“There are opportunities there” | John Kiely speaks after Tipperary victory

A tense opening 25 minutes saw the sides level on five occasions, with a strong breeze behind Limerick’s attack.

John Kiely has said that “there are opportunities” for players to earn a spot in his starting XV, following his side’s Munster Senior Hurling Championship victory over Tipperary on Sunday.

The TUS Gaelic Grounds staged Limerick’s second provincial outing of the year, as Kiely’s men waltzed past the challenge of Tipperary.

The 15 point victory was marred by what looked to be a rather serious injury to Peter Casey, picked up as he fired his side’s second goal.

Speaking after the game, Kiely personified the hurt that the Limerick panel are feeling for their stricken teammate, and said that they “will look after him the very, very best that we can.”

“It’s Jeckyll and Hyde isn’t it? Devastation for Peter and his injury, nobody wants to see anyone get injured on any team, these boys all put in a huge shift so it doesn’t matter what team it is, he’s one of ours, obviously it’s a significant injury. We will look after him the very, very best that we can, we’ll make sure he gets the best of treatment. He’s come back from a serious injury before, come back very strong. I have no doubt Peter has the capacity to come and do that again. We’d rather not see him have to do that, it hurts the group very much now this evening that this has happened. We’ll support him, we’ll rally around him, we’ll give him every assistance we can, for the group it’s a case of move on.”

“He’s an incredible talent, he can it in the air he can do it on the ground, left and right. He’s got a fantastic hurling brain. He’s always stacked up with really great plays for us throughout the years, and I look forward to seeing him take the pitch again down the road.”

A tense opening 25 minutes saw the sides level on five occasions, with a strong breeze behind Limerick’s attack.

Four consecutive Aaron Gillane points gave the Shannonsiders a bit of breathing room as the clock ticked towards the break, before Diarmaid Byrnes and Casey raised white flags to build up a six point advantage. Limerick headed in at the break with a five point lead.

Kiely was pleased with how his side dealt with the Premier threat, the Limerick manager praising the ability of Liam Cahill’s men to read the breaks.

“It was really tight throughout the first 25 minutes or so, the only thing was they weren’t threatening massively from play, it was mostly frees, that gave us a bit of comfort. Obviously we knew we were playing with the breeze and that breeze was freshening right throughout the first half, it became more of a factor than we anticipated leading into today. Last ten minutes of the first half we managed to get some good solid possession, create some good solid scoring chances. We went six up, they pulled one just before half-time to bring it back to five. You’re facing into that breeze the second half, you know the threat that they have off breaking ball off long puck outs. They’re really brilliant at it, they’re great at reading the break, great at making line break and creating goal scoring chances out of it. It was a real watch for us in the second half but I think we dealt with it very well, I think we were solid at the back, we used it really well as a platform to attack.”

Veteran Grame Mulcahy replaced the injured Casey, and similarly to last week in Ennis, Limerick’s bench played a big role in driving them to victory.

Adam English produced an impressive cameo against Clare, and the Doon man starred as a substitute once more, landing four points from play having only played just over ten minutes.

Donnacha Ó Dálaigh landed one point off the bench, fresh off goaling on his championship debut last week, and Kiely was quick to stress that Limerick have “always had really strong panels”.

“We’ve always had really strong panels, team selection is always a big challenge, panel selection is always a big challenge, we have a lot of guys knocking on the door at the moment that aren’t even making the matchday 26, they’re playing out of their skins in training, so the next two weeks now is going to be a competitive piece, there’s opportunities there for guys to go and lay down a question to us: put me on the team sheet, put me on the panel!”

Limerick now face a two week break before their next game – a Saturday night trip to Pairc Ui Chaoimh to meet a wounded Cork side who are winless in the championship this year.

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