DOWN HAVE left a vacancy in their team for Sunday's Ulster hurling championship final at Casement Park. Brian Smith, who played at left corner back against Derry in the semi-final, is nursing a leg injury and the team selectors will wait until later in the week before making a decision about filling the position.
The selectors have made a change at full back. Kevin Coulter, who replaced Gerard Adair during the Derry match, retains the number three jersey. Adair is included among the list of substitutes.
Also called up is Jerome McCrickard from the Leitrim club, and he fills the full forward position, with Gerard McGrattan moving out to the left wing forward position.
The uncle and nephew Coulter combination (both Martins) are together again, the uncle at left half back and the nephew at right corner forward.
Antrim will not select their side until later in the week. Under treatment for a variety of injuries are veteran utility players Terence McNaughton and Paul Jennings and attackers Seamus Baillie and Conor McCambridge.
Sunday's winners will play the losers of either the Munster or Leinster finals on July 27th under the new system which has been introduced this year with the Munster and Leinster losers qualifying for the quarter-finals of the All-Ireland competition.
Since the Ulster hurling final was re-introduced in 1989, Antrim have won six titles to Down's two. Down's wins were in 1992 and 1995. There was one draw.
Meanwhile, the Munster final pairing of Tipperary and Clare has guaranteed a sell-out crowd of 43,000 in Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Sunday. Even though the match will be shown live on television ticket sales have been hectic, according to a spokeswoman for the Munster Council. This has been a trend this year with attendances at intercounty hurling matches.
The Council has also confirmed that the Munster football final between Kerry and Clare will be played at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. This match, which is fixed for July 20th, is also likely to be a sell-out, with the crowd limited to 36,000.
The ceiling on attendance has been lowered by a few thousand since Cork and Clare met in Limerick in the Munster hurling semi-final last month. On that occasion gardai reported that there was considerable crowding, on the terraces during the match and when the crowd was leaving.
An interesting clash between two former colleagues will be a feature of Sunday's match. When Clare and Tipperary last met in the championship, in 1994, the two managers on Sunday, Ger Loughnane and Len Gaynor, were part of the Clare set-up. Gaynor was the Clare manager and Loughnane was a selector. Clare won on that occasion by 2-11 to 0-13. Gaynor now manages his native Tipperary and Loughnane is Clare manager.
Meanwhile, the National Hurling League will come back into focus on Saturday week, when the quarter-final between Dublin and Tipperary will be played at Semple Stadium.
On the following Saturday, July 19th, Cork and Kilkenny will clash at Pairc Ui Chaoimh.
The semi-finals will be played on the weekends of August 23rd/24th and August 30th/31st. The final is fixed for October 5th.
Meanwhile, the rich hurling folklore of the Tullaroan club in Kilkenny was further embellished last Sunday in Walsh Park, Waterford, when the club's under-14 team won the Feile na nGael competition for the first time.
The Christy Ring Cup was presented to the winning captain, Shane Hennessy, by the GAA president, Joe McDonagh, who complimented the players from Tullaroan and Sarsfield's from Cork on what he described as "a match of great skill and sportsmanship".
Tullaroan, who won by 2-12 to 2-7, had one truly remarkable score when Shane Hennesssy drove over a point from a distance estimated to be 100 yards - an extraordinary feat for an under-14 player.
