Kieran Bermingham: Na Piarsaigh striving to put 'best foot forward' in Limerick hurling final

KIERAN Bermingham is in his third year at the helm of the Na Piarsaigh senior hurlers.

Little could he have imagined that he would be this far into his tenure before he would lead the Caherdavin club into a ‘normal’ Limerick SHC after two years of Covid-19 restructuring of the club championship.

Bermingham and his Light Blue brigade won the Daly Cup title in his first year at the helm but fell at the semi final hurdle last year.

Now the 2011 winning captain attempts to lead the city side to their seventh Limerick SHC title in a 10th county final appearance when they play Kilmallock this Sunday (4.15pm) October 30 in the TUS Gaelic Grounds.

“It’s our 10th final and 11 years since we won our first title - we would like nothing more than to put a performance in that makes everybody in Na Piarsaigh proud,” said the former defender of a final, which is live on TG4.

Bermingham’s right hand man continues to be former Tipperary SHC winner Declan Fanning, who has also served as a selector with his native county.

“Declan is a terrific guy as is Emmet Crowley our Athletic Performance Coach and we are equally lucky in that we have a really solid management group that get along both on and off the field. That trickles it’s way through everybody that has even a small part to play; be it our kitmen or the people who cut the grass in Na Piarsaigh - we are really happy in each others company and we all just want to put the best foot forward for Na Piarsaigh,” outlined the manager.

“We have great guys doing great work and that makes it a lot easier,” said Bermingham, who previously served as a club selector under Shane O’Neill.

He added: “The majority of it is player driven to be fair. You don’t really have to maintain hunger because the group is very happy in each others company and they bring out the best in each other.”

Na Piarsaigh arrive into the final undefeated but did have to dig deep in a number of group games.

“On reflection of a couple of the games in the group stages there wasn’t a toss of a coin between ourselves and Kilmallock when we played in Doon and equally when we played Doon in Claughaun there was very little in that game.”

Sunday’s finalists would have been on the short-list of all from the outset of the championship and the Na Piarsaigh manager agrees that the showpiece of the club calendar makes for an intriguing finale.

"Not a lot they won’t know about us because we are very familiar with playing Kilmallock. We are under no illusion that Kilmallock are a fabulous team - very skillful, very physical and we have to go and match that if we want to succeed," said the Na Piarsaigh manager of Sunday's opposition.

On Sunday of course, Na Piarsaigh chase a league-championship double.

Back at the end of June, the city side defeated Adare in Kilmallock to win a seventh All-County Senior Hurling League title.

Na Piarsaigh used 35 players enroute to that league win and at present the club intermediate side are profiting as they plan for next months’ Limerick IHC final with Croagh-Kilfinny.

The Na Piarsaigh seniors have used 21 players in their championship , leaving an intermediate side brimming with exciting young talent and experienced players like Shane Dowling, David Breen, Alan Dempsey and Pat Gleeson, among others.

“We are lucky that we have big numbers and we are lucky that we can bring on a player of the quality of Alan Dempsey. That’s his first game back from injury and it means something to a player like Alan Dempsey to come back into an intermediate team and to get a performance like that because he didn’t know if his body was strong enough. We’ve David Breen and what a warrior he has been,” said Na Piarsaigh intermediate manager James Ryan.

“We have young lads coming through that deserve to be on this team but they have to fight to get on this team and that’s a great learning experience,” he stressed.

“We are in a very fortunate position that we are in three county finals; senior hurling, intermediate football and intermediate hurling and that’s a brilliant place to be but one thing is getting there and another thing is winning them.” said Na Piarsaigh intermediate manager Ryan.