LISTEN – John Kiely “We won the battles where we needed to win them”

Limerick boss, Kiely was unsurprisingly satisfied with his side’s thirteen point victory over Waterford at the Gaelic Grounds on Sunday afternoon.

A  2-26 to 1-16 victory leaves Limerick at the top of the Munster Championship round-robin table with one game to go.

“We won the battles where we needed to win them. Very solid at the back, very composed at the back, worked the ball well moving forward. The most pleasing thing is when we got the lead we didn’t panic, we kept our head. Sometimes it can be a tough thing to have a lead but I think anytime Waterford made a move to dent that lead, we responded.”

“Everything went right for us all day today, as it does most days before a game. We have a fairly structured pre-game routine, I knew when the warm up was complete we were ready to go.”

Shane Dowling came into the side in place of the suspended Aaron Gillane and had a major impact on proceedings, chipping in with no fewer than 15 points. Kiely says that Dowling helped the side in more areas than just scoring.

“Shane brought a new energy to the inside line as well, it freed up Seamus (Flanagan) to hit the wings a bit more. I think they worked really hard as a forward unit today and they were very unselfish with the ball as well.”

Next week will be Limerick’s third game in as many weeks, Kiely believes that the lift that players get from winning big games helps with the preparation during game weeks.

“They recover very quickly, they’re very good to recover, When there’s a lot of positivity around the camp that’s half the battle, positivity makes things an awful lot easier. It’s been a while since we’ve won two championship games in a year, we’ve done that now.”

Full interview below.