GAELIC GAMES CHAMPIONSHIP 2008 NEWSKERRY MANAGER Pat O'Shea has named the same team that eventually broke Monaghan's resistance last Sunday ahead of tomorrow's All-Ireland football quarter-final against Connacht champions Galway at Croke Park.
This means Aidan O'Mahony has been cleared to play despite sustaining a badly bruised leg in the early stages of last Sunday's qualifer against Monaghan.
If O'Mahony fails to recover, team captain Tomás Ó Sé is expected to move into the centre-back role with Tommy Griffin promoted from the bench to wing back. This would be a decent reward for a player who showed well off the bench the last day.
The numbers on backs can be ignored in many cases as Kerry are expected to line up in the same positions. This would see Colm Cooper start in the corner alongside the towering full forward partnership of Kieran Donaghy and 19-year-old Tommy Walsh, although Cooper will drift out to the 40 to take up his increasingly effective play-making role.
The use of Donaghy and Walsh as a two-pronged full-forward line is an example of Kerry football once more evolving the edge-of-the-square big target man that so many counties adopted since Donaghy's massive impact en route to the 2006 All-Ireland.
Despite notable displays from substitutes Griffin and Eoin Brosnan which played a significant role in seeing off Monaghan, Donnacha Walsh and Seamus Scanlon are retained at half forward and midfield, respectively. More is also expected from former captain Declan O'Sullivan after his recent return from a knee injury.
Meanwhile, the Cork football team named last Tuesday to face Kildare on Sunday is expected to have at least one change with injury to midfielder Nicholas Murphy paving the way for Michael Cussen to come in from the start.
There also remains a slight concern over the fitness of Graham Canty who suffered a knee injury in the Munster final against Kerry.
Speaking this week, the Cork captain was confident he would feature: "After the final whistle, you were just delighted to win the Munster title and you are honoured to lift the trophy for the lads. Then afterwards you would be wondering if you were going to play any more football for the year. Luckily enough it was only a slight injury - so I was very happy.
"I had a scan the next day and the doctor rang me at about 3pm with the result. And luckily he said I only had a slight tear and hopefully it should clear up for the next day out and luckily it has - I have worked very hard to get it that way."
Meanwhile, Galway's Matthew Clancy believes the best way to deal with the threat of Donaghy and Walsh is to stop the supply going into them. If the ball isn't going in, they can't do anything with it, argues Clancy.
"The guys that will be marking Donaghy and Tommy Walsh, I'm sure they'll have it worked out themselves what they are hoping to do," said Clancy. "I think with big men like that, if they get the ball the right way it's very hard to stop them so I think it's further out the field we need to stop that threat developing."
Armagh, who face Wexford on Saturday, have made just the one change from the side that overcame Fermanagh in the Ulster final replay with 2002 All Star Enda McNulty replacing Andy Mallon at right corner back. Mallon broke his arm in two places on July 27th.
The Wexford team announced last night shows one change from Sunday's win over Down. Collie Byrne retains his place at wing forward following a good display when introduced as a substitute. Adrian Flynn drops to the bench.
Kildare manager Kieran McGeeney will name a team tomorrow with few changes, if any expected.
Brian McIver has committed to another year as manager of the Donegal footballers. There had been speculation that McIver would step aside, as he had done after the 2007 campaign before changing his mind, but despite the recent qualifier defeat at home to Monaghan, he informed the Donegal board on Wednesday he would be staying with the team he guided to a National League title in his first year.
KERRY (SF v Galway):D Murphy; P Reidy, M Ó Sé, T O'Sullivan; T Ó Sé (capt), A O'Mahony, K Young; D Ó Sé, S Scanlon; T Walsh, C Cooper, D Walsh; D O'Sullivan, K Donaghy, B Sheehan.
ARMAGH (SF v Wexford):P Hearty; E McNulty, F Bellew, F Moriarty; A Kernan, A O'Rourke, K McKeever; P McGrane, K Toner; C Vernon, B Mallon, M O'Rourke; S McDonnell, R Clarke, T Kernan.
WEXFORD (SF v Armagh):A Masterson, D Walsh, P Wallace, B Malone, A Morrissey, D Murphy, C Morris (capt), E Bradley, B Doyle, R Barry, P Colfer, C Byrne, C Lyng, PJ Banville, M Forde.
