Despite confirmation that Liam Kearns will continue in charge of the Limerick footballers, a source close to the management says there is still no indication whether the county board will relax its policy on dual players writes Seán Moran GAA Correspondent.

The county board, ending weeks of fevered speculation connecting Kearns with the Galway vacancy, made the expected announcement that he will be staying on yesterday.

The decision to force players to choose between football and hurling was at the heart of Kearns's uncertainty about staying on with the footballers.

Originally he had made it a term of his appointment that players should be allowed play both codes so the football panel wouldn't suffer through the withdrawal of players. In the end when the ultimatum was handed down, the dual players mostly chose to stay with the footballers but Kearns made no secret of his unhappiness at their being forced to choose.

At the time he said he would be reviewing his position at the end of the season. Having decided to stay on, Kearns still has no assurance that the ban on dual players will be lifted, but sources close to the Limerick manager expressed the conviction that if forced to do so, the players would again opt for football.

It remains to be seen if the Limerick county board will temper their position on this issue before next year's action gets under way.

Meanwhile, there is some confusion over the availability of Setanta Ó hAilpín for next month's International Rules tests in Dublin. Last season's Young Hurler of the Year, who went to Australia to pursue an AFL career with the Carlton club in Melbourne, was included in the preliminary Ireland squad announced on Wednesday by manager Peter McGrath.

But in Thursday's Evening Echo Ó hAilpín is reported as saying: "I would love to be involved in the international series but I have to rest my foot. I will definitely not be playing in the series."

The player had been progressing well at Carlton when he was diagnosed with a stress fracture of the foot early last June and wasn't able to play again this season, which concludes with the Grand Final at the end of this month.

Ireland International Rules selector Larry Tompkins has however reiterated his confidence that the former Cork player - who returns next week to attend the All-Ireland hurling final - will be able to take his place in the training panel on his return.

"I spoke to him on Tuesday and he said to me that basically he's fine and back in training. Originally he thought he'd be out but once he realised he was okay, he was mad enthusiastic to be involved with the panel."

Also in Cork, it was announced that James Bowles of All-Ireland club champions Newtownshandrum had been drafted into the county panel for tomorrow week's All-Ireland hurling final.

Bowles was prominent during the club campaign and comes in after the news that League regular Jonathon O'Callaghan, who had been introduced as a replacement in recent championship matches, was out with a broken cheekbone.

Finally, the GAA yesterday announced that more than 200 tickets for next week's All-Ireland hurling final had been stolen in Dublin city centre on Thursday.

Croke Park was at pains to point out yesterday that anyone tendering these tickets on the day would not gain admission to the ground nor receive any refund and would be interviewed by gardaí.

The tickets in question relate to rows AA, KK, LL, MM, NN, PP, QQ, RR, SS, TT, UU, and VV in section 307 of the Lower Cusack Stand and rows L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T and row DD in section 310 of the Lower Cusack Stand.

A spokesperson for the association declined to give any further details of the theft, saying they didn't wish to give any indication as to the movement of tickets, but added: "It's fortunate for us that this happened 10 days before the match, as it's given us plenty of time to circularise the numbers and print replacements, which will be very clearly marked as replacements."

The GAA as well as the Garda have advised the public to be very careful where they source their tickets and to check them against the above numbers before purchasing.