Adare dethrone Newcastle West to reach Limerick senior football final

STAR MAN: Adare's Hugh Bourke in action. Pic: ©INPHO/Ken Sutton.

Limerick SFC semi-final

Adare 2-9 Newcastle West 0-11

Adare have dethroned holders Newcastle West after a 2-9 to 0-11 victory in the Limerick senior semi-final in Rathkeale.

It was a sweet victory for an Adare outfit after losing to Newcastle West in the last three county finals.

A spell of two goals in the space of 70 seconds did the damage in the first half with Shane O’Connor and Hugh Bourke finding the target for Harry Gleeson’s charges.

Adare are looking for their first title since 2020 and play the winners of the other semi-final between Fr Casey’s and Mungret St Paul’s in the first week of November.

After a spell of early sparring, it was Adare that landed the first blow thanks to a free courtesy of Hugh Bourke in the eighth minute.

Paul Maher doubled their advantage moments later through Paul Maher but Newcastle West soon responded by virtue of an Eoin Hurley free.

Newcastle West squared the game up on 14 minutes when a slick move opened up the Adare defence and Bryan Nix fisted the ball between the posts from an acute angle.

Bourke put Adare back in front on 15 minutes with a second free and Shane O’Connor then made it a 0-4 to 0-2 score in Adare’s favour after slotting a point following a pin-point Maher delivery.

O’Connor and Oran Collins, either side of a Mike McMahone point for Newcastle, then made it a three-point game heading into the final minutes of the half.

The game then changed on its head in the space of just over a minute. A mistake from the kick-out following Collins’ score opened the door for Adare.

Robbie Bourke took possession, before offloading to his brother Hugh and he hammered a shot into the roof of the net to leave the score at 1-6 to 0-3.

Newcastle West were opened up again almost immediately with the Bourke brothers combining to find O’Connor, who calmly put the ball beyond the reach of Mike Quilligan and into the net.

The champions of the last three years needed a response and got it with the last three points of the half with Emmet Rigter, Hurley and Mike O’Leary scoring to leave the score at 2-6 to 0-6 at the break.

Newcastle West would have been hoping for a positive start to the second half but it was Adare that started quicker thanks to a Davy Lyons point from the right flank.

Rigter and Hurley soon had the gap back to six points but Newcastle were unable to find an opening in a rigid Adare defence to create a much-needed goal.

The six-point margin remained heading into the final quarter and was added to when Lyons bagged a second impressive score from the right.

McMahon and Brian O’Sullivan did give Newcastle West hope of a dramatic comeback in the final stages but that goal never materialised.

Eoin Hurley’s fourth of the afternoon proved to be the final score of the contest with Adare coming out on top by a deserved four-point margin.

Scorers for Adare: H Bourke (1-3, 3f), S O’Connor (1-2), D Lyons (0-2), P Maher and O Collins (0-1 each).

Scorers for Newcastle West: E Hurley (0-4, 3f, 1m), M McMahon and E Rigter ((1f) 0-2 each), B Nix, M O’Leary and B O’Sullivan (0-1 each).

Adare: J Alfred; S Doherty, D Connolly, D Lane; D Lyons, E Costelloe, O Collins; P Maher, J Sweeney; S Costelloe, R Bourke, R Connolly; S O’Connor, H Bourke, R Gleeson.

Subs: M Lyons for O’Connor (49), A Canny for S Costelloe (54), C Sparling for Lane (59), M Keane for R Bourke (62).

Newcastle West: M Qulligan; M O’Keeffe, D O’Doherty, M Cremin; S Hurley, A Neville, B O’Sullivan; S Murphy, E Rigter; L Woulfe, B Nix, M O’Leary; D Kelly, M McMahon, E Hurley.

Subs: B Hurley for Kelly (37), T Quilligan for Woulfe (44), B Foley for O’Leary (49), E Murphy for S Murphy (50).

Referee: L McGaynor (Drom-Broadford).