John Kiely won't excuse 'disappointing' spring

20 March 2022; Padraig Cantwell of Offaly in action against Aaron Gillane, left, and Tom Morrissey of Limerick during the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 Group A match between Limerick and Offaly at TUS Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Allianz HL: Limerick 4-29 Offaly 0-17 

Limerick finished their league campaign with a bang yesterday, putting up 4-29 in hammering visitors Offaly, but their manager is too long on the road to take much comfort from a “disappointing” springtime.

Much as his players dismissed Offaly briskly on the field, John Kiely summarised the game with little fanfare before assessing his side’s 2022 league.

“It was a solid performance today, I think we controlled the game for long, long parts of it and our energy levels were really high, our communications skills on the pitch were good, which was a plus, and we created a lot more scoring chances - probably more than in the last two games put together, to be honest.

“But it would have been a disappointing league from our perspective. We would have worked really, really hard throughout the league, and we might have found it hard to find the energy levels when it came to Sunday. And that told in our performances and in our results.

“But no excuses. It wasn’t a good league from our perspective. We’ve worked really hard in the last three weeks and I’ve seen massive improvement in the group, in the cohesion of the group, over those three weeks and we’ll be looking to continue that into the next month.” 

The home side were in control all through, though Offaly’s Luke O’Connor opened the scoring with a snap shot from the wing. Once Limerick’s half-back line settled into the game they offered their forwards the ideal launchpad, and Limerick led 0-5 to 0-3 on ten minutes when Oisín O’Reilly crashed home a goal from close range.

Limerick’s physical superiority kept them well ahead of the midlanders, and Aaron Gillane kept the scoreboard ticking over from frees and play until half-time, putting one shot over the bar when the goal yawned.

By half-time Limerick led 1-16 to 0-10, with Offaly reliant on freetakers O’Connor and goalkeeper Stephen Corcoran, responsible for six of their points between them.

On the resumption Limerick outscored Offaly five points to one before turning over a puckout and working a Cian Lynch goal on 41 minutes: 2-21 to 0-11 and the game ended as a contest.

The highlights of the closing stages were a well-finished goal by Barry Nash, which delighted the home crowd, and another fine goal from impressive substitute Pat Ryan.

Word filtered through to the Gaelic Grounds of the likely NHL semi-final pairings, so Kiely was asked if his side would miss that option of competitive games in the run-up to the Munster Championships.

“No, we’ll have some in-house games, there’ll be no scarcity of game time, it’s just getting it up to the pitch it needs to be at, that’s the challenge - but that’s about getting the response from the players. There’s a lot of work to do but we’re looking forward to it.

“Everything’s been geared towards the 17th (of April, Limerick’s Munster SHC opener) in any case.

“I’m really looking to building it week on week, and the last three weeks have been really positive for us. I can see the freshness and the energy is there and hopefully fellas can come through the next three weeks fit and healthy, that’s a big part of it as well.” 

And with that vaguely ominous warning hanging in the air, Kiely and Limerick vanished until the middle of next month.

Scorers for Limerick: A. Gillane (0-12, 6 frees); B. Nash, C. Lynch, O. O’Reilly (1-0 each); P. Ryan (1-2); G. Mulcahy (0-4); G. Hegarty (0-3); D. Byrnes (2 frees)(0-3); C. O’Neill (0-2); D. Reidy, T. Morrissey, D. O’Donovan (0-1 each).

Scorers for Offaly: L. O’Connor (1 65, 5 frees)(0-7); S. Corcoran (frees) (0-3); L. Langton (0-2); L. Fox, P Clancy, E. Kelly, D. Nally, C. Burke, (0-1 each).

LIMERICK: N Quaid; S Finn, M Casey, B Nash; D Byrnes, D Hannon, D Morrissey; C O’Neill, D O’Donovan; G Hegarty, C Lynch, T Morrissey; O O’Reilly, A Gillane, G Mulcahy.

Subs: C. Boylan for Hegarty (43); C. Coughlan for Hannon (blood, 47-50); D. Reidy for Lynch (56); P. Ryan for O’Reilly (56); R. English for Casey (60); A. English for Mulcahy (62).

OFFALY: S. Corcoran; J. Screeney, B. Conneelly (c), D. Nally; C. Burke, D. King, K. Sampson; A. Cleary, J. Keenaghan; L. Fox, J. Sampson, E. Parlon; E. Kelly, P. Clancy, L. O’Connor.

Subs: J. Murphy for Fox (blood, 21-26); J. Murphy and L. Langton for Burke and Parlon (HT); P. Cantwell for Keenaghan (42); E. Cahill for Cleary (52); D. Maher for Screeney (inj, 57.); R. Canty for Fox (blood 66-).

Referee: S. Cleere (Kilkenny).