Having claimed practically every honour in the game, Henry Shefflin will add to his hurling CV and take over the Kilkenny captaincy for 2007. In helping Ballyhale Shamrocks claim the Kilkenny county title last Sunday - their first since 1991 - Shefflin automatically put himself in line for the captaincy as the successful club get to nominate their preferred candidate.

Yesterday Ballyhale Shamrock secretary David Gallagher left no doubt who that candidate would be. "Henry Shefflin was born to captain Kilkenny," he said. "We're obliged to hold some sort of meeting to ratify the nomination, but it's a given. Henry is the man for the job and we're delighted to be able to nominate him."

At 27 Shefflin is primed to take on the responsibility of leading Kilkenny into their All-Ireland defence: "We could have had a couple of other candidates," added Gallagher, "such as James 'Cha' Fitzpatrick. But he's only 21, and hopefully his time will come. Henry in fact ended up playing a captain's role for us on Sunday, because our usual captain, Tom Coogan, wasn't able to play having been troubled with a hamstring injury all year.

"So Henry actually went up the steps to collect the winning trophy with Tom, and as part of his speech Tom said how delighted he was and what an honour for the club it was to see Henry Shefflin go on to captain Kilkenny for 2007."

He'll take over the role from Jackie Tyrell, who earned the honour last year by winning the county title with James Stephens - and in leading Kilkenny to the All-Ireland title he followed in the footsteps of current manager Brian Cody. Shefflin will look to become the first Ballyhale player to captain Kilkenny to All-Ireland success since Liam Fennelly in 1992 - one of the seven famous Fennelly brothers who between them shared in three All-Ireland club titles.

Ballyhale face Wexford champions Rathnure in this Sunday's Leinster championship semi-final. A special training session was held under lights at Piltown last night "to run the celebrations out them," added Gallagher. Meanwhile, Brian Cody's latest term as manager is all but officially formalised. Cody met county board officials over the weekend to finalise his backroom team for 2007. "We'd expect all that to be formalised within the next week," explained county secretary Pat Dunphy, "but at this stage we are all assuming that Brian will be staying on for another year."

Waterford hurling manager Justin McCarthy - recently reappointed for a sixth season - will be able to choose his captain for 2007. In the past the county champions have nominated the captain but the county board have opted for change. It means reigning champions Mount Sion, who voted to maintain the rule, won't get the automatic captaincy although one of their players may still be chosen.

Finally, Micheál Webster has been called back to the Tipperary hurling panel after being expelled last year for disciplinary reasons. Manager Michael Keating invited the Loughmore-Castleiney player to attend a team meeting where plans for the 2007 campaign were outlined, although no such invitation was extended to last year's captain Ger Redser O'Grady who was also dropped off the team following the Munster final defeat to Cork.