Galway have picked an unchanged team to face Cork in this Sunday's All-Ireland hurling final. Conor Hayes and his selectors weren't expected to make any adjustments to the side that won last month's thrilling semi-final against Leinster champions Kilkenny.

The team was announced at last night's training before a large, enthusiastic crowd in Athenry, where the team got a rousing ovation after their last practice session before travelling to Dublin.

There had been rumours yesterday in Galway that Kevin Broderick would get the call-up although there were no firm indicators whose place in the attack he would take. But sources close to the team dismissed such speculation, maintaining there was no point in risking the player over 70 minutes.

Broderick, Galway's leading forward since his debut season eight years ago, missed the middle of the championship because of injury. He injured his groin in February of last year and opted for surgery earlier in the summer. Although fully recovered, he has been kept in reserve despite having scored an excellent and necessary point after coming on as a replacement in the semi-final.

The team is expected to line out as selected for the last day but not as they started. For the semi-final, the six defenders largely followed the men they were marking as Kilkenny shuffled their attack. This led to wing backs Derek Hardiman and David Collins being the only Galway defenders to start in their selected positions. Tony Regan wears the number three jersey although he marked Henry Shefflin the last day whereas Shane Kavanagh returns to centre back despite spending the semi-final in the two corners, including an effective spell quietening Eddie Brennan.

There had been concerns about the defence in that the 4-18 conceded would be enough to lose most matches but Hayes and his selectors are happy the team can improvise its way out of trouble again if necessary. The centrefield showed great speed and mobility, which will be needed against the Cork pair of Tom Kenny and Jerry O'Connor, whose running game is central to their team's strategy.

It was the forwards that did the main damage against Kilkenny with Niall Healy's hat-trick of goals and Ger Farragher's 2-9 the main strike forwards. Farragher has scored 3-49 in this year's championship.

Up until the quarter-finals three quarters of the panel had yet to play senior hurling for the county in Croke Park. Now with two successful outings under their belt Galway will have a reasonable amount of recent experience.

It's four years since the county last contested an All-Ireland final, going down by just a score to Tipperary. Of the team that lined out that day only six start this Sunday's final. Ollie Canning and Derek Hardiman and David Tierney are picked in the same positions. with Richie Murray, Alan Kerins and Fergal Healy switched to different roles. Murray is at wing forward rather than centrefield, Kerins on the other wing as opposed to the right corner of the attack and Healy partners Tierney in the middle whereas he started the 2001 final at left corner forward.

Manager Hayes was captain on the last two occasions that Galway won the All-Ireland, in 1988 and '87.

Should Galway win on Sunday they will have completed a significant sequence of having defeated the top four counties on the All-Ireland roll of honour on the way to the title. The final qualifier match was against Limerick, the quarter-final against Tipperary, semi-final against Kilkenny and the final against Cork.