John Kiely stresses importance of Fitzgibbon Cup involvement for Limerick senior hurlers.

LIMERICK senior hurling manager John Kiely said he felt it was important to give the younger players in the squad gametime last weekend against Tipperary. An experimental Limerick side were edged out by a point, 1-21 to 0-23, by All-Ireland champions Tipperary in their ‘Champions Under Lights’ challenge fixture in aid of the Dillon Quirke Foundation in Fethard on last Saturday evening.

“That's what these games are for, we need to get as much gametime into all of the panel as much as we can. For us, it was a very positive evening's work,” said Limerick senior hurling manager Kiely.

Tipperary led by six points at half-time, 1-11 to 0-8, and moved eight points clear early in the second period before a strong rally from Kiely's charges saw them draw level. However, two late pointed frees from Jack Leamy edged Liam Cahill's side to victory.

The game saw Poc Fada champion Colin Ryan recalled to the Limerick line-up as goalkeeper, the Pallasgreen man having last featured in the forwards for the Treaty in 2019.

“He has played there before at underage. He's obviously a very skilful hurler. He had a very positive evening's work,” said John Kiely of Colin Ryan's return to the Limerick senior hurling panel as a goalkeeper. 

“He has a lot to do, he knows that himself. It's still very early doors. But after a month's work, a performance like that, he'll be very happy.

“He executed his puck-outs really well, particularly in the first half. He had to pick out guys, and he has that range.

“We went very long with the breeze a few times, and it didn't really work out for us. We've rarely had that opportunity to go that long with puck-outs, so there was just a bit of an unpreparedness for that,” explained Kiely.

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Overall Limerick boss Kiely was happy with his side's performance which saw a number of players get opportunities in the green and white jersey for the first time. Aidan O'Connor and Shane O'Brien impressed scoring 0-12 between them last Saturday.

“I'm actually delighted, we played really well. We created a load of scoring chances in the first half into a very strong breeze.

“Disappointed at half-time that we hadn’t a few more on the board. We had 24 shots. We only came in with eight points, so that was probably the one negative of the night: our accuracy. It's early in the year, so we've plenty of time to work on that.”

Nine of this year's Limerick U20 panel featured for the Shannonsiders last Saturday evening which included Fionn O'Brien, Sean Casey, Darragh Langan, James Coughlan, Fintan Fitzgerald, Robert O'Farrell, Matthew Fitzgerald, Dara Ferland and Hugh Flanagan.

Meanwhile, Cathal O'Neill, Adam English, Colin Coughlan, Aidan O'Connor and Shane O'Brien were some of Limerick's more established players that featured last weekend.

Kiely confirmed that he will hope to give more younger players an opportunity throughout the upcoming Munster Senior Hurling League but also said that it will be difficult with thirteen players in his squad playing Fitzgibbon Cup hurling.

“A lot of these lads will still get time in the Munster League if we can. As I said, a lot of them are playing colleges, we have to balance the two, it's important that they get to play with their college in the Fitzgibbon Cup.

“We are always very positive towards that competition, it's a great space for the lads to go as hurlers at that level and they are up against really top quality hurlers, we want them to enjoy the Fitzgibbon Cup experience so hopefully that will work out.”

Limerick face Clare in the opening round of the Munster Hurling League in Tulla on Saturday, January 3 at 2pm. Four days later, on January 7, John Kiely's side will host Cork in the TUS Gaelic Grounds at 7:35pm. 

“We have two games in four days, it's a tight schedule, it will be a tight turnaround. I'm praying that the weather will play ball that we will be able to get out and play those games. It has been a challenge in the past to get them played in that week,” added Kiely.

“Fitzgibbon Cup is after being brought forward by a week which is into that 7th and 8th of January window which is going to make it really tight on numbers for us. We have thirteen playing Fitzgibbon Cup, so that's going to make it a challenge.

“At the minute, we are in a good healthy state across the panel, fitness wise. We've nearly all the panel training at the moment, there's three or four lads just coming back into it, so hopefully fingers crossed the next two weeks will go well and we will be ok.”