“We focus on ourselves” | Billy Lee discusses Kerry challenge ahead of Saturday’s Munster Final

“It will be a good week for Limerick football,” proclaimed Billy Lee as the senior side prepare for Kerry in the provincial decider this Saturday in Killarney.

Limerick have it all to do against the Kingpins of Munster football and the Newcastle native is fully focused on the task at hand while the county looks forward to a first final in twelve years.

Just twice since that meeting in Killarney have Kerry failed to claim the Munster title but Lee admitted that Limerick are focused on their own game with the talent at the Kingdom’s disposal well documented as 1/100 favourites to win the game.

“It will be a good week for Limerick football, there’s no two ways about that. It brings it own demands on the management team in terms of preparation. You don’t have time to think about enjoying it, you’ve got to just get focused and prepare and plan.

“We just focus on ourselves. You could spend a lot of time talking about the opposition and you can fail to turn up on the day yourself so the full focus has to be on ourselves. I think you don’t have to watch videos to know what Kerry are about, everyone knows what Kerry are about. Our priority will be ourselves, getting ourselves right mentally and physically and keeping it as simple as that.”

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Regardless of the outcome, Limerick will have another championship game to look forward to, whether it be a All-Ireland quarter-final or qualifier the following week.

It will guarantee at least four championship games for the first time since 2011 with Lee and co building on what was a particularly impressive Spring where there was no obvious taking off point but continued focus and ambition from the squad as Lee outlined.

“There wasn’t any particular point where you were thinking it’s taking off, it’s really just working at it and challenge ourselves with our own targets and our own ambitions and that’s how tight Division Three is.”

Limerick’s journey to the Munster final under Lee has been an eventful one as he inherited a team in the winter of 2016 that hadn’t won a provincial game in four years.

That trend continued until Lee’s third season in charge where they shocked the footballing landscape with a comprehensive win over Tipperary in Semple Stadium, with Tipp reaching the All-Ireland semi-final a couple of months prior to Lee’s appointment.

Limerick’s trajectory since has certainly been upward as they have since secured wins in Munster in every year as well as two promotions in three years.

The group that Lee came into five years ago, is largely the same as the team he possesses now but the battle of places has certainly intensified with no player assured of their jersey.

“When you come back in you have to wait your chance. You give up the jersey to someone else, that person owns it until something happen, I think that’s what happened against Laois. Sean (O’Dea) was on a yellow card we had no choice, but whatever it panned out, it fell for Brian. It wasn’t based on the fact that he was with us for the previous three years. You hand up your jersey to someone if they hang on to it they keep it.

“We’ve got to bring a bit of honesty to the group, that’s how we’ve always been and that’s the way it worked. It fell for Paul Maher earlier this year as well. We had a couple of injuries going into the Longford game and we lost Brian Donovan after five minutes and we had no choice but to put Paul in. You fall down the pecking order and you stay there until the door opens but the lads in fairness have the bit between their teeth and they understand that and they will keep working at it. The door opens faster for some and doesn’t open as fast for others but you know it’s up to the player then to kick down the door.”

Limerick face Kerry in the Munster Senior Football Final in Killarney this Saturday at 3pm.