Consistency of selection and faith in personnel are allowing new Limerick game-plan to flourish

WHEN Limerick lost to Clare by 11 points in their final Munster Championship round-robin game in Ennis, denying them a place in the Munster final, the temptation for John Kiely could have been to twist instead of stick.

Kiely has, after all, assembled the strongest Limerick squad in many years, fuelled by two All-Ireland U-21 wins in three years and a raft of schools and thirdlevel titles that have peppered the city and county in recent times.

But when they travelled to Netwatch Cullen Park to play Carlow in a preliminary All-Ireland quarter-final, change was minimal relative to what it might have been after a defeat of that scale.

Aaron Gillane, left out of the starting team against Clare after serving a one-match ban (against Waterford) for his red card against Cork, was restored for Shane Dowling while Sean Finn, replaced through injury after just 13 minutes in Ennis, and Darragh O’Donovan were benched for William O’Donoghue and Richie McCarthy to come in.

But otherwise Kiely and his management team held firm, resisting change for sake of change.

Gillane apart, the only other change in the four Munster round-robin matches saw Seamus Hickey displaced by Mike Casey at full-back after the opening game against Tipperary.

When they went to Thurles to play Kilkenny in the All-Ireland quarter-final

12 days ago, Finn and O’Donovan had been restored and familiarity had strengthened.

For a team still finding their way through the upper reaches of the game, it’s a remarkable level of consistency of selection, on a par with the game’s protagonists –

Galway and Sunday’s opponents Cork who are both unbeaten in their province (and in Galway’s case all championship games) over the last two years.

Very quickly, Kiely (pictured) has identified a team to take Limerick forward and has given them every opportunity, even when days like Ennis surface. A first win over Kilkenny in 45 years is the fruits of that faith. The pace of change in personnel has quickened over the two years that Kiely has been in charge with just seven starters now remaining from TJ Ryan’s last championship team selection against Clare in 2016.

With the stability of selection they have enjoyed this year, they have been able to craft and perfect a game-plan that former captain Donal O’Grady feels is taking the county away from their more traditional values.

“It’s a nice style they’re playing,” said O’Grady. “Limerick tend to traditionally look to get ball in around the edge of the square but now they’re playing to more method.

“The movement up front is unbelievable, I’m doing work with the local radio station 95fm and we obviously have an elevated view of the game,” he said.

“When our half-backs get a ball the movement up front, it’s something we’ve been lacking. Is it better coaching? That ‘this is where you have to go to get a yard

on a defender’? It looks really good. Cork play a similar style, they never stick to the same six positions.”

O’Grady’s observation on the movement is backed up by Eamonn Cregan’s recent revelation that Seamus Flanagan, the team’s rookie full-forward, ran 12.8km (2.8km at top pace) during the round-robin game against Cork in early June, an evening that they were reduced to 14 after Gillane’s dismissal.

For a game where the ball travels faster and further, it was a phenomenal return from that position.

Flanagan is taking markers from wing to wing and Limerick have been racking up the profits.

“It’s amazing where he has come from, he got a chance in the league that he probably wouldn’t have got if the (Shane) Dowlings and (Kevin) Downes (involved with their club Na Piarsaigh in the AllIreland club final replay until late March) were around in the earlier part of the season and he’s taking it on.

“His physicality is unbelievable. I played against him (at club level) two seasons ago and he’s twice the man now. He has really matured, he’s just adapted really well. For a young player like him, for the management to have had that faith in him...”

With the crowd edging towards sell-out territory, buoyed by such renewed interest in Limerick, O’Grady identifies a real trust from the public.

“The great thing about watching Limerick now is you know what you are going to get. Nine out of 10 times you are going to get a really good performance, workmanlike with a bit of skill and flair thrown in. That’s what’s got the Limerick public involved and snapping up the tickets again.

“Beating Kilkenny the last day was a huge confidence boost as it takes the age thing away. I don’t think it’s an excuse anymore that we’re too young because we beat the kingpins of hurling.”

For all of their expressive hurling however, O’Grady fears engaging Cork in a shootout given their propensity to deliver big returns.

“I have a slight nervousness about playing them because to beat them we’re going to have to get 25 points plus.

“We have to be careful we don’t turn it into a hurling match because they’ll turn it on. When we played them in 2014 we spoke about it for the week and yet we didn’t exercise what we planned.”