John Kiely: We were prepared for knockbacks like Richie Hogan’s goal
Within minutes of the final whistle yesterday, Limerick manager John Kiely was already looking ahead to the All-Ireland semi-final against Cork.
“We’ve created an opportunity for ourselves to go into a final and who will we be playing, Munster champions Cork, who have been exemplary all year, who put Clare to the sword. They drew with us in their third game in the round robin series, when most would have said they’d fall away. They didn’t.
“They nearly got the defining score that day, which would have meant we wouldn’t qualify out of Munster at all, only Sean Finn got a block on the ball.
“There have been lots of moments but they haven’t been defining moments for the team, the team is defined by itself, its own attributes, its own characteristics.”
Kiely was delighted with his side’s win over Kilkenny, naturally enough: “I am absolutely happy, happy with the team’s performance, first and foremost, the character and steel and resolve our team showed.
“The composure they showed, the never-say-die spirit they showed in the face of ferocious adversity, that fantastic spirit Kilkenny brought as well, in the last 20, 25 minutes they hit us with everything.
“They got good scores, they got that goal, but really after that was the winning of the match. We responded with three quick points and that kind of leadership is huge, for fellas to do that. We spoke about the need to do that during the week and that’s exactly what we did.”
Kiely said Limerick weren’t knocked back by Richie Hogan’s late goal. “We were prepared for it. Nothing changed, we were prepared for that, we knew it was going to happen, and when you know something is going to happen you’re prepared for it.
“And when you’re prepared for it, especially when fellas have been a couple of years in their preparation to get to this point, they have the resolve to do those things out on the field.
“That’s what it takes: You don’t deserve to be in an All-Ireland semi-final unless you can do things like that. It’s a moment to savour but there was no medal given out at the end of it.”
