Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
KIELY’S EYE ON LONG GAME WITH TREATY
Limerick boss using League to suit needs
FOUR league games. Four defeats. Crisis in Dublin.
Four league games. Four defeats. Not even a murmur out of Limerick.
No talk of crisis. No word of player unrest.
John Kiely appears nonplussed, certainly on the outside as he continues to start every game without five or six of his regulars with pockets full of AllIreland medals.
Much of it comes down to three factors.
Number one, we’ve been here before. Limerick were poor in last year’s League, failing to win any of their first three games, and we all know how the Championship turned out.
Plenty will hardly even recall that Galway and Kilkenny shared last year’s title with no final taking place.
If anything, this year’s League is being taken even less seriously as the final is two weeks out from the start of the Championship.
The second reason for the almost blaze attitude around Limerick is how comprehensively they won last year’s All-Ireland, pulverising Waterford and Cork in the semi-final and final.
Feeling
There’s a feeling that even if they don’t hit those heights again, something close to them might be enough to land a fourth AllIreland title in five years and a three-in-a-row.
That’s what it’s all about for John Kiely’s side.
Most teams hit a point in their evolution where Leagues don’t matter any more.
Jim Gavin’s Dublin were the one exception, but that was due to the never before seen strength of their squad and the battle for starting spots in the Championship.
The third and by far most important reason it’s all fairly relaxed around Kiely’s Limerick right now is the looming spectre of the Munster round robin Championship, with the first round — April 16/17 — now just seven weeks away.
Given that it’s a crunch opener in Cork — a repeat of last year’s All-Ireland final — that’s where Limerick’s focus lies.
A losing start in the Munster round robin can create all sorts of headaches, particularly for Limerick who are in the unfortunate position of not having a bye until the final round.
The games come thick and fast.
Buoy
Defeat in Cork will buoy the opposition, who will sniff out any weakness.
Limerick don’t want that, especially with Waterford coming to town in Round 2, and two teams out of five exiting at the group stages.
Their draw could hardly be more difficult.
Kiely and co will have
weighed all this up.
Limerick probably have zero interest in being in a League final, a fortnight before the first round of the Championship, at a time when they should be fine-tuning and honing their game on the training field.
Kiely and co don’t want to lose League games, but they’re using it to suit their own needs — and to hell with outside perceptions or noise.
Limerick have left out five to six regulars in every game with no word of injuries, as they look at new talent like Cathal O’Neill, Robbie Hanley, Colin Coughlan and
Aaron Costello.
Limerick’s sole goal from the League is to keep their big stars fresh and to uncover three to four players for the gruelling Munster round robin.
Players who can start if injuries or fatigue kick in, or who can come off the bench and make a real impact.
This is exactly what the League should be as a secondary competition, a warm up for Championship, and not the all out wars we see at times in Division 1 of the football version.
Rebuild
Limerick are in a great position, and one very different to Cork, Waterford, Tipperary, Galway or Kilkenny.
They don’t have to rebuild. They don’t need to uncover new leaders. They don’t need winning momentum. They don’t necessarily need their character tested again.
Peaking at the right time is all that matters to Kiely .