The five-time All Ireland winning manager spoke to the Limerick Voice after the emphatic win over Galway
It’s been a mixed season so far for Limerick, who have five points after four games in Division 1A of the Allianz Hurling League.
A convincing 12-point win over Galway at the TUS Gaelic Grounds on Saturday night will give John Kiely’s side a much-needed boost after the defeat to rivals Clare the previous week.
They can still technically make a final appearance, but for Kiely, it was all about the Galway game.
Speaking to the Limerick Voice after the game, Kiely felt his side “never got going” against Clare but set the tempo right from the off this week.
“I think we moved the ball really well tonight, we were a little bit sharper and probably benefitted from the game last week to be honest”; he said.
“They (Galway) had an uncustomary number of wides and wides from placed balls too, so you know they won’t be happy with their conversion rate and we won’t be happy with the amount of chances they had as well, if they had converted what they had in that first half the gap would have been much closer”.
Kiely also spoke about the goalkeeper situation, in which both Shane Dowling and Jason Gillane have been given game time with Nickie Quaid out injured.
“Everybody knew coming back this year that this was a piece that was going to have to be resolved. The boys have gone at it with gusto, we’ve three keepers at the minute, they’re working extremely hard with their coaches, we couldn’t be happier with the effort they are putting in, everybody’s putting their shoulder to the wheel and from our perspective as management they’ve done really well”.
Nickie Quaid’s progress was described as “going extremely well” and that he was back hitting a few balls and that his management team is working with him closely.
With two games remaining and just over a month until the beginning of the Munster Championship, the possibility is still there for Limerick to feature in a league final in a few weeks. While that might mean an extra game, Kiely is mainly focused on improving every single game, and his priority now turns to Kilkenny in Nowlan Park next Saturday.
“We’ve two games left to play and so far the league has been two thirds positive, last weekend was definitely off for us. We weren’t on it and we’d have been disappointed with our performance but listen this week has come and there’s been an improvement, and now next week we’ll be looking to see if we improve on tonight”.
“We cannot allow the opposition to get off as many shots as Galway did tonight because they won’t be missing them. Galway will be disappointed with their accuracy and we’re not kidding ourselves, we know if they got those shots right then the game would have been much much closer”.
One side of improvement was his side finishing with 1-23 out of 1-27 from play in comparison to Galway’s 0-8 from 0-18.
“We still left a few after us, there was definitely a few chances in the first half, and we know that a score like that is not going to be good enough come championship. It’s a work in progress for us, we had opportunities, more possession, missed a few shots that were unpressurised that we’d be expected to convert, so that’s something we’ll work on this week”.
“Our use of the ball was very good, we moved it very quickly, we showed well for the ball, supported the play and for me that’s the most important piece and our puck outs, movement was much better, we created opportunities and once you’re doing that only positive things can come from it”.