John Kiely: No outside influence will decide Limerick future
John Kiely on his future as Limerick manager: "Whatever we decide will be for Limerick's sake, for this group's sake, and for the people who are involved's sake. And that's the way it's always been." Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
John Kiely insists no outside influences will have a bearing on his future as Limerick senior hurling manager.
The Galbally man capped his 10th season in charge with a sixth All-Ireland SHC title on Sunday. It also marked the end of his second and final year of his and head coach Paul Kinnerk’s current term.
As part of his work with JP McManus’ Martinstown Stud, Kiely is involved in the local arrangements for the hosting of next year’s Ryder Cup in Adare Manor.
In what will be the 100th anniversary of the tournament, making it the biggest sports event to be ever staged in Ireland, he has a key position in Limerick sponsor and Ryder Cup host McManus’ team but maintains it won’t make impact his decision.
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“My role there is a small piece,” he told the . “And whether I'm with Limerick next year or not will not depend on it. I'm very fortunate to have the opportunity to do what I do, and I love what I do.
“But the Limerick piece is in it of itself, and it has always been a piece that we go back to every year and sit down and say, ‘What are we going to do now?’ That's the way it's always been.
“And no other outside influence will come to bear on that. Whatever we decide will be for Limerick's sake, for this group's sake, and for the people who are involved's sake. And that's the way it's always been. That's the way it will always be.”
Kiely maintains nothing should be read into the fact he no longer goes to the games of future opponents. “That's just me just making choices that I feel are the smart choices right now. Did it disadvantage me by not going to Thurles or by not going to wherever I needed to go? It didn't. I have people I can send there. We can get the footage.
“Before I could go and I wouldn't be noticed there. That's not as easy anymore. I actually love sitting down at home with the lads (wife Louise, daughters Aoife and Ruth) watching matches. There are a few chances I get to sit down with the lads at home and watch matches. So, we do enjoy those.
“They don't need me heading off looking for a half per cent those days. I need to be the 100% at home for them those days. And that's the choice. It's nothing to do with my future or anything like it, or that I’m running out of gas. It's me making choices that work best for me.”
After 34 weeks together and just five official days off, Kiely says he couldn’t have asked more of his players. The inter-county season could be moved but it can’t be elongated, he argues.
“I think the problem is that we have teams gone after eight weeks of championship, and for them, that's not acceptable. There are some choices to be made. But for me, going to 38 or 40 is not acceptable.
“There has to be some way of, I won't say condensing it, because that's not what I want to see done with it. But it has to be fair. These guys have to turn around next week and play club championship.
“Our lads that are playing premier intermediate hurling next weekend. That group has eight teams, so that’s the first of seven matches. Then a semi-final and then a final. That is nine weekends that they have to play between now and the end of October. That's, to me, unacceptable.
“They need to have some me-time, and family time. Time to get married. Time to get divorced,” he laughs. “I don't care what they have to do. But they need time. They've given me 34 weeks. And we have five days off.
“So, this is not an easy road. And now we're asking them to go home to their clubs. We need to understand that these boys have an elasticity of commitment. And if we go beyond the elasticity of commitment, we're going to break them, and we're going to regret what we've done to them.”
With the demands on players in mind, Kiely would like to see the amount of substitutes increased from five to seven. “It’s clear to me that we're under-utilising the resources we have and we're not allowing players who have given us countless hours of commitment to make a contribution in that shape.
“I believe that we can easily accommodate up to seven substitutions a game. I'm not talking about seven breaks in play, I'm talking about seven substitutions either in the first half, at half-time or in the second half and I would probably limit it to three substitution breaks per half.
“There are ways and means, but our players that are on our panels, we have 37 players, most panels have 36 or 37 players. We're only using a small proportion of that group on a regular basis and I think were we given an opportunity to play more, we could play more.”
Kiely says he had two players carrying knocks who continued to play on Sunday as he had made his five substitutes. “I couldn't take them off because I had no way of getting something else on. And yet I had six players above sitting down that I could have used, but I couldn't use them. It makes no sense. It's ridiculous.
“I think the Hurling Review Committee need to really push, for me, to reward the players for their commitment and allow us to use more players.”
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