John Kiely admits Munster final defeat to Cork took a toll on Limerick

The Limerick management team have spent time reviewing their 2025 campaign. "It's going to be a stronger unit and an even better prepared unit," said Kiely about next year's panel.

John Kiely said Limerick "struggled to recover" from their Munster hurling final defeat to Cork. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

John Kiely believes Limerick's Munster hurling final penalty shootout defeat to Cork took a toll on his side which resulted in them being knocked out of the All-Ireland championship by Dublin a fortnight later. 

"It was very disappointing how it finished for us," Kiely told Stream Sport during their coverage of the Limerick SHC semi-finals.

"The Munster final really took a lot out of us. On reflection, we would have thought we should have won it in normal time, we should have won it in extra-time and just our accuracy on the day didn't see us across the line. I think we struggled to recover maybe in the two weeks after that.

"We just didn't have the energy to go into the Dublin game. These things happen in sport. In fairness to these players, they've been incredible over the last nine seasons. They've always turned up, they've always delivered huge high energy performances and just on that particular day it just wasn't there. Two goals at the start of the second half really put a massive challenge in front of the lads."

Kiely said he and his management team have spent time reviewing their 2025 campaign. 

"It's going to be a stronger unit and an even better prepared unit," Kiely said about next year's Limerick panel.

"We've a lot of work put into our reflections and I think we're looking forward to the season, getting back now in November, December and going at it again.

"I think the players, from the guys I've met, there's a huge appetite there to go back again. They're just disappointed with the way the season panned out. We had some very, very good performances in the campaign against Tipperary, Waterford, Cork but ultimately when we had the opportunity to press on we just didn't take it."

Kiely said Limerick realised after their Munster opening round draw with Tipperary that the eventual All-Ireland champions would be a force this year.

"It's a very, very competitive championship," said Kiely.

"Every day you go out, you're there to be beaten and we had a phenomenal game against Tipperary in the first round. We knew after that encounter that Tipperary were playing at a very high level. We played really well on the day and we were probably happy to get a point but thought we were just nearly good enough for the value for the win.

"The question was could Tipperary push on and be consistent in delivering that level of performance and they did. They got better and better as the year went on and they were value for their championship at the end of the day.

"They played brilliantly in both the semi-final and final and when it was needed most they produced the goods so hats off to them."