John Kiely Interview: Lessons from the past continue to shape Limerick's future

Kiely and his backroom team are looking forward but will continue to reference the past on their march.

DRIVING ON: Limerick manager John Kiely. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

The narrative outside Limerick is whispered but insistent: the semi-final is the time to catch the All-Ireland champions.

The evidence is thin - a narrow defeat to Kilkenny at the same stage three years ago. 

Trouble is, Limerick absorbed that lesson.

“A lot of it is just about having been there and done that,” said Limerick boss John Kiely of that 2019 game.

“We could never go back and do what we did. We did what we did at the time with the best of intentions. Was there that much wrong with it? We lost by a point and hit 17 wides. I don’t think there’s much wrong with there.

“Two of those wides (go over) and you’ve won the game. But as a group evolves, experiences enhance your decision making and we engaged with this process with a far greater sense of confidence and assuredness that we were doing the right thing.

“We need to remind ourselves at times that we had the last shot of the game, 17 went wide on the day - it was within our grasp to win that match, it wasn’t what the opposition did to us.

“Unfortunately a lack of accuracy on the day, in execution - and that happens, especially when a team puts as much pressure on you as they did. It’s a case of bringing your experiences of the past and make sure they influence your decisions on the future in a positive way.” 

Limerick have been learning lessons and applying them for a while. 

Take the extra-time Munster final win over Clare.

“You cannot buy that type of reference point where you can stand in the dressing room somewhere down the road and say, ‘listen, we've been here before’.

“We referenced the Cork match in 2018 where we’d been there before (extra time), and there have been occasions in other competitions when we’ve been there before.

“And when you have reference points like that and you can back that up with evidence, hard evidence you’ve been there before and you can do it again - that gives you real confidence that you can do it. And I think our performance in extra time mirrored that confidence that we’d been there before. That gives you great confidence and strength.” 

Kiely says his evaluation of Sunday’s opponents go beyond their quarter-final win over Cork this year: “I’d be taking Galway’s performances across a number of years, not just that game (Cork), particularly our engagements with them.

“Our games have been very close physical encounters, great games, and I’ve no doubt our game on Sunday will be the same - a tight, tough game, with no quarter asked or given. There are some super forwards on both sides, you saw the quality of the scores they got from the sideline, the end line, way out the field. Their shooting is really accurate and it’s something we have to aim towards, because ours wouldn’t have been on the same par as theirs in recent weeks.

“They’ve set the bar very high.” 

Limerick have set the bar pretty high themselves. Their success in recent years has helped them calibrate their preparations, for instance.

“Maybe four years ago if you said we’d get a four-week break it might have been a different scenario, but this time round it was exactly what we needed. After a really tough game against Clare we needed a bit of time to heal and now we’re well into our preparations. We were able to go away last week on a camp and worked really hard.

“Our injury list is really tidy which means the quality of our sessions is probably the best they’ve been all season. The lads are mentally fresh, physically fresh and we have a very competitive group, everyone is driving to be on the 26 and the 15, and with the lads coming back from injury that increases the competitiveness, which is a healthy thing to have.” 

The difference between three or four years ago and now is crucial, he adds.

“We have an older group, a more experienced group and a lot more experience ourselves as coaches.

“I think we’ve managed it really well - we put a lovely schedule in place and everyone’s really happy with it in the group, and that’s half the battle.

“Everyone being happy with the schedule, the work being put in front of them. With the competitiveness of the group the lack of game time isn’t an issue because we have as much game time in-house as we have outside, and it’s a more controlled environment, where we play as much or as little as we want.” 

That experience reveals itself in focus, for example.

“We work hard on being focused, it’s something we’ve been good at,” says Kiely.

“Once I knew the opposition (for semi-final), for instance, I wouldn’t watch the other games - I just don’t want that to be part of my subconscious. I’ll focus on one team and that’s Galway, end of story.

“I can’t control what anybody else might say or do but we can control where our camp is at, and to be honest it’s not even about controlling it. We got a nice trimming from Galway here in the league and there’s no way we’re looking anywhere beyond the next day. We’ve worked really hard the last couple of weeks - we let the bodies heal the first week because of the intensity of the Clare game, but once we got back the focus was on being the best team we can be on Sunday.

“That’s solely where our focus is. The rest is just nonsense.” 

 A recent training camp helped sharpen that focus even further: “It was invaluable because it’s not just about what you get done on the pitch but what you get done off the pitch. We did a huge amount of work not just on the pitch but in areas like analysis - in every respect it’s about galvanising the group, because when you think about it that’s what shines through in these games. The tightness within the group will be tested and when you get down to those really fine margins in the final seconds or minutes of those games, what comes through is the unity, the togetherness of our group shines through. The real confidence. That’s really where it’s at for us.”