Cork have defence to strangle young guns

Among the surprises about this is that it's 40 years since the counties met in a league final and that the teams are so different from when the same pair met in the All-Ireland three years ago.

Only one of Cork's front eight in 1999 - Ben O'Connor - lines out tomorrow, although Alan Browne was a substitute that day. In the same half of the field Kilkenny have just two - Andy Comerford and Henry Shefflin.

There are different reasons for rebuilding. Cork are under new management and a certain shake-up was inevitable given the under-achievement of the past two years.

Kilkenny, on the other hand, are coping with a long absentee list and although manager Brian Cody insists that there will be no knee-jerk reversion as soon as the celebrities have recovered, Kilkenny are, like last year, one bad defeat from scrapping Plan B.

The semi-final win over Limerick was a surprise, but despite the very reasonable assertion that the opposition could have done with a piece of silverware, there's no guarantee that Eamonn Cregan sees it that way. Surviving with 13 men showed a bit of gumption, but Cork promise to be the hardest task the Leinster champions have faced since losing to Galway earlier in the campaign.

Cork scored with impressive fluency in the semi-final, but Tipperary were offering only token opposition.

Two interesting areas will be centrefield and the half-back lines. Whatever the hard-working virtues of the Derek Lyng-Pat Tennyson partnership, it's hard to believe that one of them anyway won't have to make way for Brian McEvoy, Andy Comerford or maybe Denis Byrne in the months ahead. Cork's pairing has maybe more prospects, but Alan Cummins still has some persuading to do at this level.

Centre back is also a work-in-progress for both teams. It's beginning to look as if Peter Barry and John Browne are the choices for Kilkenny and Cork respectively. Barry has looked very comfortable in the position, but John Browne, for all his admirable versatility, looks a bit physically insubstantial for the role.

Another clash worth watching will be Martin Comerford, who is given a good chance in Kilkenny of making the championship cut against the formidable Diarmuid O'Sullivan.

It will be a surprise if Cork's defence doesn't cope with Kilkenny's forwards better than Limerick managed and Cork similarly look to pose a more varied attacking threat.

CORK: D Cusack; W Sherlock, D O'Sullivan, F Ryan; D Barrett, J Browne, S Ó hAilpín; A Cummins, J Gardiner; J O'Connor, K Murphy, N McCarthy; E Collins, A Browne, B O'Connor.

KILKENNY: J McGarry; M Kavanagh, N Hickey, P Larkin; R Mullally, P Barry, JJ Delaney; D Lyng, P Tennyson; J Hoyne, H Shefflin, A Comerford; E Brennan, M Comerford, S Grehan.