Limerick boss John Kiely pushes for larger panels
Limerick manager John Kiely doesn’t enjoy dropping players for big games, describing it as a “very difficult scenario” - and feels the 26-man panel is an issue that needs revisiting in Gaelic games.
“I don’t enjoy it,” says Kiely about telling players they won’t start a game. “I’ve yet to meet someone who enjoys delivering bad news. You feel like the doctor in the surgery who has got a bad message to give so no, I don’t like it and I think it’s a very difficult scenario.
“I have an issue with the 26-man panels for example. I can’t change the rules but I can certainly air my disapproval with the fact that we have 36 players training and busting their ass and making a huge contribution who are equally as valuable as any man that starts in the match-day 15.
“Yet he can’t even have his name in the programme. I have an issue with that, it’s wrong and they should get a jersey and the should be sitting on the bench.
“Plus, say for example the teams that had to play four games in a row during the round-robin, you need more options available than five subs on the day.
“I think myself during the round robin there should be seven subs available because the players are getting tired. Do we actually want to get to the point where we have players getting so much cramp in the finish that we’re going to end up with 13 aside because two players can’t continue because their legs don’t work and there’s nobody else to come on for them?” Kiely says he doesn’t see “any rationale” for restricting panels to 26 players.
“I think we should be more flexible in allowing the players who are fit, who have trained hard, who are available to play and give them the chance to play. We have to show faith in our panels, they are there for a reason, they’re not there just for training purposes. They’re there for a reason and they all have ambitions to be on the match-day 15 or the match-day 26 and excluding them from that - I don’t see any rationale. What purpose does it save only a bit of ink on a page?”
Kiely added that squad numbers for the year should be considered for senior inter-county teams: “Naming your 26 on a Wednesday after playing on Sunday and you’ve a couple of players carrying knocks and you don’t know whether they are going to be ready or not . ..
And picking 26 players can be restrictive because players have such specialised jobs, said Kiely.
“You could be unlucky, you could lose a corner-back in a warm-up so you replace him with a corner-back sub.
“Then another injury or a red card to your corner-back comes and suddenly you’ve two of your reserve corner-backs used.
“The positions are so specific, your full-back line, your half-back line, your midfielders, half-forwards and full-forwards and they all have their own job and yet you’ve only 11 replacements so you can’t have two for each line that you can guarantee.
Corner-back is not the same as full-back, 6 is not the same as 7 or 5, 11 is certainly not the same as 10 or 12 and 14 is certainly not the same as 13 or 15. There’s a lot of specialised positions in the game and you’d like to be able to replace like with like.
“I can’t see a rational reason why you can’t replace like with like, given certain circumstances you could end up in a very difficult position.”
Kiely instanced Declan Hannon’s situation, when the Limerick captain had to be substituted early in the Munster championship game with Cork.
“It’s an example. You’ve to put in a player after six or eight minutes and that’s one of your reserves gone.
“Obviously, you take that reserve and you’d like to have at least two more to come in behind so there are lots of examples of scenarios where it plays out that you could need more than just the two - that you might need the three or the four.
Like a keeper, for example. If Nickie Quaid got injured in the warm-up and you had to put in your-sub keeper, next thing the sub-keeper gets a clip of a sliotar and breaks his finger catching it, sure where are you going to pull the third one out of?
“Think about it. Are you going to put in your corner-back? This is elite sport - it isn’t club stuff.
“Anyway, that’s a different argument. It just doesn’t add up and it’s a frustration going into games at times.
“You want to make sure that players are given the best opportunities to play and yet you want to make sure you have the fittest panel going into a match as well.”
