WHILE HE DEFINES Limerick as a “data-driven team”, John Kiely says their greater emphasis on goals this year came from the players.
The Treaty’s tweaked approach has delivered 10 goals in four games, double their round-robin strike rate from last year.
Their 2025 campaign was undone by Dublin’s two-goal blast in 35 seconds during a shock quarter-final elimination. According to Kiely, that game didn’t come into the reckoning when modifying their methods.
“Nothing that happened last year really fed into it,” he said. “Every year there’s a different point of emphasis. As I often say, there’s a new soundtrack to every year.
“This year, it happened to be something that the players wanted to go after. They’re enjoying that. It doesn’t always come off, but at least the intent is there.
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“There’s three points for the goal, only one for the points. We might as well try and go after a couple of them if we get the opportunity.”
On game day, Kiely is very much led by the stats in his decision-making process.
“We are a data-driven team, there’s no doubt about that,” he explained. “We have great regard for the numbers. The numbers are the numbers.
If you ignore the numbers, you run the risk of making a mistake. We have to trust the numbers.
“We know from experience what they should be. Then you have your own experience to layer on top of that to get the decision right.
“There’s no doubt you’re listening to the analysis unfolding as the game is going on, in terms of what the data feedback is like.
“We get a read at half-time as to where we’re at, where the opposition are at, what are the metrics we’ve been going after, where are they at for us in particular, because we can control that at least.
“It has to be very quick, though, because you only have that 15-minute window. Those 15 minutes go like Billy-o, unfortunately.
You have to get it right. We have good practices and routines around what we do there. The players need to trust the numbers as well. That’s the other side of it.
“It’s all very well us doing it and looking at it and knowing it, but the player needs to trust that the numbers are right.
“The player needs to understand that I just haven’t been doing it, or it’s not my day today, and somebody else needs the chance to go at it.”
Kiely identifies his “four pillars to a successful team” as coaching, physical preparation, psychology and environment.
This year, Caroline Currid has come back on board to lead the psychological approach. The Sligo native has been involved in each of Limerick’s five All-Irelands, while stepping away for the past two seasons.
“It’s never what you imagine it to be. It can be quite straightforward, practical, simple stuff,” said Kiely.
“She knows the group very, very well. There’s a lot of new lads now in the last two years when she wasn’t there. She’s really enjoying getting to know all those new guys that she never knew before.
Obviously, she has a tremendous relationship with the players that have worked with her in the past and there’s great trust there. There’s a great understanding and only good things can come from that.”
The environment is kept relaxed with dressing room tunes and the weekly visit of an ice cream van after training on Fridays, although Kiely also chuckles that he’s “chief of the fun police”.
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Heading into Sunday’s Munster final at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Kiely is looking forward to the “spectacular pitch” and “phenomenal atmosphere”, while knowing they need to improve for Cork.
“They’ve beaten us in the championship, beaten us in the Munster final last year. They’ve had the upper hand on us just the last while. So we’re going to have to try and dig deep and find something more in ourselves.
“We’ve given ourselves opportunities, we just haven’t taken them. That’s the key piece. We’ve another opportunity now. If we keep giving ourselves opportunities, eventually we’re going to take them.”
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Limerick stay true to data but John Kiely says players driving their goal hunt
WHILE HE DEFINES Limerick as a “data-driven team”, John Kiely says their greater emphasis on goals this year came from the players.
The Treaty’s tweaked approach has delivered 10 goals in four games, double their round-robin strike rate from last year.
Their 2025 campaign was undone by Dublin’s two-goal blast in 35 seconds during a shock quarter-final elimination. According to Kiely, that game didn’t come into the reckoning when modifying their methods.
“Nothing that happened last year really fed into it,” he said. “Every year there’s a different point of emphasis. As I often say, there’s a new soundtrack to every year.
“This year, it happened to be something that the players wanted to go after. They’re enjoying that. It doesn’t always come off, but at least the intent is there.
“There’s three points for the goal, only one for the points. We might as well try and go after a couple of them if we get the opportunity.”
On game day, Kiely is very much led by the stats in his decision-making process.
“We are a data-driven team, there’s no doubt about that,” he explained. “We have great regard for the numbers. The numbers are the numbers.
“We know from experience what they should be. Then you have your own experience to layer on top of that to get the decision right.
“There’s no doubt you’re listening to the analysis unfolding as the game is going on, in terms of what the data feedback is like.
“We get a read at half-time as to where we’re at, where the opposition are at, what are the metrics we’ve been going after, where are they at for us in particular, because we can control that at least.
“It has to be very quick, though, because you only have that 15-minute window. Those 15 minutes go like Billy-o, unfortunately.
“It’s all very well us doing it and looking at it and knowing it, but the player needs to trust that the numbers are right.
“The player needs to understand that I just haven’t been doing it, or it’s not my day today, and somebody else needs the chance to go at it.”
Kiely identifies his “four pillars to a successful team” as coaching, physical preparation, psychology and environment.
This year, Caroline Currid has come back on board to lead the psychological approach. The Sligo native has been involved in each of Limerick’s five All-Irelands, while stepping away for the past two seasons.
“It’s never what you imagine it to be. It can be quite straightforward, practical, simple stuff,” said Kiely.
“She knows the group very, very well. There’s a lot of new lads now in the last two years when she wasn’t there. She’s really enjoying getting to know all those new guys that she never knew before.
The environment is kept relaxed with dressing room tunes and the weekly visit of an ice cream van after training on Fridays, although Kiely also chuckles that he’s “chief of the fun police”.
Heading into Sunday’s Munster final at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Kiely is looking forward to the “spectacular pitch” and “phenomenal atmosphere”, while knowing they need to improve for Cork.
“They’ve beaten us in the championship, beaten us in the Munster final last year. They’ve had the upper hand on us just the last while. So we’re going to have to try and dig deep and find something more in ourselves.
“We’ve given ourselves opportunities, we just haven’t taken them. That’s the key piece. We’ve another opportunity now. If we keep giving ourselves opportunities, eventually we’re going to take them.”
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