Irish Daily Mirror

Somewhere bet w ee n L im & none JOHN PLAYS DOWN TREATY’S CHANCES IN CHAMPIONSH­IP

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The Treaty have a fine crop of emerging talent and, after an impressive League campaign which saw them restored to the top flight after eight seasons outside of it, they have been earmarked as a side that could go far this year.

They open their Munster campaign at home to Michael Ryan’s (inset) Tipperary on Sunday, a clash many feel could be repeated in the provincial final.

Kiely though, doesn’t believe the growing expectatio­n around his team is justified just yet.

“Not really, not on Championsh­ip form from last year and the year before,” he said.

“Listen, we know we have improved from last year. We had a very poor Championsh­ip campaign last year.

“We made some poor errors against Clare, conceded some soft goals. We played quite well against Kilkenny, but we weren’t efficient enough with the ball that we had.

“We hit a lot of wides on the night, but the team has evolved a lot since then. We are a lot stronger and we are better prepared to take on the Championsh­ip now.”

Their last competitiv­e outing was against Tipperary in the League semi-final, a game they lost after extratime in what has been their only loss since last year’s Championsh­ip.

Kiely added: “We had opportunit­ies to win the game. We had a rather exciting end to the League when you think about it, between Galway, Clare, and Tipp, they were all tight games.

“We put ourselves in some difficult positions in those games too.

“We ended up with quite a big deficit to claw back, but I suppose it was a good test of our character that we were all able to respond in the situations, to put ourselves back into the game, to have a chance of winning it.

“As regards the Tipp game, it was a really high quality game. The speed was ferocious and the physicalit­y was very intense.

“I was very pleased with the reaction of our players. They were able to step up and take the game to Tipperary at times.

“Tipp are a really top class side who have ambitions and expectatio­ns to be in the All-ireland final this year.

“Based on their form of the last seven or eight years you would have to say that is justified. But I think Limerick teams always feel that when Tipperary come to town, they have a chance of doing well.”

Limerick close their round robin series of games with a trip to Ennis and, at this moment in time, Kiely says he would take having to win that game against Clare to progress.

“I would, yeah, absolutely, totally. An awful lot of counties will go into the competitio­n feeling that if we are still there or thereabout­s for the last round… who knows, maybe we will get out, get our three wins, drive on, be in a Munster final, and not have to worry about the last game.

“Realistica­lly people are going to take it one game at a time and hope they are still in there for the last game.”

 ??  ?? MAN WITH A PLAN.. John Kiely is building up momentum with Limerick A CLOSE ENCOUNTER Limerick lost in extra-time to Tipperary in the League semi-final
MAN WITH A PLAN.. John Kiely is building up momentum with Limerick A CLOSE ENCOUNTER Limerick lost in extra-time to Tipperary in the League semi-final
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