Fr Casey's and Adare battle it out for place in Limerick SFC decider

IT'S CRUNCH time in the Irish Wire Products Limerick Senior Football Championship with Fr Casey's meeting Adare in the first of the semi-finals on Saturday afternoon.

The Abbeyfeale men are gunning to reach their first final since 2009, while Adare are aiming to reach the decider for the third year in a row.

Casey's have navigated their way to this stage impressively after an opening round defeat to holders Newcastle West, with Na Piarsaigh swept aside in the quarter-final.

Sean Scannell is in the managerial hotseat for Casey's this season and has been helped on the sideline by newly appointed Clare senior manager and former interim Limerick boss Mark Fitzgerald. They Abbeyfeale side are without a SFC title since 2006.

They have been one of the premier sides at various underage levels over the last six or seven years and they will be hoping that 2023 is the years they return to the final.

For Adare, it's been very much of as you were since they were promoted back to senior in 2017. Themselves and Newcastle West have been the two outstanding teams in the SFC for the last five years but Adare have been on the losing side of the decider in 2022 and 2021 - last year missing out in extra time.

John Brudair is in charge of the Adare side this year and they cruised to five from five in the group stages to automatically get to the semi-final.

A number of key battles will decide this contest but if Casey's are to have any hope of progressing, they will have to quell the threat of Hughie Bourke. 

The ace marksman on the Adare side is fully over the injury issues that blighted the early part of the inter-county season and is the form player on this side of the draw. 

Throw-in for the game in Newcastle West is at 3pm and the game is being streamed live by Limerick GAA TV.