after effects of a viral illness - the two have moved around on the full back line.
The team is quite experienced but only eight of the side that started the All-Ireland final of four years ago between the same counties survive - although captain Alan Browne appeared as a replacement that day. Of the seven players who have left the starting line-up, only Sean McGrath - scorer of three crucial second-half points in 1999 - remains on the panel.
Even more surprisingly, of the replacements panel now extended to 15 - as opposed to nine four years ago - only one name remains, Derek Barrett of Cobh.
The six players who will be making their All-Ireland debuts are Mulcahy in the full-back line, Tom Kenny and Ronan Curran at right wing back and centre back respectively - both of whom have had excellent campaigns, former minor star John Gardiner at centrefield, centre forward Niall McCarthy, and most people's choice as rookie of the year Setanta O hAilpín in the right corner of the attack.
There are no survivors of Cork's previous final in 1992, also against Kilkenny, whose current captain DJ Carey is the only likely starter to have played that day.
Among the similarities between now and Cork's surprise success of 1999 - aside from their distant outsider status and the same referee, Pat O'Connor - is that the Munster champions have gone through the season unchanged, as did Jimmy Barry-Murphy's team four years ago.
Kilkenny manager Brian Cody will name his starting line-up this evening after training. There is no strong indication of his intentions but he did make a change to his team last year coming up to the final, bringing in Jimmy Coogan in place of Brian McEvoy before the final against Clare.
There may be as many as 10 differences between the Leinster champions' starting 15 and that, which featured in the 1999 final. Of those 10, only Andy Comerford and Philip Larkin remain on the panel.
