IAN O’RIORDAN
Aidan Walsh will complete his graduation as a Cork hurler by making his first senior championship start in Sunday's Munster quarter-final against Waterford at Semple Stadium.
Still better known for his football attributes – and an All-Ireland football winner with Cork in 2010 – Walsh has been juggling both codes with Cork during their recent league campaigns, but is now part of manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy's plans as he looks to take his team one step further than last year's All-Ireland final defeat to Clare. Three debuts Walsh will start at midfield with Daniel Kearney, and is one of three championship debuts for Cork. Mark Ellis has been named at centre back, while under-21 star Alan Cadogan – a brother of Eoin, who misses out through injury – starts at right corner forward.
Damien Cahalane – another player of dual skills – will make his first senior Munster appearance for Cork, although he did feature in last year's qualifiers. He is named at full back, and is one of just four changes from the team that fell to Clare in last year's All-Ireland replay. Brian Murphy is now retired, while fellow defenders Conor O'Sullivan and William Egan and forward Luke O'Farrell were ruled out through injury.
However, one significant addition to the substitutes list is Paudie O’Sullivan, who missed all of last year through injury.
Meanwhile, various aspects of the Football Review Committee’s (FRC) second report – which focuses on competition structures and fixtures scheduling – will be discussed at tomorrow’s Central Council meeting. However it is still “essentially part of the informative process,” according to the GAA’s head of media communications Alan Milton.
“There is unlikely to be any voting, per se, on that process,” said Milton, “but like anything that was instigated by Central Council, it was by its very nature likely to return to this forum.”
The most controversial FRC proposal – to divide the provincial championships into four eight-county championships, by diverting three counties from Leinster and one from Ulster into Munster and Connacht – is unlikely to gain any support for any further debate, either at or before the 2015 Congress.
