Limerick captain O'Grady returns to face Kilkenny

Limerick captain Donal O’Grady has as expected overcome the injury that kept him out of the win over Wexford and will take his place for Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling semi-final against Leinster champions Kilkenny.

O’Grady was ruled out of the quarter-final with a calf injury and his place taken by Tom Ryan, who makes way for the captain this weekend.

The counties last met in Croke Park in the 2007 All-Ireland final when an unanswered scoring burst of 2-3 in the first nine minutes more or less settled the match before it had properly begun.

Two years ago they met again, this time in the All-Ireland quarter-finals in Thurles, and on this occasion Kilkenny just about held on in the first half thanks to two goals from Henry Shefflin before pulling away in the second.

The team named last night shows just three changes from the one that lined out in 2012 and all three – Séamus Hickey, Kevin Downes and Paul Browne – came on as replacements.

Kilkenny are expected to name their team on Friday night.

Dublin welcome back Jonny Cooper, who missed the Leinster final because of a quad injury, but his replacement Michael Fitzsimons is retained after a good performance on Meath’s Stephen Bray. Jack McCaffrey drops out.

Only other change

The only other change to the team announced last night sees Eoghan O’Gara, scorer of 1-1 after coming on as a replacement against Meath, listed at full forward instead of Paul Mannion.

Opponents Monaghan have named an unchanged team from the side that defeated Kildare after extra time in last week’s qualifier for their first championship win in Croke Park since 1930.

That means Conor Boyle, Thomas Kerr and Chris McGuinness – who scored the vital goal in extra-time – all keep their places after being introduced as changes to the selected team a week ago.

Both teams have a tendency to make changes to the announced teams and it remains to be seen who does start.

The counties haven’t played in the championship since the 1921 All-Ireland semi-final, won by Dublin 2-8 to 2-2.

Played in Dundalk, the match didn’t take place until the following June in 1922 and was played on the same weekend as that year’s general election, one of the most famous in history, as it was the first held after the Treaty.

It has been confirmed that the 2014 M. Donnelly GAA All-Ireland Poc Fada finals have been re-scheduled for Sunday 24th August on Annaverna Mountain, Ravensdale, county Louth. The finals were due to take place last Saturday but were postponed due to rain.


LIMERICK (SHC v Kilkenny): N Quaid; T Condon, R McCarthy, S Hickey; P O'Brien, W McNamara, G O'Mahony; J Ryan, P Browne; D Breen, D O'Grady (capt.), D Hannon; S Dowling, K Downes, G Mulcahy.

DUBLIN (SFC v Monaghan): S Cluxton; M Fitzsimons, R O'Carroll, P McMahon; J McCarthy, J Cooper, N Devereux; MD Macauley, C O'Sullivan; P Flynn, K McManamon, D Connolly; A Brogan, E O'Gara, B Brogan.

MONAGHAN (SFC): R Beggan; C Boyle, D Wylie, C Walshe; D Mone, V Corey, F Kelly; D Clerkin, D Hughes; P McKenna, P Finlay, K Hughes; T Kerr, C McGuinness, C McManus.