Fresh talent can bring more to Limerick’s core success

Former defender Seamus Hickey believes the talent is there if Kiely is of a mind to be more experimental in 2024.

Limerick manager John Kiely celebrates, after the Munster SHC final against Clare, with one of his stalwart starters Kyle Hayes, at the TUS Gaelic Grounds, Co Limerick back in June. Pic: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

So it's nitpicking, we get that, like suggesting that da Vinci should have straightened up the Mona Lisa smile.

But is there a chance that John Kiely and his Limerick management have missed a trick when it comes to squad rotation? Have they been too slow to hand new players their championship spurs?

It's worth putting out there if only for winter-time debate and to consider the statistics.

So if you look back through the five All-Ireland finals that Limerick have contested, and won, under Kiely between 2018 and 2023, nine players have started all of them. Those players are; Nickie Quaid, Diarmuid Byrnes, Darragh O'Donovan, Gearóid Hegarty, Kyle Hayes, Tom Morrissey, Aaron Gillane, Seamus Flanagan and Dan Morrissey.

Another five - Sean Finn, Declan Hannon, Cian Lynch, Barry Nash and Will O'Donoghue - have started all but one of them and if it wasn't for injuries then Finn, Hannon and Lynch would have been ever present too.

That's 14 players who were there virtually every step of the way since the beginning of the glory era. Throw in Peter Casey and Graeme Mulcahy, who have featured either as starters or subs in all five finals, as well as Mike Casey and David Reidy, and you have a relatively slim 18-man crew that has driven the success.

There is an alternative argument, that 30 players in all have played at some stage of those five All-Ireland finals, enough for two full teams. But Richie English only started a single final, back in 2018, and 11 more players were merely impact subs at various stages in those deciders.

Kiely is clearly aware of the need to develop new players and, in the less pressurised environment of the National League, has been far more experimental. He handed game time to a whopping 37 different players in the 2023 league campaign.

That was across a successful seven-game campaign though when it came to this year's Championship, also a seven-game campaign, that figure dropped right down to 26. Take out the half dozen players who didn't actually start a Championship game in 2023, and who appeared relatively briefly as substitutes, and you're down to a solid 20 that Kiely felt he could rely on.

It's hard to question any management team that is eyeing up a five-in-a-row in 2024 but could Kiely have been more liberal with his game time and might it come back to haunt him?

"It's really hard to be critical of that because the core group is not four or five guys, it's seven, eight or nine in my eyes," said former All-Star and 2018 All-Ireland medallist Seamus Hickey.

"And a lot of them are in the backs, which is really the springboard for the strength of Limerick.

"They have conceded the least of any team on a per game basis for the last five years, which is bananas. It makes them really difficult to break down.

"That core we are talking about includes the likes of Dan Morrissey who you could deploy anywhere and Declan Hannon, and you saw the effect it had taking him (Hannon) out of the team.

"It was tough to come to terms with but ultimately they blew the opposition away in the second-half of the All-Ireland semi-final and final without him, with Will O'Donoghue at six.

"The core is bigger than your normal core and even to me Aaron Gillane seemed like the sole source of scores for a good chunk of the year and they still managed to prevail. Himself and Seamus Flanagan were very good in the Munster championship and then Peter Casey was exceptional in the All-Ireland series.

"So the supplementary players compliment what would be seen as the core, and the core changes from year to year because different guys put up their hands.

"We've had four Hurler of the Year winners in the last four years, I know Cian has repeated it but, to me, it's a good sign of the depth of the talent that Limerick have."

That depth should be increased by the return to fitness of Hannon, Finn and English, all of whom missed passages of 2023 with serious knee injuries.

Mind you, Kiely has often preferred internal tweaks and repositioning of players, as opposed to drafting in squad members, when injuries occur. Dan Morrissey, Kyle Hayes, Barry Nash, Will O'Donoghue and Hannon, for example, have all moved from established positions over the years, and thrived, when necessity demanded invention.

Former defender Hickey believes the talent is there if Kiely is of a mind to be more experimental in 2024.

"Sean and Richie English will hopefully be back around February," said Hickey, who will work again as a GAAGO pundit this season. "Cathal O'Neill is getting better and some of the younger boys are stepping up, like Adam English. You've definitely got more boys coming that are pushing for places.

"The league in 2024 has to be another improving ground where John gives lads chances because I think in 2023, part of the overall success was blooding so many new players in the early stages of the league, and I see him doing the same again.

"Like, even Micheal Houlihan had a super league and didn't feature after that, but he was given the opportunity and played really well, so I'd like to see that again because it's the only way to sustain the success we're having. Because that's what every other team is doing, and Cork and Tipperary in particular, it's their young cohorts that are pushing through."