Clare reward Hoey for club form

Clare revert back to a more familiar line-up for their meeting with Limerick in Sunday's Division 1A tie at Miltown Malbay. There are seven changes in total from the largely experimental side which defeated Antrim in their last league outing some three weeks ago, with David Hoey perhaps the most surprise addition at right corner back.

Hoey, a member of the losing St Joseph's Doora-Barefield side in last weekend's All-Ireland Club final, gets his big chance to impress, taking over from Gordon Malone. Most of the other changes, however, have a more familiar ring about them.

Ollie Baker is back at midfield in place of Ronan O'Hara and is joined by Colin Lynch, who moves from centre forward to take over from Fergus Flynn.

Captain Anthony Daly also returns in his usual role in the halfback line, with Enda Flannery the man to lose out. Jamesie O'Connor takes his place in a re-arranged forward line with Barry Murphy also starting in the left corner forward as an indirect swap for Ken Ralph.

The final two changes take place in the defence with Brian Quinn in for David Forde and Liam Doyle in for Richie Woods. Brian Lohan is still ruled out as he recovers from a damaged hamstring.

Waterford manager Gerald McCarthy has named his strongest team of the season as he seeks to build on their comeback heroics against Kilkenny by taking the scalp of All-Ireland champions Cork in their highly-attractive Division 1B clash at Walsh Park. Tony Browne, as expected, returns to centre-field with Peter Queally dropping back to the centre back. Fergal Hartley loses out.

The decision to relocate Queally, however, was not so much inspired by the need to accommodate Browne at centre-field as prompted by Queally's own measured performance when he was moved to centre back in the midst of Waterford's resurgence at Nowlan Park two Sundays ago. Dan Shanahan also returns to the starting line-up after twice making devastating impressions from the bench. His arrival coincided with Waterford's late rally against Wexford in Walsh Park and he also made a huge impact against Kilkenny. Michael White, who also came in for the win over Kilkenny, has been retained at corner forward. Brian Henley and Brian Walsh lose out.

The half-forward line, which had given a relatively meagre return, now has a venomous ring to it, with Paul Flynn dropping back to combine with Shanahan and Ken McGrath.

Elsewhere, Mattie Murphy has given Finbar Gantley a chance to rejuvenate his career by naming him on a Galway team for the first time since the All-Ireland quarterfinal capitulation against Kilkenny in 1997. Having spent last year in the US, Gantley rejoined the panel in January and has shown no lack of appetite or sharpness.

Enda Linnane, a cousin of fiery 1980s Galway stalwart Slvie, makes his league debut, while Nigel Shaugnessy comes back in at midfield. Joe Cooney, Michael Healy and Alan Kerins, who each played in Galway's last league game against Dublin, are rested.

None of the Athenry players have been named for what ought to be a fairly comfortable outing against Kerry in Tralee.

Derry will also be looking for their first points when they host Wexford at Slaughtneil and they had no reported injury worries last night.

Dublin, still in the hunt for a semi-final berth out of Division 1A, host Antrim at Parnell Park and manager Michael O'Grady has made three changes from the side that narrowly went down to Galway. Darragh Spain and Shane Martin replace Damien McCormack and Mark Fitzsimons respectively, while dual player Shane Ryan, committed to a training holiday in Spain with the football side, has his place filled by Gerry Ennis.

Clare (SH v Limerick) - D Fitzgerald; D Hoey, F Lohan, B Quinn; L Doyle, J Redden, A Daly; O Baker, C Lynch; J O'Connor, F Hegarty, A Markham; N Gilligan, C Clancy, B Murphy.

Waterford (v Cork) - B Landers; T Feeney, J O'Connor, S Cullinane; S Frampton, P Queally, B Flannery; T Browne, J Brenner; D Shanahan, K McGrath, P Flynn; M White, A Kirwan, D Bennett.

Galway (v Kerry) - K Boyle; N Larkin, L Hodgins, V Maher; E Linnane, C Moore, D O'Brien; N Shaughnessy,P Walsh; R Gantley, M Kerins, O Canning; F Gantley, O Fahy, F Healy.

Dublin (v Antrim) - B McLoughlin; J Finnegan, S Power, D Spain; L Walsh, S Perkins, L O'Donoghue; S Martin, D McInerney; D Henry, C Brady, G Ennis; T McGrane, S Duignan, K Flynn.