Tipperary boss Ken Hogan remains hopeful that full back John Coghlan will be cleared to play in Saturday's Bord Gais Energy All-Ireland U21HC final.

Coghlan travels to Croke Park tonight to appear before the Central Hearings Committee as he attempts to overturn the suspension incurred when the CCCC upgraded his yellow card from the All-Ireland semi-final win against Antrim to a red card offence. And Hogan hopes to learn the outcome of the appeal before he sits down to finalise his team for Saturday.

Hogan said: "John's record is unblemished and it's unfortunate that two weeks after the event that his offence was upgraded to a red card. We're hoping things work out for him. Hopefully tonight we will be able to pick a full team and hopefully by that stage we'll know John's fate."

The former goalkeeper also praised the attitude of the eight senior players in the Tipperary U21 team following the celebrations after Sunday's All-Ireland victory over Kilkenny, but warned of the potential pitfalls in Saturday night's decider.

"To win was fantastic for the lads and if they had lost it wouldn't have been easy to pick it up and get going again. They're on a winning streak - the all came into training on Tuesday night.

"Michael Cahill graduated from UCC on Tuesday at 4pm and he was still up at 7pm for training, that's the type of player we have. We discussed it with the lads before the match. Win, lose or draw there was going to be a reception on the Sunday night, there was going to be a reception on Monday night.

"Obviously they're tired and they need to rest because the whole weekend takes its toll. Hurling is a great leveller. Particularly at U21 level the unsung come through. Both Galway and Tipperary have unsung heroes and they are probably going to come through on Saturday.

"We're not blotting it out (the senior success), we're quite aware of what's going on around the county.

"It's easy to talk to players now because last Sunday has happened. We didn't have the senior lads for the two weeks before the final and we were well aware of that, we were never going to have them. Thankfully our relationship with Liam Sheedy and the senior management has been great. Any time he could facilitate us he did." Tweet

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