'We'll leave them worry about that' - John Kiely focused on Limerick rather than Cork's team for final

Limerick were comfortable eight-point winners over Cork during the March 7 meeting at the Gaelic Grounds with the Rebels containing just six players that began the 2025 All-Ireland final defeat.

FINAL COUNTDOWN: John Kiely during the Allianz Hurling League Division 1A match between Limerick and Galway. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.

Having yet to face an even close-to-full-strength Cork in 2026, Limerick manager John Kiely has said his team’s League final preparations will not be concerned with the likely make-up of Ben O’Connor’s side.

Kiely described Limerick’s League final progression as “ideal” given the alternative was a five-week gap between the conclusion of the League round-robin and their Munster opener away to Cork on April 26.

Limerick were comfortable eight-point winners over Cork during the March 7 meeting at the Gaelic Grounds, where the League decider will also be staged on Sunday week, with the Cork team put out by O’Connor that evening containing just six players that began the 2025 All-Ireland final defeat.

The Cork team that fell to Limerick in January's Munster SHL, meanwhile, did not feature any of the 20 players used in last July's decider.

“We've played Cork twice already, and the two teams we've played have been totally different, so I've no doubt that there'll be a lot of differences between the team we'll meet in the league final and the team we'll meet in the Championship, so that doesn't matter a jot to us, really,” the Limerick boss remarked.

“For us, right now, we're very focused on ourselves. For the next 10, 12 days, we're going to be focused on that second half dip in terms of our performance levels, our execution levels.

"It's not going to be what Cork team is going to turn out in two weeks' time. We'll leave them worry about that.

“Our player group has a lot of work to do in terms of fighting it out for those places on that league final team, so that's a huge focus. We've a number of players who've had a few injuries.

"They're all coming back into training again in the next week or so, which is a big positive, and I'm sure they're going to bring a right challenge to the lads that are there for those places in two weeks' time.”

Having responded to their opening round defeat to Waterford with five consecutive wins, Kiely declared himself really pleased with where the group are at presently.

“This time last year we got beaten by Wexford here extremely comprehensively. We were out of the league after three rounds, whereas we're in the league final this year.

“We've 10 points from 12, we've won five of the last five games; that's a much, much better place for us to be in right now. Some of our play in the first half was exceptionally good.

"I loved some of the use of the ball. Some of the running that we had off the ball, we looked really dangerous.”