It's the start of the Munster Club Senior Football Championship this afternoon.
Waterford champions The Nire travel to take on Newcastlewest in the Provincial Quarter-Final.
It's been two weeks since the Nire lifted their tenth county title capturing the Conway Cup with a hard-fought o1-7 to 0-9 points win over Rathgormack at Fraher Field. Aaron Ryan's second-half goal proved to be the big score on that occasion.
Newcastle West lifted the Limerick title five weeks ago when they overcame the 2020 champions Adare in the decider by 1-8 to 0-5 points. They'll be hoping to make home advantage count this afternoon. But Manager Michael Ryan says the Nire is going there to win:
"They have a lot of options in their team. The biggest thing of all, I suppose is probably playing on their home patch because some people will say that's worth a couple of points. I don't know if it is or not because The Nire would have a good record away in the Munster club.
"It's a very, very big task. But having said that, these are the days you're training for; we want to play big games like this. So we're going to go up there and relish it. I'm not going to say we're going to 'give it our best shot' because that's an old cliche, we're going up to try and win that game."
Michael Ryan's charges last appeared in Munster in 2018 when they last won the county title. They made a good start on that occasion beating Limerick champions Adare by 1-18 to 12 points before going down to Milltown Malbay in the semifinal.
The Kerry champions await in the last four in two weeks time. A tight and tense battle is anticipated.
This one should go down to the wire. Throw-in in Newcastle West is at 1 o'clock and Gavin Whelan will have live updates on WLR throughout the game.
Portlaw
Meanwhile, in the opening round of the Intermediate Munster Club football Championship, Portlaw make the trip to Templetuohy for a clash with Tipperary champions, Drom & Inch.
Noel Mackey's side overcame Dungarvan by two points to lift the County title three weeks ago.
He says the underdog tag has suited his charges right throughout the Championship:
"You know, I like being an underdog. It's a part of my character, being an underdog all my life. So even going into the county final against Dungarvan our backs were to the wall. I suppose there's a thing and Waterford all through the years with hurling or football with the senior county teams - when we're down we're dangerous.
"That's the kind of attitude we have here in Portlaw all year. We weren't expected to beat Tramore- we beat him, we weren't expected to beat Dungarvan - we beat them, and we're not expected to beat Drom and Inch by the experts outside the county."
That one is underway @ 1:30pm, and Tony Ryan will keep us updated here on WLR.
