Limerick SFC final: All shoulders to the wheel as Newcastle West chase success on three fronts

Newcastle West half-forward Sean Murphy is also an accomplished rugby player. ‘A lot of our lads would play multiple sports,’ says boss Jimmy Lee. Picture: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile

This could be one of those weekends to remember in Newcastle West.

In the space of just 20 hours across this evening and tomorrow afternoon, the club will contest two adult county finals.

First up is the Limerick SFC final under lights tonight at TUS Gaelic Grounds (7.30pm), with holders Adare being the formidable opposition. Then there’s a Premier JFC final against Fr Caseys at Tournafulla (3pm) tomorrow, while a Junior B hurling quarter-final on Sunday against Cappamore in Kilbreedy (2pm) is a significant fixture too.

“The tricky part is expecting some players to tog out three times over the weekend, but that’s the joys of being a dual club,” said senior manager Jimmy Lee.

Win all three, and Lee’s bar in the town would surely be rocking. Jimmy’s brother Joe runs the bar, and is also part of the senior backroom team. Another brother, Billy, is the Limerick senior manager, and Billy’s son Jamie is one of the key forwards on the Newcastle West team. Jamie’s aunt, Margaret Hannon, is the club’s chairperson. If you ever doubted that club really is family, then just take a trip to Newcastlewest.

There are no guarantees the family will be celebrating this evening, however. The bookies make Adare slight favourites for success as they chase a fourth title in five seasons. Remarkably, Adare were an intermediate team in 2016, and only won their first Senior Football Championship in 2017.

“They’re very talented, they’re champions for a reason,” said Newcastle West boss Lee.

“They’re on the trajectory to be the next Drom-Broadford, in terms of winning a lot of county titles. But look, we’re not there to make up the numbers either. We’ve taken one or two titles ourselves in the last few years, in 2015 and 2019, and we think we have a talented enough bunch too.”

Along with Jimmy and sibling Joe in the Newcastle West management team is ex-
Limerick star Stephen Kelly and renowned coach Declan Brudair. Kelly was a big player for Limerick in the mid-2000s and earned a call-up to Ireland’s international rules squad, while he also dabbled in rugby, playing in the AIL with Shannon.

That experience perhaps helps him to get inside the minds of many of the current Newcastle West players.

“A lot of our lads would play multiple sports,” said Lee. “Robbie Bourke is a Limerick footballer, but he’s a strong rugby player too. Other lads would have played with Fairview Rangers, and with Aisling Annacotty, it would be a high enough standard of soccer. Sean Murphy plays rugby, he’s our half-forward, he has the potential to be a good rugby player as well as a good footballer, so there’s a lot going on.

“It’s all very positive, they’re an athletic group, and impressive to watch.”

Lee reckons a few of them may be playing hurling on Sunday too. That seems a long way off now with such a huge game looming against Adare, a rare Friday-night floodlit final.

“It adds a different twist to it, but it’s not a bad night for a game — if it was on a Sunday afternoon, it could eat into family time,” said Lee.

“I think it might be an enticing game for neutrals, get out for the evening under lights. You’d hope for a decent crowd.”

Some of the players will finish up early from work to get ready.

Others may opt to hold the time off until Monday, particularly if they’ve been involved in three games across just 42 hours.

“It’s a fine balancing act at times with the dual players and all the sports, but it’s what you’re used to, so it’s not an issue,” said Lee.