'This year was about keeping the standards high' - Askeaton-Ballysteen-Kilcornan's Danny Neville

ASKEATON-Kilcornan-Ballysteen booked their return to Limerick football's top tier for 2026 following last weeken'd Intermediate final victory over neighbour's St Senan's.

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Declan Ryan's side controlled proceedings for large parts of the decider at Sean Finn Park.

Goals in either half from Paul O'Shaughnessy and Joey Rushe gave ABK the platform to claim the intermediate crown which secures senior football for 2026.

St Senan's did manage two goals of their own through Cillian Meade but in truth, ABK were never in trouble and ran out deserved 2-15 to 2-7 winners on the day.

Limerick inter-county star Danny Neville was in fine form, splitting the posts on four occasions in what was a man of the match display for the Limerick sharp-shooter, who was recently named on the Tailteann Cup Team of the Year.

Speaking to Leader Sport following their win over St Senan's, Neville said that getting back to senior football was the only aim this year.

"It's been a great day. At the start of the year we set out to win it, there was no beating around the bush so anything less than that would've been heartbreak today but we pulled it out of the bag and we're back to where we think we belong."

Neville commended his side's effort and determination to come through last weekend's final.

"Our semi-final performance probably gave us a lot of confidence because we were in full control of that game, lost control of it and then won it back for a finish. The goal we conceded early on could have shook us a bit, but we had 59 minutes to put it right."

ABK had a five-day turnaround to contend with from their semi-final victory over Galbally to Sunday's decider in Rathkeale.

"Adrenaline in a county final mixed with a big crowd will get you a long way and we sprung five subs from the bench, it was a great day all around.

"A learning from the semi-final was to take our points when the chances came and we did that well, particularly in the first half and at the back, the boys were just phenomenal today.

"Patrick Moran was outstanding at centre-back and all in all it was a joy to watch. Our only objective was to get back to senior football. I suppose it was a drop of standards really is why we found ourselves down last year.

"On any given year, any team can be relegated from the senior championship, we didn't feel like we had the worst team in the championship but Ballylanders were full value for their win against us, so this year it was just about keeping the standards high."

ABK's reward for clinching the intermediate title is a trip to Cork to face Aghabullogue in the Munster IFC semi-final on Sunday, November 23 in Cork.

Aghabullogue defeated Uibh Laoire in the Cork Premier Intermediate decider a fortnight ago on a scoreline of 2-12 to 2-11.