Limerick SFC preview: Fr Caseys favourites to regain title
While the Abbeyfeale men are playing in the final for the 26th time, Kildimo-Pallaskenry are in their maiden decider
ON A day where Fr Caseys take top spot as the club who will have played the most Limerick Senior Football Championship finals, their opponents are at the other end of the scale.
While the Abbeyfeale men are playing in the final for the 26th time, Kildimo-Pallaskenry are in their maiden decider.
It has been a meteoric rise for Kildimo-Pallaskenry, whose first team played in the Junior ‘B’ grade as recently as 2014.
Four years later, they defeated Cappamore in the Junior ‘A’ final - current stars Tony McCarthy, Peter Nash and Kyle Hayes all part of that success.
Then in 2021, Kildimo-Pallaskenry were two point winners over Rathkeale to enter the senior ranks.
It has all culminated in Sunday’s clash in Mick Neville Park (3.30pm throw in) where they contest their first ever senior final.
Despite playing in more finals than any other active club, Caseys lie in fourth in the all-time roll of honour. They have lost 17 of the 25 finals they have played, including the last two they have played in.
The west Limerick men are looking to bridge a gap of their own - last Thursday was the 20-year anniversary since the last time they won the Fr Casey Cup.
Nobody could have imagined after they edged St Senan’s that day such a wait had just begun. They have been in just two finals since, the 2009 loss to Dromcollogher-Broadford and the 2024 reversal against Adare.
Since winning the intermediate title in 1991 they have remained at the top table of Limerick football.
Remarkably, they lost three senior finals in a row from 1994-96 before falling at the final hurdle again in 1998.
There is no such baggage in the Kildimo-Pallaskenry camp. It has been a straight upward trajectory for over a dozen years since the Junior ‘B’ success.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing in 2026 however. One of a number of dual senior clubs alongside, Newcastle West, Mungret-St Pauls, Adare, Monaleen and Oola/Doon, no side has as much crossover between codes as Kildimo-Pallaskenry.
Such is the crossover, that the club’s senior footballers and senior hurlers have the same management teams.
Former Limerick camogie manager Declan Nash wears the bainisteoir’s bib for both sides with former dual inter-county player Stephen Lavin coaching the teams. John Barry, Alan Fitzgerald, Jody Fitzgerald, Peter Lavin, Jim Maher, Éanna McGarrigle and Kieran McMahon make up their backroom team.
The men charged with bringing the county title back to Abbeyfeale after two decades are Keith Harnett, Seamus Lenihan, Mark Fitzgerald, John Paul O’Keeffe and Eoin Broderick.
Caseys will be looking to emulate the achievements of the Kilmallock senior hurlers and go through the whole championship with a 100% record.
It has been a different campaign for Kildimo-Pallaskenry. They have had to dig deep and find ways to progress.
They finished third in their group behind Mungret-St Pauls and Rathkeale before needing to extra time to get past the defending champions in their semi-final.
They also had a noteworthy wins over 2024 kingpins Adare and the 2021-23 three-in-a-row victors Newcastle West en route to this final.
A tough, physical encounter is expected on Sunday.