Unbeaten year made county football title 'extra special' for Fr Caseys

FR CASEYS manager Keith Harnett admitted going through the whole Irish Wire Products Senior Football Championship campaign unbeaten made the year extra special for the Abbeyfeale men.

Just like Kilmallock in the senior hurling seven days earlier, Fr Caseys completed a perfect year when they held on for a two-point win over Kildimo-Pallaskenry in Mick Neville Park.

“We spoke about that coming into this game there,” Harnett said.

“If we didn't go and back up all those wins, it would have meant nothing. So it was extra special putting the cherry on top today and getting over the line.”

Describing the post-game emotions as “surreal”, the manager said the feeling was “taking a while to sink in”.

Twenty years after Caseys defeated St Senas - coincidentally also by two points - the wait was too long for the Cup to return to the banks of the River Feale.

For the club that have lost more county finals than any other side in Limerick, they were intent on making sure they held on for the win on Sunday.

For a team packed full of county minor medals, the finally got over the line and claimed the big one.

“You'd always hear lads say after a really big game, it takes time to sink in, but it actually does,” Harnett said.

“It's amazing, seeing the players there lift the cup and bring it down to us. Magical, magical, magical.

“All the support for us on the field has always been massive. Whenever we go to play a game we've always had massive support, but you see when we came down to the wire there,” he added.

The last three games coming into this final saw Fr Caseys secure double-figure margins of victory. On the other side of the coin, Kildimo-Pallaskenry defeated the three clubs - Mungret-St Pauls, Adare and Newcastle West - who shared the last 10 county titles between them.

However, Harnett dismissed the narrative he said was going around the county ahead of this game that his side were not ready for a titanic struggle.

“There were comments passed around during the week that we weren't battle-tested - but the boys pulled through today when we came to the wire, we pulled away again and they showed their class.”