This victory was so Kiely sought after

IN the past three years, the only Championship scalp Limerick had collected was Westmeath’s.

Since beating Clare in the Munster preliminary round in 2015, they had played eight Championship games and won just two, both of them qualifiers in Mullingar.

Last year – John Kiely’s first in charge – they drew a blank completely, losing to Clare in Munster before Kilkenny sent them packing in the qualifiers.

“It’s significant for a number of factors,” said Kiely of yesterday’s defeat of Tipperary. “Number one, we hadn’t won a Championship match in a couple of years and we needed to.

“This is our first Championship win with this group. That’s a significant milestone in itself.

“The challenge is there now to build on that. They hunger is definitely there within this group.

“We have three games left in the round robin – let’s go and see what we can do with those games.”

Although Tipp went ahead briefly in the last quarter, Kiely said he was convinced his side would come out on top

after how they had started the second half.

“We were physically stronger. Fifteen minutes into the second half, I really couldn’t see any other result.

“We were getting dominant in all the key areas, particularly at the back.”

Limerick now have what seems like an ideal two-week break before travelling to Cork though Kiely added: “At the moment it is [ideal]. Talk to me in two weeks’ time, you might say it didn’t fall at all.

“We’ll have to wait and see what happens in the other games. We have to just focus on ourselves, get our heads down.

“I think all the lads are really looking forward to going to Cork and the new stadium and playing their first Championship match there.

“We’ve travelled very well all year. Any of our away games have been good performances so we’ve no fear in going on the road.”