Newcastlewest manager Joe Lee wary of a “dangerous” Adare side.

Newcastlewest have the chance to land their second county senior title in three years this weekend. Manager Joe Lee has been building towards this moment for the best part of a year now and his side have one final hurdle to negotiate at the Gaelic Grounds this Sunday in the form of a young talented Adare side.

Newcastlewest are favourites to claim their fourth Limerick Senior Football Championship title and manager Joe Lee says Sunday’s final is the culmination of a lot of hard work.

“All the hard work done during the year is towards the county final. It’s two West Limerick teams, we’d have been there or thereabouts early on but Adare certainly weren’t, bring it on, we’ll see how it goes.”

“We got the result in the last round against Kieran’s, we got a bit of momentum after that. We played well enough against Monaleen without setting the world alight. It’s hard work, going for nine months and trying to look after thirty odd lads, but it’s enjoyable too.”

Despite being firm favourites, Lee knows what Adare are capable of, having witnessed their fine semi-final win over Dromcolloger-Broadford first hand. It should also be noted that this Adare side has hit a rich vein of goal scoring form in the knock out stages with seven goals in their last three games. Lee says that Adare have scoring threats all over the field.

“I was at the game and in fairness they were very impressive. They’ve young lads there that are very good, they’re good footballers. They’ve the Connolly’s, the Bourke’s, the Lyons’ all these boys they know how to play football, they’re young as well so they don’t see any danger. They’re a dangerous team, they’ve four or five forwards who can score, you don’t have that in most teams you only have three forwards that you have to mark.

Lee isn’t surprised by Adare’s showing in the semi-final but didn’t fully expect them to do the job against an experienced Drom-Broadford side. “I saw them playing Ballylanders so I wasn’t surprised. If you asked me to back them I probably wouldn’t have but it doesn’t surprise me that they won the game. At the end of the day you can’t beat youth and they’re on the rise.”

Both sides will look to rely on their attacking style to gain a footing in the game but Newcastle West will come in as the more experienced outfit, however, Adare’s younger stars have the benefit of tasting county success at underage level.

“Both teams tend to be attack minded from what I’ve seen from Adare. The bones of our side are about twenty-six but some are thirtyish, that’s the nucleus. Adare are around twenty-three, most of them but they’ve won the under twenty-one county and the intermediate, they know how to win counties.”

“If you have two teams that are trying to play on the front foot, eventually it kicks in and your training kicks in and I think that’s the way the two teams will play. It will be an open enough game especially at the Gaelic Grounds which is a big pitch. It’ll suit both teams to try and play expansive football.”

Captain Stephen Nix is an injury doubt ahead of the game as he suffered a broken finger. “Stephen is a concern with a broken finger, so we’ll see with him. Other than there’s only a couple of niggles.”

With a full month’s separation between the West Limerick’s sides semi-final win over current champions Monaleen and this weekend’s showpiece at the Gaelic Grounds Lee admits that keeping his side fresh and ready for the game is a challenge.

“Keeping things fresh is the issue, the players are there and they’re ready for it. It’s keeping a bit of a hunger in them too, keeping them away from it too much is bad but we’ll hope that they keep their hunger.”

Newcastle West experienced county championship success two years ago following a long wait. It has given the squad a long awaited test of success, something that hope to savour again come Sunday afternoon.

“The boys really enjoyed themselves it was the first time they had all won a county, they’re more experienced now but we’ll want to go on and experience it again, whether we’re good enough on the day is another story.”