Neville inspires footballers to McGrath Cup title

Ahead of last Saturday’s McGrath Cup final, Limerick football manager Billy Lee spoke about the importance of developing a winning mentality and his young side continued in that vein as they secured a 0-20 to 0-16 victory against a fancied Cork side in the decider.

After the game Lee, again referred to that winning mentality, but was quick to dampen the newfound expectations ahead of the resumption of the league against Waterford next week.

“It’s about winning. Winning, winning, winning all the time for us to get it into our heads. We have to be careful and not get ahead of ourselves as we travel to Waterford.”

Limerick were ferocious against Cork and held the lead for the majority of the game with their work rate, in particular, coming in for much praise. Lee echoed this sentiment as his side look to build on a largely positive 2019.

“The boys won a lot of hard ball out there, because they put themselves in a position to win hard ball. You make your own luck, it doesn’t just happen and they put in the work off the field. It’s fantastic for them because it just confirms the work they are doing off the field. They can challenge themselves more to see where they can take it.”

“We learned a hard lesson from Cork to Tipperary last year and that won’t happen this year.”

Ballysteen’s Danny Neville was in exceptional form on the night, notching 0-7 from full-forward with Lee delighted to have the forward back in with the squad.

“Danny Neville is capable of that any time he togs out to play football and it’s great to have him back. That’s what Limerick football wants is the best players in the county out there. Thankfully there’s a good group of guys there.”

However, Lee was quick to refocus his intentions on the League with Limerick still in the bottom tier. “We have to be careful with the expectations. We’re not sitting here saying we are going to get promotion because we beat Cork in the McGrath cup final.

“We’ve a hard journey in the league and ultimately that’s what it’s about. Can we get from the bottom of the league to the top of it?”

He also acknowledged the hurler’s victory and hoped his side could replicate their progress over the past couple of years.

“It’s great to see them at the top of the game because they’re clubmates of the boys and it inspires them.”