Weather unlikely to bog down Cork final

The Cork County Board are confident their hurling final between Na Piarsaigh and Cloyne will go ahead in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday despite the serious flooding in the city in recent days.

Whoever wins are out again the following Sunday in the Munster championship, thus ruling out the possibility of any postponement.

The game had already been deferred a week because the Ó hAilpín brothers Seán Óg and Setanta, who play with Na Piarsaigh, were part of the Irish International Rules team. Yet county chairman Jim Forbes said last night that, even with the current weather in Cork, the game was practically certain of going ahead as planned.

"I'd be perfectly confident that it will take place," said Forbes. "Unless, say, there's a massive downpour at midday on Sunday. There is no talk at all right now of playing it anywhere else. All the work we've done there over the past few years has helped the pitch enormously, and even at the moment it's in very good condition."

Yet with the new champions out again on Sunday week against Tipperary winners Toomevara, any late deferral could mean Cork surrendering their involvement in this year's Munster club championship.

"There is no time to play with, that is certain," admitted Forbes. "But the pitch is in very good condition. We played two matches on it last Sunday and, even though the weather wasn't quite as bad then, there was absolutely no problem with it.

"After today, though, the weather is supposed to improve again. It looks like we have seen the worst of it. Unless there is a major deterioration in the weather again over the next couple days it will be fine.

"We also have the intermediate hurling final there on Sunday, and if push came to shove we could take that game out of it. At this stage, though, I can't even see that happening."

Sunday's other two high-profile hurling finals are less likely to be affected by poor playing conditions, with the Galway final between Portumna and Athenry set for Pearse Stadium.

Suspensions, however, have hit the preparations of both teams, with Portumna missing defender Dave Canning because of his red card in the semi-final win over Turloughmore.

Athenry will be without Shane Donohue because of the six-month suspension handed down after incidents in the quarter-final win over Loughrea.

The Galway hurling board have deferred a final decision on next year's senior manager until after the game. According to hurling secretary Phelim Murphy two former managers of the county, Mattie Murphy and Noel Lane, will contest the position with reigning manager Conor Hayes.

A sub-committee will interview the three candidates and then report back to the hurling board with their nomination, most likely by the end of next week.

Kilkenny's hurling final at Nowlan Park, involving James Stephens and Young Ireland's, was yesterday also free of any possible postponement.

The Wexford County Board, meanwhile, are continuing their search for a new senior hurling manager following the news that former county player George O'Connor had ruled himself out of contention.

A six-man committee was set up to find a replacement for John Conran and among those still in contention is under-21 manager Séamus Murphy despite his lack of success with Rathnure in the county final.

In the meantime, though, Wexford hurlers have lost the services of last year's trainer Jim Kilty.

The athletics coach, who specialises in the SAQ system, was brought into the Dublin set-up by manager Humphrey Kelleher and took his first session with the county panel on Tuesday night.