'There’s no excuse' - John Kiely blasts Limerick's 'embarrassing' performance against Kilkenny

The All-Ireland champions were 'nailed, good and proper' due to a lack of effort, according to the Treaty boss. 

Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng and Limerick manager John Kiely at the end of the game. Pic: INPHO/Ken Sutton

When analysing this rare Limerick defeat, manager John Kiely did not tread softly. No one was spared.

Words such as “embarrassing”, “abysmal”, and “not acceptable” were thrown out. He ranked the  team’s no-show as among the worst two or three performances of his eight-year tenure.

“I don’t think we have played as bad as that, to be honest with you. It’s probably 2017, being honest about it,” Kiely began. “It is up there with the top two or three anyway, at the wrong end of the stick.” 

Kiely gave Kilkenny due credit for how they fashioned a six-point interval advantage and held onto it thereafter, despite going 16 minutes of the third quarter with a man less after Eoin Cody walked for a second yellow on 38 minutes.

But the Limerick manager was far more interested in raking through his own team’s role in a League semi-final that they bowed so tamely out of. Kiely said he would have expected three times as much intensity for a routine training session, never mind a League semi-final.

“They took their chances when they came whereas we were the polar opposite. We were poor on the ball, we were poor in defence, we were poor at the things we usually pride ourselves on in terms of our intensity, our work rate, use of the ball, efficiency. All of the things we would pride ourselves on, we were poor.

“That’s just our perspective on our own performance. As I said it has to be tempered with Kilkenny playing far, far better than we did today.” 

With Limerick’s Munster opener away to Clare arriving a fortnight after the League decider, the point could be made and argued that elimination from the spring competition might end up serving the Treaty better in the long-term.

Kiely would not entertain such chatter. Rather, he rubbished it.

“I can assure you we’re not happy to be out of the league. It’s not part of any grand plan I can assure you. We were looking to come here to win our game today. Everyone that knows us as a group knows that every single day we go out, we go out to win our matches, we go out to play well, and we go out to be a better team than we were the week before.

“This is not us exiting the league on our terms. This is us being kicked out of the league on Kilkenny’s terms. That’s the facts of the matter. Our performance today was embarrassing at times.

“We’ve sat and chatted there for the last 15 minutes. There’s no excuse. There’s just no excuse. Had we trained today, I would have expected to get three times more out of them.

“It’s just not good enough. It’s not acceptable. We know that, they know that. They put their hand up to acknowledge that. It’s just disappointing from our perspective. We have four weeks now to go and put our shoulder to the wheel and by Jesus we have a lot of improving to do.” Kilkenny struck for three first half goals. They could have finished the half with five. They could have finished the game with seven.

Blame here lay not with a Limerick full-back line - containing the returning Sean Finn - that was routinely cut open. Blame lay further out.

“The quality of the ball going in is determined by the effort outside. The effort outside was abysmal. Hence, quality balls were sent in,” the manager continued.

“And when you have good quality forwards, what else are they going to do? They are going to nail you. And we got nailed, good and proper. Kilkenny were full value for the goals they got today. They could have got two or three more. Probably should have had two or three more.

“What can the full-back line do if you are left with 40 yards of space, you are isolated, and you get a really good quality ball in, sure the advantage is of course with the forward. And if you have an excellent forward, they are going to take their chances, on the law of averages, three out of five times.” 

The lack of performances across the field, added the five-time All-Ireland winning boss, means there are “spaces up for grabs on this team now” ahead of the short spin to Ennis on April 21.

“It is the fellas that really want to grab it by the scruff of the neck and lead it are the fellas that are going to be there.” 

In the Kilkenny corner, Derek Lyng did not agree with the pre-match narrative that a fourth consecutive knockout defeat to Limerick would carry long-term effects for his team.

“I've heard a few times that we've been beaten by Limerick in finals. But we were beaten by a fantastic team and you could have no complaints on the given day.

“If you want to test yourself and improve as a group and as a team, you need to be pitching yourself against the best. We'll take the positives from today but it's just about driving on now.

“I thought we responded very well to the start Limerick got. Lads could easily drop the heads pretty quickly. They're the kind of team that when they get a start on you like that and they get into the groove, they can punish you. But I thought we hurled well and we hurled our way back into the game.”