JOHN Kiely has revealed that his Limerick senior hurling heroes have received their Covid-19 vaccinations.
As the two week countdown begins to the August 22 All-Ireland SHC final the Limerick manager explained that preparing in a Covid-19 world was a “huge challenge”.
“It is a challenge, a big challenge and has been a huge challenge. Team sport is about being close, so how do you keep them apart and still achieve what you are trying to achieve. It is hard,” outlined the Limerick manager.
“We are in a fortunate position where we now have everybody vaccinated in our group which is a huge plus,” he revealed of his 35-man 2021 panel.
Kiely was fulsome in praise for the efforts of all players and backroom staff to keep any Covid issues at bay.
“Our medical team have done a fantastic job at training every night. To be fair to the players and backroom team we are limiting our movements quite significantly individually in our own lives away from training. When we are at training we tog out in the Mackey Stand and we have limited use of showers, we travel to training on our own – doing all that we can to limit the risk because the risk is still there,” said Kiely, who was speaking as Tyrone deal with a number of Covid-19 issues ahead of next weekend’s scheduled All-Ireland football semi final against Kerry.
While Limerick have just under a 24-hour head start on All-Ireland preparations Kiely said that recovery was first on their schedule.
“We will need recovery – there are a lot of sore bodies inside there. There were a lot of heavy hits – particularly in that first quarter when there were some serious engagements. To be fair to Waterford they worked tremendously hard and they came into this situation with a lot of momentum and a lot of good performances but it is so difficult to do four weekends in a row,” he explained.
On Sunday August 22, Limerick will go in search of back-to-back All-Ireland SHC titles for the first time.
“Its clearly a talking point and will be for the next two weeks. From our perspective we are a team who are preparing for a game and we have our own expectations about what we are going after in that game in terms of our performance,” said Kiely.
“That aspect doesnt come into it at all in terms of our mindset. Of course it is there and we acknowledge the fact that it is there but does it impact on anything else that we do? Not at all. Does it mean that we prepare for the next two weeks any different to the last few weeks? No. Listen, its a great achievement but I think the biggest achievement that this group have done this year is that they have managed to incrementally improve from game to game and that for me is the most important thing,” said the manager.
“We want to keep improving from game to game and for the next two weeks its about finding those improvements again and bringing them to the table in two weeks time.”
And, Kiely feels Limerick work-rate can be improved upon but was still keen to point out the benefits of his side’s high octane display against Waterford.
“The goal came from our work-rate and pressure that was put on in that particular area and I was really pleased with the directness of our running and the support that came – it was so pleasing that first of all we got the possession out of sheer work and it was a great finish. To not concede a goal today was a really significant achievement for our defence. I wont say it was a goal but it was a tremendous reward for our defending today – I thought our defending today was superb.”
He added: “But for the fact that we worked so hard I am sure they would have had more scores on the board. They did have shots that went wide and Id say their wides tally would be higher today than it was in any of the two previous games. Their shot accuracy was 87% in the last game and 75% in the previous game – their shooting accuracy has been tremendously high and I would say you will find that its way down. The pressure that was being put on them forced those wides”.
Also keeping Waterford’s scoring low was goalkeeper Nickie Quaid.
“We always feel secure with him – you always feel he has a chance of making a save. He is very good with a ball dropping in around the square, has very secure hands, is brave and has super reflex actions.”
Kiely continued: “Im thrilled for Timmy Houlihan and the lads that work with the goalkeepers on a nightly basis. They get very little recognition to be honest about it and they work tremendously hard – goalkeepers work twice as hard as any other player on the field and they are obsessed with their aspect of the game and I can assure you that there is not a keeper in the country that works as hard as Nickie Quaid. He makes them look easy but they are not easy”.
