Limerick hurling manager John Kiely: 'Shane O'Brien did his job well'

JOHN Kiely was full of praise for exciting young Limerick full-forward Shane O'Brien, who chipped in with two points, on his first start in the Munster senior hurling championship

“He's a young guy, lots of talent. He went away and played with the U20's for the U20's Championship. He came back to us and we saw an energy, sharpness and freshness in him as a result of coming back having played those games,” John Kiely said.

"We tapped into that. He's tapped into that. He's done a really good job for us. He knows that it's just a job. It's just one job of 15 that are on the field at any given time. You do your job, when you're in there."

"He did his job extremely well today. There's a huge scope and capacity for improvement in that player. He knows that, we know that. He's got to go and chase that improvement and be the better player again the next day.”

It was only O'Brien's second appearance for the Limerick senior hurlers on Sunday in the Championship. After an impressive Fitzgibbon Cup campaign and U20 campaign Shane O'Brien was rewarded with an opportunity for John Kiely's side.

The Kilmallock man has stood out with his performances in the last two games and John Kiely will now find it very hard to leave the youngster out of his starting XV.

Seamus Flanagan missed Sunday's Munster decider with a hamstring injury. The Limerick senior hurling management team will now have a big selection headache picking their forward line for the All-Ireland SHC Semi-Final. After the game, Kiely said Flanagan and Sean Finn are progressing well from their respective injuries.

Sean and Seamus are doing really well. They'll be back in full training before the end of next week."

“It's a positive for us. Disappointing that they weren't able to be involved today but sure that's why we have such a panel."

“We have to trust the panel of players that we have available to us. They know that, we will do that and we'll always put the players first."

Throw-in was delayed by half an hour due to a power outage in Thurles and Kiely feels the players handled it well.

“Of course, you have your routine you want to go through it but all you do is reset and go again. I think we handed it well. The players absorbed it and handled it well. It was clearly something that you rather not have to go through but you have to overcome adversity in sport. If that's the biggest piece of adversity we'll meet this year, we'll get over it. There's far worst things that can happen.”

Limerick created history by becoming the first county in Munster to win six provincial titles in-a-row.

Kiely's record in finals as manager has been outstanding where his side have won 14 finals since 2018 in League finals, Munster finals and All-Ireland finals