Marsden calls a halt to his county career

Armagh manager Joe Kernan last night paid tribute to the "great service" of Diarmaid Marsden, who has announced his retirement from intercounty football. Marsden turns 30 on Saturday and after playing 117 games for Armagh since making his debut in 1993 he felt the time to walk away from the game was ripe.

"I suppose I knew it was coming," said Kernan, "because I had been talking to Diarmaid quite a bit over the last couple of months. But I met him for lunch in Belfast on Tuesday and he told me he'd made his final decision.

"Of course it's something we're disappointed about, but we accept fully his decision. I for one know that Diarmaid Marsden owes Armagh football nothing. He's given a great service to the county, and even though I believe he could give a lot more, it's his decision, and we're not going to dwell on it. We'll just remember how lucky we were to have him."

Marsden's highlight will always be winning the 2002 All-Ireland with Armagh, the county's first. He scored 0-3 in the final win over Kerry, and also featured prominently in the narrow defeat to Tyrone a year later. The forward also won four Ulster titles and was a two-time All Star.

"Most of all he felt he couldn't give it the full commitment," added Kernan, "and that maybe he didn't have the same appetite. I'd certainly respect that decision because his standards were always very, very high. Of course I tried to talk him into staying on, but you can never force someone in that position.

"But we all move on. He left behind a lot of good memories, and you'd hope quality players like Diarmaid would stay around forever. But I'd respect too the fact he felt he couldn't give what was needed, because the one thing you don't want on your panel is player who's along for the ride. And Diarmaid was never one of them."

In hurling news, Joe McKenna is poised to take over as Limerick manager before this Sunday's league game against Down. A member of Limerick's last All-Ireland winning team in 1973, he is deemed as the most natural successor to Pad Joe Whelahan, who resigned last week.

Tuesday night's meeting of the Limerick County Board agreed Liam Lenihan and Declan Nash would make up the management team with McKenna, but that they should decided amongst themselves who will act as a manager.

"We'd imagine that would be done before Sunday," explained Limerick secretary Denis Holmes. "It's just a question of the three of them coming together and deciding which of them will actually act as manager. But we've set no deadline.

"I'd say they're all equally qualified, and Liam Lenihan has already worked alongside (former Limerick manager) Tom Ryan in previous years. But there isn't the option of joint manager, because in fact they're obliged to put one name forward."

The suggestion that Ger Loughnane had been approached as a replacement for Whelahan was rejected by Holmes: "Obviously people would think that, but to the best of my knowledge no one in the Limerick County Board were in contact with him. So hopefully we can get back to a bit of stability now, and just concentrate on playing hurling. We have also agreed to put a hurling coach in place, but haven't even discussed that yet."

In team news, Brian Corcoran makes his first start of the season for Cork's game against Antrim in Páirc Uí Rinn on Saturday. Corcoran was introduced as a substitute in the last game against Wexford, and his return is one of six changes from that day, including the placing of Paul Morrissey in goal ahead of the rested Donal Óg Cusack.

Two Munster under-21 football fixtures were also announced for the weekend. Tipperary play Waterford in Fermoy on Saturday (1.30) and Kerry play Cork in Páirc Uí Rinn on Sunday (4.0).

Terrace tickets for Saturday evening's football league game between Dublin and Westmeath go on sale at Parnell Park today between 10am and 7pm. All stand tickets have been distributed to clubs.

CORK (SH v Antrim): P Morrissey; B Murphy, C O'Connor, P Mulcahy; G Callinan, P Kelly, S Óg Ó hAilpín; T Kenny, R McGregor; G McCarthy, N McCarthy, T McCarthy; N Ronan, B Corcoran, J Deane.

CORK (SF v Tyrone): K Murphy; N Geary, M Cronin, G Murphy; S Levis, A Lynch, E Sexton; D Kavanagh, N Murphy; J Masters, C McCarthy, K McMahon; K O'Sullivan, B J O'Sullivan, J Hates.

KERRY (SF v Donegal): D Murphy; M Ó Sé, M McCarthy, T O'Sullivan; T Ó Sé, E Fitzmaurice, A O'Mahony; D Ó Sé, M Quirke; P Galvin, E Brosnan, P Kelly; Declan Quill, R O'Connor (capt), C Cooper.