John Kiely issues rallying call to Limerick supporters ahead of Cork clash

Limerick head into Sunday's Munster SHC clash against Cork with just one player unavailable through injury

Following their league final victory over Cork, the Limerick hurlers spent time in Portugal on a warm weather training camp. Pic: Daire Brennan/Sportsfile

Limerick hurling manager John Kiely has urged the county's supporters to snap up every available ticket for Sunday's Munster SHC clash against Cork.

After spending the opening weekend of the championship on the sidelines, Limerick travel to Páirc Uí Chaoimh three weeks after beating Cork in the league final. 

"The team needs the group of supporters right behind them," Kiely told Limerick Live 95's The Sideline Cut podcast.

"They need the supporters cheering every single action of the players on the pitch and to be there for them through the good parts of the game, the not so good parts of the game and just to be on the journey with them. I can't encourage our supporters enough to go and get those tickets.

"Be it in the stand or the terrace, it doesn't matter. The match is on at two o'clock next Sunday. It's early, it's easy to get down there. You'll have the whole night to come back. We will absolutely do our best on the pitch. We're just asking the supporters to match that with their very, very best in the stand and terraces and just give the boys every bit of support that they absolutely, truly deserve.

"They've put an incredible effort in to get to this point in the season and they deserve every bit of credit and support that they get from the supporters."

Kiely thought it was a "very, very strong performance" from Cork in their victory over reigning All-Ireland champions Tipperary on Sunday.

"You couldn't pick anybody out that didn't excel on the day for them," said Kiely, "and I suppose it lays the ghosts of last July to bed for them, probably at this stage for them. Listen, we know that going up to Cork next Sunday, this is going to be an incredibly challenging fixture for us. It's a wonderful venue.

"We love playing down there as it happens. This group in particular love going down there. We've often had very, very special games down there and we don't have to look back too far in the distant past to those."

Limerick head into Sunday's game with an almost clean bill of health. Defender Darragh Langan is the only injury absentee. Tom Morrissey, who missed the league final, is back to full fitness.

"Tom has done really, really well," said Kiely. 

"He's worked very assiduously on his recovery. It's Tom's first injury during his time with Limerick, would you believe it? It's quite amazing to believe it, but he's been incredibly durable as an athlete and I suppose that comes with a newness for him now to deal with an injury, but he's done really, really well. He's worked really hard and he's taken part in training fully this week, which is great.

"We've only one other player that's carrying a knock at the minute and that's Darragh Langan. He just picked up a knock after the league final and that'll exclude him for the first two games of the Munster Championship."

Following the league final, the Limerick panel travelled to Portugal for a training camp. 

"It went very well, to be honest," said Kiely.

"It was probably just fortuitous that it just happened to come the week after the league final, which was great and it was just exactly what we needed. We got a nice balance of work done and a chance for the lads that are new to the group to maybe get to know the rest of the group even better than they already did know them.

"It's a reset time for us to see, 'Ok, we'll park the league'. The league is over and done with now. We're moving on to the next phase of the season and the Munster Championship and just resetting ourselves mentally towards that."