Fr Casey's celebrate Limerick Premier U21 final win over Newcastle West

“EIGHT of the senior team in the starting lineup gave us the experience to see it out”, was manager Daniel Daly's take on Fr Casey's successful defence of the Limerick Premier Under-21 football title following their 0-8 to 0-5 final victory over Newcastle West in Mick Neville Park on New Year's Eve.

With just eight and a half hours to spare, the last of the 2002 county championships was completed before 2023 began as Newcastle West, the other club with whom the Fealesiders have shared a decade of dominance in Limerick underage football, failed to recover sufficiently from a stale first half to add to their county success at senior.

The winners led 0-5 to 0-1 at the mid-point of the contest.

With the strongest array of talent ever seen in this grade of football and a clash between the between the major powers of West Limerick, this could have been an advertisement for the game, but the intensity never rose above lukewarm until the second half was well underway.

Casey's controlled the middle third and were flawless in defence as they put together what looked like a match-winning lead before the Magpies finally spluttered into life with only their second score after 41 minutes.

It sparked off a rally that gave the attendance something to cheer about and, had Newcastle not lost their focus just as they were beginning to rattle their opponents, it might have led to a nail-biting finish. When they rediscovered their groove, too many minutes had disappeared to put the outcome in doubt.

SCORERS: FR CASEYS: Dylan Quirke 0-3 (3 frees), Eliah Riordan (1 '45'), Adam Fitzgerald 0-2 each, Ronan Quirke 0-1; NEWCASTLE WEST: Brian Foley 0-2 (2 frees), Emmet Rigter, Todd Donovan, Con Hayes 0-1 each.

FR CASEYS: Shane O'Kelly; Calum Boyle, Diarmuid Buckley, Culann Quigley; Michael Kilbridge, Seán Kilbridge, Cathal Harnett; Eliah Riordan, Morgan Scannell; Marc Nolan, Dylan Quirke, Adam Fitzgerald; Ronan Quirke, Eoghan O'Connell, Dylan O'Connor.

NEWCASTLE WEST: Paudie Kelly; Jack Duggan, John Whelan, Jody Woulfe; Con Hayes, Aaron Neville, Ruadhán O'Connor; Todd Donovan, Michael Cremin; Conor Walker, Brian Foley, Emmet Rigter; Seán Geraghty, Ethan Hurley, Jack O'Connor. SUBS: Bryan Nix for Seán Geraghty (32 minutes), Oisín Enright for Jack Duggan (54 minutes).

REFEREE: Jonathan Hayes (St Senan's).