LISTEN – John Kiely says 90% of Limerick focus will be on themselves.

Limerick senior hurling manager John Kiely won’t be spending too much time focusing on the threat posed by Munster Champion Cork ahead of their All Ireland semi-final encounter this Sunday. The lion’s share of preparation will focus on ensuring that his side put in the best performance that they’re capable of.

Kiely says that he has learned from making the mistake of focusing on the opposition too much in the past.

“We operate a 90-10 balance, 90% about ourselves but yet an awareness of the opposition and maybe a couple of considerations around their strengths and potential areas that we’d like to attack. It is ultimately about ourselves at the end of the day. If we don’t get that right it’s irrelevant what we might do about the opposition.”

“We’ve learned from the past as well, myself being involved with teams up along the line. You get obsessed about oppositions and you take your eye of yourself and you find out that the biggest problem wasn’t the opposition so we’ve learned from mistakes along the way.”

Three Na Piarsaigh stars were introduced from the bench in the win over Kilkenny and each made an impact. Kiely has been impressed with how members of the All Ireland Club runners up side have continued to fight for their places having joined back up with the county panel back in March.

“There was nobody going to be handing out jerseys to lads coming back in after being away with their club for so long they had to come back in and earn their crust. I’d have to compliment them on the effort that they put in since they came back in. Last Sunday the three lads who came on just happened to be from Na Piarsaigh and they made a very hasome contribution to the team’s effort at that stage.

Listen to the full interview below.