McCarthy to start for Cork

GAA/ Championship 2006: Cork have made one change for the team to face Kerry in Sunday's All-Ireland football semi-final at Croke Park. Fintan Goold, who started at centre forward in the quarter-final defeat of Donegal, loses out, his place going to Conor McCarthy, who replaced him in that match.

It means David Niblock loses out again to his shoulder injury, though he is named on the replacements' bench.

"I spoke to him earlier today," said Billy Morgan yesterday evening, "and he was still uncertain."

The Cork manager is preparing to meet Kerry again - in a rivalry that goes back 40 years for Morgan personally - for a third time in the season after the drawn Munster championship match and replay. Precedent is against the provincial champions, who under Larry Tompkins followed the same route in 2002 only to lose heavily to Kerry in that year's semi-final.

Last year Morgan was on the receiving end of a similarly chastening defeat, also in the semi-finals, making Sunday the ninth time in five years the counties have met in championship, the third at the penultimate stage.

Having put in two terrifically committed displays against Kerry in Munster, Cork have slipped to outsider status after their opponents' formidable dismissal of Armagh in the quarter-finals and their own more laboured progress against Donegal.

The biggest influence on Morgan's team's drift in the betting is the absence of Graham Canty, whose cruciate-ligament damage has put him out for the rest of the year.

His absence is particularly keenly felt given the extraordinary success of Kieran Donaghy, who has converted into a high-fielding full forward and been the source of several scores in the qualifiers and quarter-final. Canty's place has gone to Derek Kavanagh, switching from centrefield.

Kerry will announce their team today. Manager Jack O'Connor says he will have a full pick with one exception: "Bryan Sheehan is out with ankle ligaments and he won't be back for a couple of weeks. But the rest of the squad is going very well."

Laois manager Mick O'Dwyer will also tonight name his side for the replayed quarter-final with Mayo on Sunday. On Monday the team had a pool session, on the assumption the match would go ahead on Saturday. When it was pushed back 24 hours, last night's session was moved to tonight.

There are no injuries in the camp and most speculation is whether Donie Brennan will start after his second-half introduction for Brian McCormack yielded three points from play.

If O'Dwyer steps down at the end of the season it will mean a sellers' market in Laois for managers, given that senior hurling coach Dinny Cahill was let go, as was his minor counterpart, Vincent McKenna.

The Opel Player of the Month awards for July went to Waterford hurler Dan Shanahan, on Monday the recipient of the equivalent Vodafone award, and Longford footballer Brian Kavanagh, who scored 1-21 in the qualifiers against Tipperary, Derry and Kerry.

CORK (SF v Kerry): A Quirke; M Prout, D Kavanagh, K O'Connor; M Shields, G Spillane, A Lynch; N Murphy, P O'Neill; S O'Brien, C McCarthy, K McMahon; J Masters, D O'Connor, J Hayes. Subs: P O'Shea, G Murphy, O Sexton, N O'Leary, A O'Connor, K O'Sullivan, D Niblock, D Goulding, F Goold, A Cronin, J Wycherley, D Duggan, S Levis, D Hurley, D Mehigan.