LIMERICK BOSS JOHN Kiely hailed the ‘resilience’ of his team in coping with a ferocious Cork challenge to win and keep their 2023 hurling season alive today.
A one-point win in a thriller at the Gaelic Grounds ensured Limerick would advance and Tipperary slipping up in Thurles means the champions will contest the Musnter final in a fortnight.
“Fantastic occasion, it was one of those games that ebbed and flowed,” said Kiely.
“We had our purple patches where we were strong. Cork had their purple patches where they were strong. They were very efficient. I think we had created more scoring chances, but their efficiency was really very, very high.
“I can only just salute the resilience and tenacity of our guys to just keep doing the right thing, keep going after it. Even though we’d a few wides ourselves in that period of time (in second half) that would have seen us more comfortably across the line, they went wide or they dropped short, but we still went after it and kept after it. Just really proud of the efforts of our lads. Lot of questions asked going into the game and Cork obviously brought huge questions as well here today. So very, very proud of the way our lads responded to the whole thing really.
“Everybody knew what was on the line. We had to win the game. The draw was not going to be enough and we knew that coming into it. It does bring its own pressures but I think we responded very well to the pressure.”
Kiely felt his team’s work rate was improved but their conversation rate in front of goal needs work.
“If we were going after anything this week, we were probably going after having a really much higher work rate and we got that. So first goal achieved in that regard but the efficiency levels still need to improve. This is not some place that we haven’t been before.
“We’ve had this scenario in previous seasons where we found that we were creating loads of scoring chances but our conversion rate wasn’t maybe quite where it needed to be.
“The energy levels this week in training were just through the roof on Tuesday and Friday. And I know that this win has really filled the boys up. Coming off the field, they were absolutely buzzing with having made it through to another Munster final. Another fantastic milestone for the group to qualify for their fifth Munster final. It’s a great privilege to be in a Munster final and we’re thrilled to be there.”
Limerick’s scoring return of 1-10 from their starting half-back line of Diarmaid Byrnes, Declan Hannon and Kyle Hayes, along with the midfield pair of Darragh O’Donovan and William O’Donoghue, was striking.
“We didn’t have that (before),” said Kiely.
“It’s something we’ve worked on coming into the Tipperary game and again coming into today. It’s paying dividends. And listen lads are just coming into form nicely, are getting fitter and stronger, more cohesive. There’s still a lot to go, you’ll know yourselves there was a lot of unforced errors as they call them in tennis where where balls didn’t stick in the hand or went off the hurley.
“But look that was a hugely challenging environment for any player to exist outside there today and I think it’s only going to serve our group well going forward.”
Cork got greater joy in a scoring sense than they had previously against Limerick.
“Listen it’s a mark of Cork’s quality as well. 1-30 from them is a super score. Disappointed with the goal that conceded to them, absolutely disappointed with that. You know we’ll be hurting a bit over that. But overall defensively I thought we were very sound.”
