Trading places and bainisteoir bibs, advancing the cause of Limerick football has often felt like a family business in the Lee household.
Jimmy Lee will be in charge of Limerick when they face Wexford in Saturday’s Division 4 league football final at Croke Park. His older brother Billy was the man patrolling the Croke Park sideline three years ago when Limerick played Louth in the Division 3 decider.
As for the last time the Limerick footballers actually won silverware at Croke Park, that was in 2013 when Maurice Horan managed the Treaty County to a Division 4 final win over Offaly. Joe Lee, the middle of the Newcastle West brothers, was a selector that day.
There might not be much glamour squabbling for points in the lower tiers of league football but it’s all the more important because of that. These are the best of times for Limerick hurling so no harm having some folk safeguarding Limerick football from getting buried beneath all the garlands tossed at the county’s all-conquering hurlers.
The Lee name runs all the way through football on Shannonside at this stage. No Limerick senior football team has played at Croke Park for more than a decade now without having at least one of Billy, Joe or Jimmy involved in the set-up.
“I suppose we don’t even think about it like that really,” says Jimmy. “For us it would have all started with our mother, she would have taken us to games and got us involved when we were kids.”
Those in Limerick who remember Mary Lee say she was a force of nature, way ahead of her time in terms of female participation in the GAA.
And while it is not unheard of for brothers to manage their county – Phil and Richie Bennis did so with the Limerick hurlers – it is certainly unusual for siblings to guide their county to league finals at Croke Park just three years apart.
Not that Billy has been on the phone offering Jimmy bucketloads of advice this week. “No, I’d leave him to it, he’s his own person, and he has a very good back room team there. I’d probably only be confusing him,” says Billy.
But behind the joviality of it all is a necessary resilience. Just as steadfast hurling folk in football counties get deserved credit for banging the drum for the small-ball code, so too should those guardians who keep the football flame alive in predominately hurling strongholds.
Billy managed the Limerick senior footballers for six seasons, from 2017 to 2022. He picked them up in Division 4 and dropped them off in Division 2. They also reached the 2022 Munster final. It wasn’t nothing.
After stepping away he took charge of Austin Stacks in Kerry. Last November he led them to the intermediate football title, bringing the Rockies back to the senior ranks. They went on to win the Munster IFC before losing an All-Ireland club semi-final to Ballinderry in January.
But even during his time in the Kingdom, Limerick football pulled at the heartstrings – he has spent the last two years also coaching with the county’s football development squads. Inevitably they lose some of the most talented teenagers to the hurlers but there are still enough green shoots for optimism.
Of the 2013 Division 4 winning team, Iain Corbett is the only remaining player.
Jimmy was part of the back room team in 2022 when Limerick came up short against Mickey Harte’s Louth in that league final. But his ascension to manager was no great succession master plan. If anything Jimmy feels he is something of an accidental Limerick boss. “Billy and Joe would have been more touted for this kind of role than me. It wasn’t something I had in my vision for the future,” he says.
Not that his was a chance appointment though. The 2023 season was a tumultuous one for the Limerick senior footballers – Ray Dempsey stepped down after just five games in charge and was then replaced by Mark Fitzgerald on an interim basis for the rest of the year. All the while Jimmy was on his way to managing Newcastle West to three consecutive Limerick senior football titles between 2021-23, the first time the club ever achieved the feat.
He was brought in by Limerick to steady a ship taking on water. But his maiden voyage in 2024 barely made it out of harbour. Limerick were relegated from Division 3 after failing to win any of their games – the constant revolving door of players coming and going has hampered the side over the years.
Entering 2024 Jimmy was without 18 players from the previous season while there was a similar turnover this year. From the tail end of the 2022 campaign until the third round of this year’s competition, Limerick went 17 games without a league win. Turning that around wasn’t nothing either.
Limerick gained promotion by chalking up four victories, drawing two games and losing just one.
“Getting back to Division 3 would have been the major aim at the outset,” says Jimmy. “It’s not that we would have talked about it as the league was going on, we would have been taking it game by game, but in the background getting promoted was the hope.”
James Naughton’s last-gasp free in round six against Wicklow to earn Limerick a draw was possibly the most important score of their league, but last weekend he hit the national headlines by scoring a staggering 4-12 against Waterford.
“James is a good lad, he’s a very talented player, and we were delighted for him. I told him he would be a marked man from here on, but as he said himself a lot of his scores last weekend were team scores,” says Jimmy.
In terms of the 2025 season, they face Cork in a Munster SFC quarter-final next Saturday, April 5th, with Kerry awaiting the winners in the semis. Realistically the Tailteann Cup represents Limerick’s best chance of summer silverware. So the opportunity of collecting a cup at Croke Park this weekend is not something to be disregarded.
“The Limerick footballers don’t get too many chances to play in Croke Park,” adds Jimmy. “If you asked any of the lads at training during the week they all would have given you the same answer, now you are in a final you want to try win it.”
Joe, who also had a spell as Limerick minor boss, is currently part of the management team with the county’s senior women’s football team. And their two sisters, Mary and Margaret, are also heavily involved in Gaelic games.
“You were proud to be managing a Limerick team in a league final at Croke Park,” recalls Billy of that 2022 final. “We had also come up from Division 4 in 2020 but there was no final that year because of Covid. But more than anything the pride you had was for the players to be getting the opportunity to play at Croke Park.”
Standing between Limerick and a first title since 2013 is a Wexford team boasting a 100 per cent record in the league. John Hegarty’s side won all seven of their group games – including a 0-17 to 0-13 win over Limerick in Rathkeale.
Irrespective of the result the impact of a Limerick football team running out at GAA headquarters this weekend is something Billy will try harness with the county’s development squads next Saturday morning.
“I understand the argument behind discontinuing the league finals, for the stronger counties in Division 1 they are not the biggest of days, but they are important for teams like ourselves trying to bring lads together,” says Billy.
“The fact all the divisional finals are in Croke Park gives every team, every player, a realistic opportunity of getting there. Otherwise what are we doing it for?
“Limerick aren’t going to win a senior football All-Ireland in the near future but they could win a National League title in Croke Park. For younger kids looking on, that’s the kind of thing that will show them what is possible and encourage them to stay involved. The Division 3 and 4 finals won’t change the course of history in terms of who is going to win the All-Ireland in any given year, but it would be wrong to think they don’t matter.”
With the Limerick hurlers parked up this weekend the county’s footballers have the stage to themselves on Saturday. Opportunity knocks. Up in the stands, a flock of Lee siblings will be urging their county and their brother on.
Advancing the cause of Limerick football, it has its moments.
