Lyons: 'Massive' for bristling young talent in Monaleen to be back in Limerick senior hurling
MONALEEN previously won the Limerick Premier IHC title in 2016.
The Castletroy outfit then stayed five years in the senior ranks before dropping back down last season.
Last Saturday they ensured their stay outside of the top flight was as short as possible with promotion assured as 2022 Limerick Premier IHC winners.
Remarkably captain Lorcan Lyons, Ed Doyle and Jamie Porter are the only three to start both the 2016 and 2022 county final.
“I am absolutely over the moon,” beamed Lorcan Lyons after lifting the Michael Fox Memorial Cup.
”The first half was a real battle when we were against the wind. We got a bit of comfort from the goal but then they rattled off points and we were struggling to get to grips with it but maintained our shape at the same time and were lucky enough to go in as a draw at half time. Some of scores our lads got in that second half were top notch,” recalled centre back Lyons.
“We stuck to our gameplan and kept our shape and just knew that the moves and scores would come when we got the chance to score.
Monaleen were against the breeze in the opening half but were level at half time.
“It was important to get a good start in the second half with that little bit of a breeze and momentum was always going to be important,” he said.
Lyons was full of praise for the work-rate of his team-mates.
“The first line of defence is the full forward line and that was something we put our mantra on - we probably didn’t have that for the last couple of years but we tried to bring that into our play and it makes the backs lives that so much easier and the lads did that brilliantly today.”
Monaleen now follow Murroe-Boher, who were the last team to make an immediate return senior after a relegation – that was 2017.
“It was a massive goal and with Limerick hurling going from strength to strength we wanted to be in the top 12 teams and competing. People would say Monaleen is a big area but the hurling community is still only growing. We have our U17s and U19s and want to see them playing and competing at the highest possible standard for hurling that is there for them,” explained Lyons, referencing their U17s and U19s who both contested Premier level championship finals this season.
Next up a November 19 Munster club IHC semi final against Doora-Barefield (Clare) or Causeway (Kerry).
“Any Munster club championship game will be extremely tough. We will enjoy a couple of day and then get back on the training ground,” said Lyons.
Ed Doyle echoed the words of his captain with the full forward stating the seven group game structure of the championship proved beneficial for Monaleen.
"It’s huge for the club - we have been down here before and we know how hard it is to get out of this division. Seven games and it can be very tough if you go on a bad run and you can get stuck here for a long time. I can remember two clubs, Croom and Murroe-Boher, who came down and went straight down again so we were very conscious to set out our stall and make sure we were in a good position to get into at least the knockout stages this year," explained Doyle.
Earlier this year, Monaleen lost the county U17 final to Mungret and the U19 final to Bruff but Doyle is adamant that the club is full of rising talent and six U19s played PIHC this season.
"That's the beauty of Premier Intermediate with seven group games you get an opportunity to blood new lads in and we have an unbelievable group," he stressed.
"The underage system in Monaleen is absolutely striving and we are going to have fellas coming year on year, two or three of them and hopefully that puts us in good stead going forward in senior. We are under no illusion that the Senior B is very similar to this but getting the opportunity to blood so many young fellas this year is great for us going forward and gives us an opportunity to try and kick on but of course it’s not going to be easy," said Doyle.