"It’s hard to comprehend" insists John Kiely of Limerick hurling's winning streak

JOHN Kiely made his senior championship debut as Limerick manager in June 2017.

"Hats off to our lads, they fought really hard and everyone contributed. Maybe we met a marginally better team on the day, and had we been a little bit more efficient with our ball we could have put more of a squeeze on in that last quarter. Small things make a huge difference at this level, but you win some and lose some," surmised the new Limerick manager to awaiting media after the four point Munster SHC loss to Clare.

Thankfully it is now definitely a case of winning more than losing….

Last Sunday, Kiely managed Limerick for the 25th time in senior championship – winning 18 games, losing six and one draw.

More importantly the manager has guided Limerick to three All-Ireland SHC titles, three Munster SHC titles and two Allianz Leagues.

"It’s hard to comprehend," smiled Kiely last Sunday evening of Limerick’s current stature in the hurling world. 

"Its just seems like yesterday it was 2017 and we were after two championship matches and lost both and faced into a winter of complete total soul searching and we just managed to turn it around."

The question on everyone’s lips. How?

"There is great confidence built up and a great work ethic in this group and a great capacity there and they seem to be able to push the boundaries of their performances outwards and upwards on a continual basis. They are very much on an upwards trajectory at the moment and keep pushing at the bounds," explained the Galbally man.

True to form it was the nature of last Sunday’s victory and not the title which pleased the Limerick manager most.

"I am not worried about what is coming down the road at all - we will live in this moment and I am sure for the lads this is about now and about enjoying today and it’s a great privilege to be here today and a great privilege to be be here after a performance like that. A performance like that in the most important sporting fixture in hurling - to do that when you need it most is a tremendous satisfaction."

He explained: "It was a huge collective effort which gives even greater satisfaction because even guys who didn’t even feature today and guys who didn’t even make the 26 today put in tremendous efforts of performance in recent weeks and it was there sharpening of the blade that produced that performance today. Their contribution needs to be acknowledged by me and the rest of the group. Without it we can't produce those levels of performance".

Score by score Limerick broke records and the final whistle sealed the first time that Limerick had retained an All-Ireland SHC title.

"Whilst we were aware of it, we didn’t obsess about it and we trusted our own players and the work that we were doing and we stayed focus on that work. Anything that was a consequence of today’s result was irrelevant to us in our own space - obviously there is a context and narrative but that’s not part of what we are about. We are involved in preparing a team and the players are about preparing themselves to get the best out of themselves."

He added: "It’s great to take a moment to consider the achievements but ultimately for people involved with teams it’s all about performance and the satisfaction that the coaches will take from that performance. The satisfaction from their work coming to fruition on the pitch on the most important day - that’s real satisfaction".

And satisfaction that Limerick’s season as a whole was perfectly planned.

"We are good at assessing where we are at any time and that’s important in two ways because if you are not going well as we were at times earlier in the year you have to be able to acknowledge that and we struggled early doors because we had a lot of work to do. But we got the timing right - I think we timed our return to training work and timed our push right and that’s down to Mikey Kiely and Paul (Kinnerk) in terms of their setting the markers along the road of where we want to be at any given time - huge kudos to them guys because they got us right on the day that mattered most."

Limerick had an 18-point lead with 20-minutes to play but Kiely insists no thoughts turned away from the contest until just before Fergal Horgan’s final whistle.

"Only the last minute! It’s the nature of the beast, we are just so much in the moment and living each puck and each puckout. Even though there is a margin there you never really take your foot off the gas until it’s over. And, I would be disappointed if we did anything different because that would be a mark of disrespect to the opposition," he said.