'There's a full stop' - Kiely elated to put exclamation point on Treaty's spring growth

“For a player to get into a national final is a great achievement, number one, but when you get those opportunities, you have to take them.”

Sun, 05 Apr, 2026 - 22:00

Tom Clancy

For John Kiely and his Green Machine, National Finals have been about one thing: winning. Five All-Irelands and now a fourth National Hurling League. A perfect nine.

The winners' enclosure has looked so different each time: Croke Park, Covid, Cork and now a victory on home soil.

The Galbally native looked at it simply: “For a player to get into a national final is a great achievement, number one, but when you get those opportunities, you have to take them.”

He should know. For too long Limerick struggled to win anything, now its about grabbing as much silverware as possible.

“They have shown in the past, that ability to take those opportunities when they come around," Kiely said after Sunday's six-point triumph over the Rebels. "From a performance perspective, (I was) really, really happy with our start to the game. It hasn’t been good the last couple of games. It was something we were going after, in that first quarter, the return was really good. I thought Diarmuid (Byrnes) made a mistake for the goal but his response to it was really, really good. He didn’t allow that error to stay with him, he responded brilliant to it. It isn’t me highlighting it, it is highlighting how he reacted to it.”

A blistering start was eroded somewhat by Byrnes gifting Cork their goal, and Alan Connolly’s frees helped the Rebels reel in the Treaty to just three by half-time.

“We lost a bit of control in that last part of the half, in fairness to Cork. You give them a smell of it and they’re all over you. They got the lead down to a goal, and we were on the back foot. You have to batten the hatches for the second half”, added Kiely.

Closing out the game was the issue in the 2025 Munster final, while energy was cited as a reason for their season crashing to a halt against Dublin.

“Everything we asked of the lads, they did," insisted Kiely. "Cork came back to two and we showed a bit of maturity in the final few minutes to close out the game. The lads that came on gave us great energy, and we were looking for a response today that was going to be commensurate with the final game of the lead. Look, ‘give us what you have right now’ and we can get more work in ahead of the Championship.”

So now, a three-week gap to another meeting with Cork. It appears to be an adequate amount of time to prepare for a return to Leeside.

“We’ll use this week as a reset. It is just enough time for us to have that reset and for us to have a couple of hard sessions to go after a few pieces that we need to go after. It will bring a clear focus to the championship. It’s done, there is a full stop. The league finishes today.”

Going close to full-strength as they had all season, Kiely was positive too about the injury news. No new problems from this win, and only one player currently sidelined.

“From an injury perspective we only have one man that is out, that is Tom Morrissey. He is nearly back. He is doing a huge amount of work to get back. I have no doubt when he does, that he will make a great impact. That is a great place for us to be.

“Overall, the group is in a good place. Days like today are a big help, in terms of the morale of the group. We are realistic that there are part that we would be happy with, but there are large parts that were good. We need to go and find those improvements."

When asked about Aaron Gillane, Kiely was quick to point out where the Patrickswell maestro was finding his improvement. A brief return to the free-taking duty among his 1-7 (3f) haul which will surely give Ben O’Connor and co their biggest nightmare heading down the N20.

“I think he is very focused on continuously improving," said the manager. "That guy does an incredible amount of work that you’ll never see, in terms of perpetration before the games, studying video footage. He wants to contribute as much as he can for the group, he takes his hurling very seriously. He knows that smallest of margins make the difference. From our perspective, to have him in there and leading this group. We expect him to do that, there is an expectation there that at this stage of his career he is able to drive the standards in terms of perpetration. I’m delighted with his contribution.”

A bye in round one, Kiely’s charges meet Cork on Sunday April 26 for the latest chapter in this rivalry.