Kiely proud of his stars for resolve in adversity
JOHN KIELY’S pride in his players was evident in every word he uttered as he dissected his first Championship game as Limerick senior manager. Despite playing in patches, his young side — that saw five starting players make their debut and another two off the bench — remained within sight of Clare for the entire game.
If they had a couple more experienced campaigners, Kiely could be preparing for a Munster final this morning. However, he lamented his team’s slow start, feeling the early deficit meant they were always chasing the game.
‘We just let them have too big a gap at the outset. We made it too hard on ourselves after the first 20 minutes.
‘We responded really well and took the game to them and dominated for 10 minutes in the first-half. We would be very happy with that but felt we should have pushed on a bit more just before half-time but Clare responded and that’s testament to their character.
‘But hats off to our lads, they fought really hard and everyone contributed. Maybe we met a marginally better Clare 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.’
Tempers got a little frayed on the Semple Stadium sideline at one point in the second-half with Kiely taking umbrage to a suggestion made a member of the Clare management that Declan Hannon had feigned injury.
‘A comment was passed, I didn’t like it, simple as. It was said that he (Declan Hannon) dived. He didn’t dive. Declan doesn’t dive. I don’t think any player takes the field in inter-county hurling that are diving. It was an unfortunate comment and I am sure when he thinks back on it, he’ll regret it.’
Kiely did admit that the weight of referee James McGrath’s key decisions did seem to go against his team. ‘A couple of decisions went against us, but that part and parcel. It goes on the whole time.
‘There was a ball Shane O’Donnell caught over by the sideline, threw it up and caught it but it’s a free in for them, and it ends up in the back of the net. Small things make a huge difference at this level. I know everyone’s trying to do their best on the day, but you win some and you lose some in terms of those decisions.’
Gerry O’Connor, one of Clare’s joint-management team, said that the most encouraging thing from his perspective is how his team responded to Limerick’s first-half fightback.
‘We would have rathered it was a less stressful finish but ultimately the prize for Limerick and Clare was huge.
‘That’s why at various stages we couldn’t nail Limerick the way we want to in terms of closing out the gap to seven or eight points. Anytime that we did they clawed it back. The real positive aspect from our perspective was any time Limerick eroded our lead, our guys responded magnificently.’
O’Connor says that it was important for the county of Clare to get back to a Munster hurling final. ‘Absoutely. I have been following Clare hurling for a long time. There’s something special about the Munster final, it’s something that we’re going to relish and something we’re going to really focus on over the next four weeks.’
“Hat’s off to our lads they really fought hard and contributed”