Graeme Mulcahy expects John Kiely to remain in charge for 2026

FORMER Limerick hurler Graeme Mulcahy expects John Kiely will remain in charge of the Shannonsiders for the 2026 season. Last autumn, Kiely was given a two year extension as manager of the Limerick senior hurling team.

“They (Kiely and Paul Kinnerk) had a two-year extension last year, so I think they’ll go back again. Obviously, it hasn’t been a successful two years. We won Munster last year. I think they’ve been building quietly. There’s a lot of players that have come through in the last two years, Aidan O’Connor, Adam English has come to the fore now,” said Graeme Mulcahy last week at a media event to promote the Electric Ireland sponsorship of the All-Ireland minor championships.

Kiely has guided Limerick to five All-Ireland senior hurling championships and six Munster titles. Mulcahy won five Liam MacCarthy cups and seven provincial titles during his inter-county career. He made the decision to retire from the inter-county game last season.

The Kilmallock native has been impressed by the number of young players that have stepped up this year.

“You have Shane O’Brien. You have a few more, like Colin Coughlan, who had a very good league campaign. I was surprised not to see him, maybe more, in the championship. They have a lot of young talent coming through and they’ll look to hopefully try and build on that experience that those guys have gained. I’d expect 100% to see them back.”

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The majority of this Limerick team are still under the age of 30 apart from Nickie Quaid. Mulcahy feels Declan Hannon would be a massive loss to the Limerick dressing room if the Adare clubman decided to step away.

“It's very difficult to know, obviously Declan has been around since as long as I was nearly around. He's given unbelievable service, he's probably been the best captain in the history of the game. His experience in the dressing room is massive, if he was to step away he would be a massive loss to the dressing room.”

The five time All-Ireland winning hurler is confident Limerick can bounce back after their All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Dublin.

Mulcahy felt the lack of an atmosphere in Croke Park for Limerick's All-Ireland quarter-final against Dublin impacted Kiely's side's performance.

“I think trying to come down off a Munster final, a Munster final that will live long in people's memories in terms of the drama, and then going to Croke Park a couple of weeks later, an empty stadium effectively with little or no atmosphere, like, you could hear the referee's whistle echoing around the stadium for the first five, 10 minutes.

“It was just a completely different experience for that Limerick team. The whole game felt flat for that first 15, 20 minutes, aside from maybe the bit of intensity that Dublin brought,” added Mulcahy.

“In the first couple of minutes, Aaron Gillane had an easy enough free and it went to Hawk-Eye.

“Whatever little atmosphere was in the stadium was sucked out at that point. I think that really played into Dublin's hands, just allowing them to get a bit of a foothold in the game.”

Limerick's All-Ireland SHC quarter-final clash was part of a double header with Dublin and Cork in the All-Ireland SFC. The overall attendance announced for the day was 36,546, but the attendance was well below that for Limerick and Dublin's clash.

“I think it can have a massive effect. Psychologically, if you're not prepared for that and if you haven't spoken about it, it can have a huge effect. I think if that game had come down to Thurles, you would have had probably three times the amount of Limerick fans at the game.

“On the flipside of that, you wouldn't have had as many Dublin fans travel. I think that would have added to giving Limerick an edge, certainly in terms of their performance, that was lacking in Croke Park.”

Dublin now meet Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final and there has been a lot of soul searching on Shannonside according to the former Limerick hurler. It's set to be an interesting couple of weeks for Mulcahy who is currently living in Cork.

“I think if Cork were to wipe out Dublin completely, then it would feel even more difficult for Limerick, but if Dublin were to go on and overturn Cork as well, and get to the All-Ireland final, I think it would really signal their intent and suggest that there's maybe a new hurling power on the rise.”

Limerick were defeated by Kilkenny in the 2019 All-Ireland semi-final and Mulcahy felt that was one of the biggest learnings that the Shannonsiders took took.

“We took a lot from that year and those learnings really stood to us in the 2020 to 2023 period. “We lost to Cork last year. I stepped away so I don’t really know what happened within the confines of the group. But did we learn enough from it? I don’t know.”