Limerick players will 'hammer on to next weekend' for Clare challenge, says Kiely

The Treaty came up short against the hosts on Sunday. 

UPBEAT: Limerick manager John Kiely. Pic: INPHO/Morgan Treacy

As it stands, Limerick must head to Ennis next Sunday for their second round of the Munster senior hurling championship without two of their most valuable players in suspended captain Cian Lynch and the injured Aaron Gillane.

But this tried and tested group are well used to all sorts of challenges, and manager John Kiely is confident his troops can regroup after 14-man Limerick fell to a battling two-point defeat against Cork in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

“Our boys are definitely disappointed, as you can imagine, in there,” he said. “And would you say to them, would you play a championship match next weekend, or would you rather train?

“I'd say they'd jump on that bus and get to Ennis as quick as they possibly could and try and get at it again, you know. So I don't think we'll be lamenting the fact that we're out again next week.

“We'll be going straight into it Tuesday night, and we'll hammer on to next weekend. We didn't pick up any knocks today. We're fit and healthy and well. We'll be ready for next weekend.

“For the next 48 hours it's a switch off. Just relax. They've put in a tremendous shift outside there. So they'll go and do a bit of recovery tomorrow. Just switch off as much as they possibly can and we'll regroup on Tuesday evening.

“We'll do a review and do a piece of work and we'll do a piece on Friday again and get into our routine. We have a regular routine each game week anyway, so we'll get back into that routine. The boys are in great shape, didn't pick up any knocks there today, so they'll recover very quickly.” 

It was an outstanding effort from the visitors, especially going a man down midway through the second half of a thrilling encounter.

”Really happy with our performance level to be honest with you. It was a proper performance. Worked really, really hard. Got ourselves off to a really great start. Huge energy levels. Very accurate in what we were doing as well.

“Disappointed to concede the goal then. It gave Cork a bit of oxygen and brought them back into the game.

“But again, just before half-time, I thought our response was really, really good. We gained control of the game at that stage again. At half-time, we'd have been reasonably happy with where we were at that stage for the half of hurling we'd done.

“We regrouped then at half-time, came back out. Just a couple of balls got away from us in those early stages, but we managed to steady ourselves again. I think it was a really, really tight game. There was never going to be a whole pile between us. It was really, really tight. Obviously, there was the sending off then and I thought our response to that by the players was really super. Again, we gave ourselves a chance to win the game.

“Just turned over one or two balls here and there and missed a couple of chances. That would have probably seen us across the line or at least get something out of the game. We gave ourselves an opportunity. We didn't take it today. If we play like that next weekend, we'll give ourselves a chance again.” 

Of Cian Lynch’s sending off, he said, “I didn’t see it. I was watching the ball over on the near side of the field. But it is what it is. He got straight red and that's it. There’s no point in crying over spilt milk now it's done. It's the next man up.”