Limerick players will be stung by Kiely comments

JOHN KIELY didn’t leave any room for interpretation after Limerick’s defeat to Kilkenny and I felt his comments were harsh. While it’s fine to admonish players like that in the dressing room, I’m not so sure the players, after all they have achieved, will enjoy reading and hearing what he told the media.

But knowing John (left), there will have been an agenda behind it and everything would have been calculated before he did it. It’s hard to question a man who has won five All-irelands, after all.

All told, Limerick’s departure for a training camp to Portugal on Wednesday probably came at the right time.

I couldn’t see anything but a Limerick win given that they have had Kilkenny’s measure for the past couple of years, while they had been moving well of late.

It was a timely wake-up call and a reminder that you won’t get away with it if you are off it against good opposition.

It’s worth emphasising that Kilkenny are good opposition, because most of the commentary since last weekend has centred around Limerick rather than the team that beat them convincingly.

After the couple of heavy beatings Kilkenny took from

Limerick last year, they might have been forgiven for thinking, ‘Oh no, not again’ after falling 1-2 to 0-0 behind early on.

In true Kilkenny fashion they thundered back into the game. The longer it went on, the better they got.

It’s not time for Limerick to get jittery, but Kilkenny exposed chinks in their armour and Clare will do the same in Ennis if they are not fixed over the next month.