Plenty to work on for Limerick hurlers before Waterford clash

JOHN KIELY has admitted that Limerick's first-half display against Cork was ‘not good enough’ to secure victory in their pulsating Munster senior hurling championship third round meeting with Cork on Saturday.

Limerick fell to the first loss of their Munster campaign after a thrilling 3-28 to 3-26 reverse at the hands of ‘the Rebels’ at a sold-out Páirc Uí Chaooimh. Limerick now sets their sights on a crucial Sunday, May 26 final round meeting with Waterford at TUS Gaelic Grounds, 4pm throw-in.

Limerick went in eight points down at half-time and speaking after the game, manager John Kiely touched on the point of his team leaving themselves with too much to do in the second-half of matches saying: “You can't do this everyday, you are just putting way too much pressure on ourselves. The game is 75 minutes long, not 35 minutes and the first half was incredibly disappointing.

“We have two weeks to regroup and fill ourselves up with energy. We are glad to be going back to the Gaelic Grounds as well, but you have to put this game into perspective. It's a four-game competition, everything is not won or lost here against Cork, we should have beaten them and we just didn't close out the game. We have to be more consistent across the 75 minutes of play.”

Another concern for the current All-Ireland champions is the number of injuries that seem to be building up. Both Sean Finn and Declan Hannon left the field early on Saturday evening. However, a return to training for Mike Casey confirmed by Kiely is one positive for the Limerick squad.

Cork were on top in the opening 35 minutes of play as they were able to find huge amounts of space on the wings between the half and full-forward lines.

Manager John Kiely said: “You have to give credit to Cork for creating those spaces and to cause us difficulty. We should have dealt with that overlap better as it was unfolding, but unfortunately we just didn't and Cork punished us badly. It's something that we will look into now before the Waterford game to ensure it doesn't happen again.

“We are still two wins from three in the Munster Championship and in a similar position to the one we were in last year. It's all about surviving now and I can assure you a Munster final is the last thing from our minds at the moment. We need to get two points on the board against Waterford and that's the bottom line now for us. We know exactly what we have to do."