Monaleen break new ground
To the dismay of Clonmel Commercials, the big Limerick man and his intercounty team-mate Alan Kitson, Spain was skipped.
“It’s hard missing out on a trip like that but hopefully it will be all worth while. A place in the Munster final beckons and neither Alan nor I would like to miss out,” says Gavin.
The newly-crowned Limerick champions have never been in the final before. They had previously won the county title in 1978 before encountering a highly-talented Austin Stacks side in the provincial championship.
“We waited 24 years to win the county championship again,” said Muiris. “And this time around there is an air of confidence among the lads that we can at least reach the final.
“We have a very young team with over half of them under 21, and if we can break even at midfield where Clonmel are reputed to be very strong, I would be confident, particularly with home advantage, of getting the win.
Clonmel Commercials captain Paudie O’Keeffe is one of five survivors from the 1994 county championship winning team.
“We have gone into every game this year as underdogs and Sunday will be no different. We seem to thrive on that tag,” said O’Keeffe.
“I know nothing about Monaleen. We haven’t crossed paths before.
It’s been two weeks since we won the county final and that was a huge monkey off our backs as we hadn’t won it since 1989 and had lost four finals in between.
“It’s going to be a cracking contest as both teams will be up for it now that the Kerry and Cork champions are meeting in the other semi-final. In a final at this time of the year anything can happen.”
Meanwhile, the All-Ireland qualifiers are having a detrimental affect on local championships, will argue Denis Holmes, secretary to the Limerick Football Board, in his address to convention next Monday.
“The one thing the past year has shown is that the new All-Ireland format makes it extremely difficult to play our own championships.”
Holmes claims that were it not for the goodwill shown by football clubs in playing two championship matches over some weekends, they would not have completed their programme by year’s end.
“This is not satisfactory and the overall situation needs to be addressed.”
Meanwhile, the Limerick football board is to have a new chairman. Billy Ahern has decided to retire after five years in office and the only candidate for the post is Owen Hayes from St Kieran’s. The curtain comes down on the Limerick hurling scene on this Sunday when Adare clash with Kilmallock in the county U21 final. With the senior trophy already on their sideboard, Adare, specialists at under age, fancy their prospects of a double.
They can call upon Timmy Houlihan, Michael Clifford and Conor Fitzgerald, winners of All-Ireland honours with Limerick, while the south Limerick club have county stars Paudie O’Dwyer, Brian Carroll and Andrew O’Shaughnessy, in their ranks.
The city senior final between Patrickswell and Na Piarsaigh also takes place on Sunday.
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