Limerick aim to 'rock on and deliver a performance' in U20 Munster opener

THE Limerick U20 footballers are the first county representatives to get their Munster Championship underway when they welcome Waterford to Mick Neville Park on Saturday, throw-in 2pm.

Since the grade dropped down from U21 in 2018 the Deise have never beaten Limerick at this level, with the Treaty winning the last two provincial ‘B’ finals between the pair.

The recent bad weather hasn’t had too much of an impact on preparations with the team training on UL’s all-weather surface.

They also had recent challenge matches against Carlow and Laois.

“It’s going as well as it could be, we’re reasonably happy but ultimately we’ll find out on Saturday where we’re at,” said manager John O’Grady. “Hopefully we can get to the level we need to get to.”

A number of the 2023 minor side who won the phase 1 section of the Munster Championship are unavailable for the squad.

“It’s a difficult age group,” O’Grady noted. “Personally I don’t know why they moved it back from U21 to U20 because some guys just can’t commit because of the Leaving Cert and you can’t argue with that, their exams are important.

“U20s is an early championship so we don’t have as much time with the players as we would like.

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“If it was U21 you would probably have that window where their exams are finished - but all counties are experiencing that. We do have a seriously high number of lads who are doing the Leaving Cert. That’s a challenge too. We can’t go training three or four nights a week because these lads have school to factor in as well. All those things tied together make it tricky.”

Limerick enter the Phase 1 section alongside Waterford, Tipperary and Clare. The top two join Cork and Kerry in the Munster semi-final while the bottom two contest the ‘B’ final.

While only in its third season, this format has led to some competitive football early in the year.

“On any given day any of the four will beat each other,” Oola clubman O’Grady said.

“If you go back to last year, we lost to Clare in the last game by five points, had we lost by six points Waterford would have gone through to the next phase, had we lost by two we would have gone through. Small things matter.”

Despite a good record against the Deise, the visitors will bring a strong squad to Rathkeale on Saturday.

“Five of their six backs are there from last year. Fergal O’Brien at six played for the UCC Freshers team last year which is a fair standard of football for a young fella to be playing in,” explained O’Grady.

“They also have Paddy McCarthy, he’s got game-time with the Waterford seniors. Joe Brennan kicked four two-pointers against us in the B final last year.

“But ultimately, for us, getting our own house in order and showing that we’ll rock on and deliver a performance (is the aim).”

Limerick's other games are on March 21 against Tipperary in New Inn before Clare come to Mountcollins seven days later.