‘BEST YET TO COME’
JOHN KIELY has declared that his Limerick are only going to get better after ending their All-ireland famine.
With a young side drawn largely from the under-21 successes of 2015 and last year and bolstered now by a first senior title in 45 years, Limerick are set to challenge for a number of years to come.
Asked how they’ll carry the mantle of champions in 2019, Kiely said: “I’ve no doubt it’ll be a challenge but it’s how we manage it.
“I said it last week, I just wanted the lads to be the best team that they could be [on Sunday].
“Is that the best they’ll ever be? No, they’ll be better. There’s loads of
BEATING Galway in March laid the foundations for their All-ireland final victory over them on Sunday last, says John Kiely.
Having trailed by nine points at one stage and by eight at half-time, Limerick battled back to pip the then All-ireland champions by two points and seal promotion to Division 1A at their expense on March 11.
It meant that, after an eight-year absence, Limerick were back in the League’s top flight after several demoralising near misses.
“In a hurling context, listen, Galway was big,” said boss Kiely of that 2-18 to 1-19 win.
“We didn’t acknowledge that during the course of the season but that was a fairly big moment above there.
“We were, what, eight points down? Nine points down? At half-time, the temptation was there to make a few changes and we went into the dressing room with a completely different message.
“We told the players, ‘No, we’re here, you’re eight down, we’re trusting ye 100 per cent, ye can turn this around’, and they took great confidence from that.
“We didn’t panic or we didn’t react or we didn’t lay blame anywhere. We were just happy to keep going, stuck to the process, stuck to the game plan and that was massive. “It gave the lads great satisfaction to have gotten out of 1B. That just was such a weight off our shoulders. Jesus, it was like a millstone over our back. Eight years.
“So many teams had been good enough to do it and get out of it and didn’t. Dublin in Thurles there in 2013, that was a killer.” They went on to reach the League semi-final where they performed well before losing to
Tipperary after extra time, which irked Kiely.
“That was strange.
Yeah, we played well but lost and I was very unhappy with that.
“I just didn’t like the softness of the mentality of being happy with defeat because we were in a semifinal and we had qualified out of 1B.
“That ground with me a small bit. But, having said that, did it help us going into the Championship match in May? Maybe a little.”
It seemed to be a perfect storm for Limerick this year as Kiely felt the change in the structure which would see the Munster SHC played on a round robin basis for the first time played into their hands.
“It came at the right time. I knew this Championship was designed for us. We had a massive panel of players, young players. Recovery was going to be quick.”
At the victory banquet on Sunday night, several of Limerick’s previous successful team from 1973 were present and, Kiely observed, only too happy to pass on the mantle. “They were ready to do it in the 80s, they were ready to do it in the 90s, it just didn’t happen.
“They’re incredible men. Even in the banquet, they were so understated, they were so behind the scenes. Eamonn Grimes spent 10 seconds with me, he was so happy to have it passed onto Declan [Hannon].”