'Exiting the Allianz League not part of any grand plan' - Limerick managerJohn Kiely

MANAGER John Kiely has admitted that Limerick's eight-point Allianz Hurling League semi-final defeat to Kilkenny was one of the poorest displays he had overseen in the role and says a lot of work is needed ahead of the start of Munster SHC next month.

Limerick must now switch their focus to a mammoth Munster SHC round robin meeting with great rivals Clare at Cusack Park in Ennis on Sunday, April 21, 2pm.

The Treaty men topped Division 1 Group B of the league with four wins and a draw but were comfortably beaten on a scoreline of 3-17 to 1-15 by a determined Kilkenny side in their semi-final at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday evening.

Following the defeat, Limerick manager Kiely issued a very frank assessment of his side's display.

“We were poor in defence, we were poor at things that we usually pride ourselves on in terms of our intensity and our workrate, use of the ball, and efficiency,” said Kiely.

“But it has to be tempered with Kilkenny playing far, far better than us.”

Kiely, however, quickly quashed aside any talk of Limerick taking their foot off the pedal due to the fact Clare were a potential opponent had the Treaty men reached the league final, just two weeks prior to meeting the Banner in the Munster SHC.

“We are not happy to be out of the league,” said the Limerick manager.

“It is not part of any grand plan, I can assure you. We were looking to come here to win and anyone that knows us as a group knows that every single day we go out and we try and win our matches, and we go out to play well and we go out to be a better team than we were the week before.

“This is not us exiting the league on our terms, this is us being kicked out of the league on Kilkenny's terms. Our performance today [Saturday] was embarrassing at times.

“I have to analyse the performance in more detail, but it is up there with the top two or three [worst performances as Kiely's time as manager].”

Kiely admitted there is a lot of work to be done ahead of their Munster SHC opener against Clare in less than four weeks’ time.
There is no excuse,” he said.

“Had we trained today I'd have expected to get three times more [effort]. It is just not enough, it is just not acceptable.
“We know that, the players know that, they put their hands up to acknowledge that. It is just disappointing from our perspective.

“We have four weeks now to go and put our shoulder to the wheel and we've a lot of improvement to do. It takes an incredible effort to get to where you need to get to in terms of execution of the skills of the game, and today our execution of the skills of the game was at a very, very low level.”

With Limerick missing Dan Morrissey, Kyle Hayes, Mike Casey, Fergal O'Connor, Darragh O'Donovan, and Colin Coughlan through injury, Kiely says the absent cohort are all expected back training in the next week or two and Limerick have no long-term injury concerns facing into the Munster Championship.

Meanwhile, Limerick footballers, who were already relegated, completed their Division 3 Allianz League programme with a 0-12 to 1-10 loss away to Offaly in Tullamore on Sunday.