“We’ll have to earn our crust this year” | Monaleen’s Dermot Gleeson believes promotion from Premier IHC will be a difficult task

2022 will be Monaleen’s first year outside of the Limerick SHC since 2016.

Monaleen will be looking to return back to the heights of the Limerick SHC on first attempt as they get their Premier IHC campaign underway against Cappamore this weekend.

The Castletroy side suffered relegation from the Senior Hurling Championship last season as they ended on zero points in a group containing Kildimo-Pallaskenry as well as Adare.

Although the experience of playing at the top level for five years may give Monaleen an edge over their opponents, manager Dermot Gleeson believes it won’t be an easy task to get his side back to the top division.

“We’re not for one minute saying we’re going to bounce back up there, it’s not going to be as simple as that. I think we’ll have to earn our crust this year and we’ll be blooding a lot of young lads, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Monaleen were second in the Bon Secours Hospital Senior City League this season, just one point short of Na Piarsaigh but they’ll face a different challenge in the championship against country teams.

The Monaleen manager acknowledges the intensity that sides like Cappamore and Glenroe will bring to the games and they’ll be expecting a right battle when they go face-to-face.

“They’ll bring the ferocious intensity, the country spirit, you know I’m well aware of it myself. “

“So, I always say when you go out the country you’ll get lots of it, they don’t care where we were winning in city league finals, they’ll be going out there just trying to win that senior intermediate final.”

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Monaleen take on Cappamore this Friday in Caherconlish at 7pm in the first round of the Limerick Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship.