Cork v Galway: Rebels name team for All-Ireland SHC semi-final

Midfielders Tim O’Mahony and Tommy O’Connell return to the Cork team for Saturday’s All-Ireland hurling semi-final against Galway at Croke Park (3.30pm).

The pair both sustained injuries in the Munster final loss to Limerick – O’Connell a broken thumb and O’Mahony a dead leg – and they missed the 26-point win over Offaly in the All-Ireland quarter-finals but Cork manager Ben O’Connor had indicated earlier in the week that they were likely to be available for selection.

The two are the only changes from the Offaly game as Brian Roche and Hugh O’Connor, who partnered at centrefield in Thurles, drop to the substitutes’ bench. Captain Darragh Fitzgibbon, who wore number 9 in what was his return following an appendectomy but played at wing-forward, switches to 10.

Fitzgibbon and Alan Walsh had been the other alterations for the quarter-final and the Kanturk man scored 2-1 in what was his first senior championship start. He is rewarded by being chosen again in the inside forward line alongside Alan Connolly and Brian Hayes, with William Buckley again kept in reserve.

Cork are aiming for to reach the All-Ireland final for the third straight year, while they have been successful in their last three semi-finals - Kilkenny in 2021, Limerick in 2024 and Dublin last year. Prior to that, the county had a stretch of seven semi-finals between 2008 and 2018, with just one win.

One of those defeats was in 2012 to Galway and that match is part of a five-game winning sequence that the Tribesmen hold over Cork since the last Rebel victory, a 2008 qualifier win in Thurles. In the interim, Galway have won meetings between the counties in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2022.

Nine of the Cork team started that 2022 defeat: in the back seven, the only switch is Eoin Downey for the injured Ciarán Joyce, while Fitzgibbon was midfield and O'Mahony and Alan Connolly were in the full-forward. O'Connell appeared as a late sub that day.

Micheál Donoghue's side enter the game after a four-week break since beating Dublin to win the Leinster championship. Each of their three previous All-Ireland semi-final appearances as Leinster champions - 2012, 2017 and 2018 - have ended in victory.

The game will be preceded by the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship semi-final between Kilkenny and Waterford, which starts at 1pm.

On Sunday, Limerick face Clare in the second All-Ireland hurling semi-final (4pm). The Banner County are seeking to record a first non-round-robin win over their neighbours since 2017 – in the interim, the Shannonsiders have triumphed in three Munster finals as well as the provincial quarter-final during the Covid-impacted 2020 season, when the old system was back in operation.

That match has the camogie quarter-final between Clare and Tipperary as its curtain-raiser, with a throw-in time of 1.30pm.

CORK (All-Ireland SHC v Galway): 

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); 

Tim O’Mahony (Newtownshandrum), Tommy O’Connell (Midleton); 

Darragh Fitzgibbon (Charleville, c), Shane Barrett (Blarney), Diarmuid Healy (Lisgoold); Alan Walsh (Kanturk), 

Alan Connolly (Blackrock), Brian Hayes (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), Brian Roche (Bride Rovers), Hugh O’Connor (Newmarket), Robbie O’Flynn (Erin’s Own), Shane Kingston (Douglas), Séamus Harnedy (St Ita’s), William Buckley (St Finbarr’s), Barry Walsh (Killeagh).