SINCE reaching the 1992 All Ireland final against Kilkenny, Cork have won only one Guinness hurling championship match, and that was against Kerry last year. In other words, they haven't beaten a top rank team in the championship since Limerick in the Munster final of four years ago (or if you want to be rigorous, Tipperary in that year's semi final).

Consequently, tomorrow against Limerick in Pairc Ui Chaoimh, they field a young, largely inexperienced team who desperately need the steadying in influence of a good championship victory. They face a difficult task.

In Limerick's favour is a string of conventional strengths. An experienced team with one Munster title, 1994, under their belts and the trauma of that season's All Ireland final defeat beginning to recede, they are physically strong, relentlessly well drilled and performing well in challenge matches.

On Cork's behalf, the predominant arguments are based on what might loosely be termed voodoo the length of time since they lost a championship match at home that they are "too quiet" and therefore at their most dangerous that you can never write off a Cork team that "Cork is Cork" etc, etc.

Nonetheless in the broad areas between these competing arguments lies a mare ambiguous truth. The voodoo argument can't be entirely discarded because it's based on a regularly recurring phenomenon but you sense that Limerick won't be unduly intimidated by it.

Their concerns will be less abstract. The team has lost a couple of commanding central figures from the side that won Munster two years ago. A third, Mike Houlihan, has made one of those remarkably swift recoveries from serious injury that usually precedes a triumphant return or a disastrous one. Something steady in between would be welcome for Limerick.

Their attack is unproven. Gary Kirby is a scoring machine and Mike Galligan, when given the space, will do damage. But Damien Quigley, for all the speed and thrust he brings to the corner, has struggled with the famous exception of the 1994 All Ireland to finish with commensurate quality.

Newcomer, Owen O'Neill looked the part in UCC's Fitzgibbon winning team, but Padraig Tobin hasn't always carried his great potential comfortably on big days. Shane O'Neill is big, strong and sufficiently familiar with the team not to be too bothered by the transition to championship.

Cork's gamble is on their combination clicking. Within that overall context are vital indicators. Jim Cashman's ability to stay the pace has worried Cork people in recent times, but Jimmy Barry Murphy and his selectors are happy that he is in good form, and has the hurling and wit to counter the considerable threat of Kirby.

Brian Corcoran's conversion to centre field came suddenly. Having decided that Cashman could man the central defence, JBM and Co looked at how they could use Corcoran to strengthen the overall impact of the team.

His form at centre forward for his club made it an obvious starting point It wasn't merely the step up in demand from the club's 40 to the county's that troubled observers, but also the fact that in the type of game Cork wanted, a forceful ball player was the wrong type of centre forward.

What was needed was someone to keep the ball moving, quickly and accurately. Good centre forwards frequently don't stand out, but their full forwards do. Centre field would give Corcoran a broader canvas on which to exercise his talents.

Which leads to Teddy McCarthy. Plainly, he is no more of a classical centre forward than Brian Corcoran, but his selection looks like a horses for courses decision. Strong and high leaping, McCarthy's deployment is presumably aimed at preventing Ciaran Carey taking the ball to hand and setting off on those mesmeric runs which have become so much part of Limerick's style.

At full forward they are well served by Alan Browne's gameness no less than by his goal scoring ability. The big problem is to what extent the flanking players will get involved. Apart from debutante Joe Deane in the left corner, the others are all part of the lost generation that has struggled in recent championships.

The match is finely balanced. Limerick's aggression could unnerve the younger, smaller Cork players. Alternatively, the nippier Cork forwards could catch fire. Whatever way it falls, defeat will be a huge setback for the losers.

On the basis that this is the very sort of situation most open to the influence of voodoo, the rooster's entrails here say Cork.