Cork v Limerick: Rebels name team for Munster SHC final

Cork have gone with an unchanged starting lineup for Sunday’s Munster SHC final against Limerick at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh (2pm).

With captain Darragh Fitzgibbon still recovering from the appendicitis that kept him out of the win over Clare a fortnight ago, Cork manager Ben O’Connor and his selectors have kept faith with the same 15 that won that game by 16 points. Vice-captain Mark Coleman again skippers the side in Fitzgibbon’s absence.

There is one alteration among the substitutes as Brian Roche is named instead of Declan Dalton, who has a calf strain.

Of the side that began last year’s provincial decider against Limerick at TUS Gaelic Grounds – Cork won a penalty shootout to deny their opponents a seventh consecutive title – ten starters remain: Patrick Collins, Damien Cahalane, Seán O’Donoghue, Eoin Downey, Coleman, Tim O’Mahony, Shane Barrett, Diarmuid Healy, Alan Connolly and Brian Hayes.

Niall O’Leary and Robert Downey were used as subs that evening as they were short of full fitness while Tommy O’Connell also appeared off the bench. Sunday will be a first Munster senior final for Barry Walsh and William Buckley.

Cork manager Ben O’Connor is keenly aware of the what every member of the panel brings, with the 37th player as valued as any other.

“You have to,” he says, “you can't cut him off. Number 37 is as important to us as number 1. That's not a cliché and the boys here know it.

“They talk about it themselves, they know how important it is that we stick together as a group. Them fellas are meeting each other more often than they're meeting some of their family. They're meeting each other five or six nights a week. They're great buddies as well.

“They socialise together when they're out, they go for coffees together. When the evenings are nice, there's a crowd of them going off to the beach for an hour before they go home. We have a good, happy group.”

The winners of the final, which is a sellout, will progress directly to the All-Ireland SHC semi-final on Sunday, July 5. The losers will face Offaly in a quarter-final in a fortnight, with the winners of that going advancing to the other semi, which takes place on Saturday evening, July 4.

If Cork are to make the Sunday date, they will certainly have earned it against a side that O’Connor holds in huge regard.

“It's just everything,” he says of Limerick’s strengths.

“It's physically, but I suppose the most impressive thing is mentally. To think that they've been that successful but they're still driving on... trying to drive yourself to keep going is the hard side of it and they seem to be able to do that with no problem at all.”

The Leinster SHC final takes place on Saturday, with Dublin and Galway locking horns at 6pm in Croke Park.

The winners will be in the Saturday evening All-Ireland semi-final while the losers face Clare to determine who takes on the Munster champions in the other semi.

Meanwhile, the Electric Ireland All-Ireland MHC semi-final between Cork and Tipperary will take place at TUS Gaelic Grounds in Limerick on Saturday week, June 13, with a 2pm start.

Galway face Limerick at Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg in Ennis later that day with a 5pm start.

CORK (Munster SHC final v Limerick): Patrick Collins (Ballinhassig); Niall O’Leary (Castlelyons), Damien Cahalane (St Finbarr’s), Seán O’Donoghue (Inniscarra); Eoin Downey (Glen Rovers), Robert Downey (Glen Rovers), Mark Coleman (Blarney, captain); Tim O’Mahony (Newtownshandrum), Tommy O’Connell (Midleton); Barry Walsh (Killeagh), Shane Barrett (Blarney), Diarmuid Healy (Lisgoold); Alan Connolly (Blackrock), Brian Hayes, William Buckley (St Finbarr’s).

Subs: Paudie O’Sullivan (Fr O’Neill’s), Ger Millerick (Fr O’Neill’s), Eoin Roche (Bride Rovers), Cormac O’Brien (Newtownshandrum), Micheál Mullins (Glen Rovers), Hugh O’Connor (Newmarket), Brian Roche (Bride Rovers), Alan Walsh (Kanturk), Shane Kingston (Douglas), Séamus Harnedy (St Ita’s), Pádraig Power (Blarney).