Kiely favours golden score over shootout to decide drawn games 

The Limerick boss would prefer if penalties were replaced with something more natural to the game of hurling

Pictured at the launch of of the "Champions Under Lights" senior hurling and football challenge games, hosted by Fethard Town Park and sponsored by Clonmel Credit Union in aid of the Dylan Quirke Foundation are Limerick manager John Kiely and Tipperary's Noel McGrath. Pic: John D Kelly

John Kiely believes a golden score is the most suitable means of deciding a “winner on the day” game that is level after extra-time.

The Limerick manager saw his side’s six-year reign in Munster end at the hands of Cork in June’s Munster final in TUS Gaelic Grounds on penalties, 3-2.

Cork manager Pat Ryan later said “nobody lost that day” and Kiely has experienced both sides of that match-deciding conclusion at the same venue this year having seen his club Garryspillane beat Effin in a shootout to win the Limerick premier intermediate title last month.

Speaking at the launch of the “Champions Under Lights” Tipperary v Limerick game in aid of The Dillon Quirke Foundation in Fethard Town Park on December 13, Kiely would prefer if penalties were replaced with something more natural to the game of hurling.

“My own opinion is very simple. I'm involved in coaching teams for 30 years and this was the first time I've ended up in a penalty shootout. Clearly, it's not an integral part of our game. Taking penalties isn't an integral part of our game for most of our players either because they'd never be asked to take one during a match. You're asking players to perform a skill that isn't part of the game as far as 90%-95% of players are concerned.

“For me, it's a team sport. It should be concluded with the team playing the game. If it's a golden score, I think that's what I would be most comfortable with. It's definitely not sour grapes. We all got to take five penalties. We had an equal shot at it and we didn't do it. We lost the game and that's the end of it.

“Outside of all of that, my own club ended up in a county final that finished the penalties as well against Effin recently. My view hasn't changed. I think the game should be finished on a golden score. You play until the next score is scored and that's the end of it.

“I think all players have an equal chance to contribute to a normal cessation of the game. It's not like we're creating a scenario where it's never going to happen. Of course, there will be a score. It might not come in the first or second play but it will come in the subsequent two or three minutes. You get a result playing the game. I think that would be far more acceptable into a game of hurling.” 

Kiely is glad to see the GAA’s Hurling Development Committee (HDC) are set to propose axing the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals. In his term as manager, Limerick only featured in one in 2018 when they defeated Carlow by 24 points on their way to winning the All-Ireland.

His major gripe against them is the one-week turnaround for the McDonagh Cup finalists. “I didn't think they served any purpose. I've had that opinion for quite some time. I think that's very unfair. If you can't give the teams proper, adequate preparation time, then don't do it at all. Ultimately, the time wasn't there. So, I think ‘take it out’.

“You're asking players there that are playing in a McDonagh Cup final, it's an All-Ireland final for them guys, and ask them to tog out the week after and play a quarter-final against a provincial senior hurling team. I's just too much to ask of them. It's unfair.” 

On the HDC’s plans to introduce a Football Review Committee-like dissent rule into hurling at Congress next year, Kiely remarked: “It's easy to bring a football forward 50 metres but in a hurling game, I don't think you need to bring it much more than 20 to 30. So, the advantage is going to be, or the difference is going to be minimal, really.

“I think most times when the ball is brought forward, it's brought forward about 20m. I think you're adding another 10 to it. I think maybe early doors knock out the dissent by dealing with the players.” 

Tickets for Champions Under Lights (Tipperary v Limerick in hurling and Tipperary v Kilkenny) are available from 9am on Tuesday morning – https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/champions-under-lights-in-aid-of-the-dillon-quirke-foundation-tickets-1819100441389