Kiely optimistic this is just the beginning
LIMERICK manager John Kiely is confident that the seeds of Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling final success will bear fruit in the future. When the county won its seventh senior title in 1973, nobody imagined that it would be 45 years and five final defeats before the Liam MacCarthy Cup returned. But the man who has now delivered a rare double of Under 21 and senior success is determined that his county build on this achievement. ‘This is not the end. It’s a new beginning. I’m just so thrilled for all the young kids that are at home with hurleys this morning, out in Limerick. ‘Because that’s the real dividend from this — that spin-off for the thousands of youngsters that are going to go around with hurleys this week, next week and the week after, dreaming of being Cian Lynchs and Shane Dowlings and Peter Caseys. And not thinking they should be Seamie Callanan or Patrick Horgan or Henry Shefflin, even though they’re great players. ‘They have their own standards and their own heroes. And that’s the real dividend. ‘Because those guys will come through in time. I see this as a new beginning. These are a young team. There was doubts cast whether we could bring it through to senior level.’ From a qualifier defeat by Kilkenny in 2017 in Kiely’s first year in charge, Limerick regrouped this season to go on a remarkable eight-match odyssey all the way to the final, hanging tight in the most dramatic of finales. ‘That’s the challenge for us there now to come back and back this up with consistency, not just within the year but beyond the year. It’ll be hard obviously. Look at Galway yesterday, look at the struggle they had over nine matches, like. They were incredible.’ And he insisted there is plenty of room for improvement. ‘Is that the best they’ll ever be? No, they’ll be better. There’s loads of room for improvement in our team, you know. We’d 20 wides, like. We can surely do a bit better than that next year.’ He paid tribute to the previous heroes of ’73 and how happy they were to see the torch passed on to the new generation, team captain Declan Hannon following in the footsteps of Eamonn Grimes. ‘Even last night in the banquet, they were so understated, they were so behind the scenes. Eamonn Grimes spent 10 seconds with me because he was just so happy to have it passed on to Declan. ‘They were great, they were incredible. They’re incredible men. We would have spoken about it from time to time and the fact that they were just human like us and they managed to do it, so why not?’ If there is one thing Kiely would like to see changed, it’s the fiveman restriction on match-day substitutes. Linked to that is the pressure to name an official 26man squad early in the week. ‘A restriction needs to be lifted on the number of subs because they’re just getting cramped. Seven’s the magic number. Plus you need to be able to change the panel between Wednesday and Sunday, that’s another restriction that needs to be changed. ‘Sure lads get injured in training on Friday night. Peter Casey got injured the other night. He went over on his ankle on a sliotar. It’s not good enough that you’ve 36 players on a panel, you name 26 on Wednesday. One gets injured on Friday and you can’t use any of the other 10 fellas who have been working their ass off for 10 months. That’s wrong.’