John Kiely hoping for fully fit Limerick squad ahead of league final with Cork

JOHN Kiely is hoping for a clean bill of health for the Allianz Hurling League Division 1A final on Easter Sunday.

Limerick will face Cork on Easter Sunday, 4pm, with a bumper crowd expected at the TUS Gaelic Grounds for the Munster derby clash. The game is set to form the second part of a double header with the Division 1B final between Clare and Dublin.

Demand for tickets from hurling fans for the finals is expected to be strong.

Limerick booked their place in the Division 1A final, holding out for a 2-27 to 0-31 win over Galway at the Ennis Road venue on Saturday night. Limerick manager Kiely has had a number of injury concerns throughout the spring, including Darragh O’Donovan who suffered a shoulder injury against Offaly.

“We’ve had a number of players who have had injuries over the last few weeks, they are all coming back into training again in the next week or so which is a big positive,” Kiely said. “I’m sure they are going to bring a right challenge to the lads that are there for those places in two weeks’ time.”

Five wins on the trot sees Limerick heading into this final in a good form. While the performance level dropped in the second half against ‘the Tribesmen’, the panel is shaping up nicely with championship approaching.

“There’s lots of options there,” Kiely said on his league final selection dilemma. “At the end of the day, when lads pick up an injury, somebody else takes the opportunity and that’s the way it should be. I would expect by next weekend they will all be back on the pitch training.

“Our player group have a lot of work to do in terms of fighting it out for those places on that league final team.” The clash with ‘the Rebels’ on Sunday week is ‘ideal’ timing for Kiely and Limerick, as it comes three weeks before the counties face-off in the Munster SHC.

“We had a five-week block between this game tonight and our first round (in Munster) against Cork, so to have another competitive game two weeks from now, three weeks from championship is ideal,” John Kiely added.

Despite leading by 11 points in the second half on Saturday night, Limerick only held on to win by two - a dramatic goal-line clearance from Kyle Hayes getting the hosts over the line.

“For us, right now, we are very focussed on ourselves for the next 10 days, 12 days. We are going to be focussed on that second half dip in terms of our performance levels, our execution levels so that’s where our focus is going to be. It’s not going to be on what Cork team is going to turn out in two weeks' time, we’ll let them worry about that.”

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