THE Lyons of Limerick Premier Intermediate Championship kicked off this weekend with a full set of fixtures.
Ahead of the start of the season, Newcastle West’s Willie Hurley & Shaun Brown caught up with Sporting Limerick to give their thoughts ahead of their maiden Premier Intermediate campaign.
The team kick off against Dromin Athlacca on Sunday and manager Willie Hurley knows all too well that they’ll be tough to handle.
In the past, they’ve given Newcastle West ‘a few lessons’ but Hurley has tunnel vision on his own team and its showing in their debut at the grade.
“They’re strong, mobile and have a couple of outstanding players but we have to do our own thing and trust in ourselves.”
With six or seven dual players on the starting team, preparation has been far from ideal.
“We try to work fairly hard together, you get them for a night here or half an hour after a football session but it worked out well last year so it can be done, it just needs a bit of cooperation.”
Shaun Brown is captain and one of the players that will be making the step up to intermediate grade with the centre-back looking forward to the challenge the step up will bring.
“We’ve been knocking on the door the last few years to try and get up here. There’s been football the past few weeks but we have an amazing bunch of boys that play dual so we’re relishing the challenge,” Brown said.
Making the step up from intermediate to premier intermediate is considered one of the most difficult progressions in the game. A lot of people believe that it’s the hardest, most competitive competition within Limerick GAA but there’s little fear within the Newcastle West camp.
“Over the last few years, we’ve knocked on the door of the final. We eventually got over the line. We’ve been training hard, playing the ball around at a faster pace.”
Speaking of the success of last year against Na Piarsaigh, Brown still looks upon it with very fond memories.
“It was immense. Down through the years, we’ve tried so hard to get there, there’s been players over the years that just never got there and that was for them as well because they put in a lot of groundwork.”
The post WATCH: Newcastle West relishing Premier Intermediate debut against Dromin Athlacca appeared first on Sporting Limerick.
