Eugene O'Neill moves centre-stage for Tipperary in Sunday's All-Ireland hurling final at Croke Park. His selection comes as no surprise, given his two-goal blast after coming on as a substitute against Wexford in the semi-final replay and the suspension of Brian O'Meara who started the match. Opponents Galway, meanwhile, give the go-ahead to the 15 who started the semi-final defeat of champions Kilkenny.

To accommodate the Cappawhite forward, Eoin Kelly moves from the right corner to the left wing of the attack. Within the selected attack there is room for any number of permutations. There has been a great deal of speculation in the county that Lar Corbett, who has struggled a little on his two Croke Park outings so far, might have been switched to the wing with Kelly staying in the corner.

In fact there had been some mutterings about dropping Corbett, but Tipperary manager Nicky English sticks with the player who has otherwise had a reasonable championship, if not enjoying the spectacular form of earlier in the year in the league. In Corbett's defence, the two matches against Wexford were played in poor conditions not conducive to top-of-the-ground running. There had been suggestions that the Thurles player could in fact move to the wing to replace O'Meara, and that is the position where he trained last week.

Last night in Thurles, a large crowd of around 5,000 watched the Munster champions complete their training schedule with the last session before the All-Ireland.

There is some risk in switching Eoin Kelly from the position in which he has done so well in the championship to date but he played on the wing a couple of times during the league before settling into the right corner of the attack. The problem for English was that no direct replacement for O'Meara was available. None of the other forwards on the bench have the Mullinahone player's physique. and O'Neill, after some indifferent displays as a replacement, caught fire on the second day against Wexford and established himself as the obvious choice.

This fortuitous return to form sets up O'Neill nicely for his second senior All-Ireland final. Four years ago he was introduced by then manager Len Gaynor for the All-Ireland quarter-final against Down and did well enough to claim a place amidst a number of changes made to the side that had started that year's Munster final, against Clare.

In the All-Ireland, against the same opponents, O'Neill hit 1-1 off Brian Lohan as Tipperary nearly upset the favourites.

His form afterwards never really got back on track, and spells at centrefield and corner forward failed to revive his form. For many in Tipperary, his best position is on the edge of the square and - inevitably - there has been speculation that he might play there with Declan Ryan moving to the corner.

Whatever the permutations up front, the rest of the team picked itself, positions and all. The one issue that was settled in the semi- finals was the most satisfactory orientation of the Paul Kelly-Eddie Enright-John Carroll triangle. Kelly had played at centrefield in the Munster championship but, with Carroll struggling at wing back, Kelly had to resume his original role in the half backs. Carroll moved up to the 40 with Eddie Enright dropping to centrefield.

Enright played his best hurling of the championship there, Carroll scored a goal in both the draw and replay and Kelly was excellent at wing back. Despite carrying an injury the first day he coped, and the following week gave a tour de force as the extra man after the three sendings-off.

Meanwhile, Galway's decision to make no changes wasn't unexpected, although the sudden deferral of the team announcement on Tuesday night aroused suspicions that the selection was proving unexpectedly difficult. In the end, the team that started against Kilkenny gets another chance to show its paces. This means Gregory Kennedy holds his place after getting sent off in the semi-final, and there is no place for Brian Higgins, the Athenry wing back who played so well in the second half against Kilkenny.

As with Tipperary's selection, the Galway team will prompt speculation as to the precise deployment of the attack. Joe Rabbitte is named at wing forward, although he switched into the full forwards for the Kilkenny match with Alan Kerins dropping out to the half forwards.

The players' original positions are persevered with for Sunday. This may be a reflection of the success Rabbitte enjoyed against Tipperary in last year's quarter-final when, operating as a target man in the half forwards, he caught a succession of puck-outs.

As a matter of interest, both of the teams show changes from the line-outs that started the league semi-final between the counties, won comfortably by Tipp last April. Galway show five alterations, three of which reflect the availability of Athenry players who were being rested after the spring's All-Ireland club victory. Michael Crimmons, Rabbitte and Eugene Cloonan are back, together with Kennedy and Richie Murray. Losing out are: Liam Donoghue, the injured Finbar Gantley, Padraig Walsh, Ollie Fahy and Liam Burke.

Tipperary have two changes with David Kennedy (then injured) and O'Neill coming in for Conor Gleeson and Liam Cahill.