GAA
John Kiely’s Limerick side defeated Tipperary at the TUS Gaelic Grounds to make it three wins in a row in the Munster Hurling Championship.
An brilliant final quarter from Limerick saw the side fight for an eventual 3-21 to 0-23 win over Tipperary to continue their 100% record in the Munster Championship.
A six minute blitzing from John Kiely’s men saw Limerick score 1-5 to claw back the deficit and go ahead in the game for the first time in over a half hour.
The Shannonsiders would eventually go on to win the game by seven points by the final whistle as they were ably helped by goals from Conor Boylan and Aaron Gillane.
The result ensures Limerick’s place in the All-Ireland series whilst signalling the end of Tipperary’s hopes prior their final round clashes.
Kiely’s outfit aren’t guaranteed a place in the Munster final as of yet despite going 100% thus far, but that can be confirmed with anything other than a loss to Clare in Ennis next Sunday.
The manner of the victory does little to help over-shadow some of the poorer performances throughout as the Shannonsiders struggled for large periods.
The side was lacking the regular intensity that Kiely has been instilling for some time now, but with that said Limerick were still able to pull a win from what looked to be defeat.
“My immediate thoughts are we struggled for long periods of the game to get into a rhythm and I think the boys to be fair you know knew that themselves. They kept battling away kept the heads, they didn’t panic.
“We got to maybe two quarters way through the game and I think Tipperary had been the better team up to that point, but our lads coming off the bench made a very substantial contribution. That was the difference really in the finish, in terms of who won the game but we’d be disappointed with an awful lot of our performances today.”
“It lacked the intensity that we would associate with our play it was just a smidge enough. Credit has to be given to Tipperary they brought a huge amount of aggression and intensity to the game in the first 45 minutes. They were sharper, they were crisper today and the bottom line is we struggled with them at times.
“We’re going to have to improve for next weekend, that performance today won’t do next next week as simple as that and you know it only barely did today to be honest”
Watch the full interview with Kiely below!