John Kiely relieved as Limerick overcome ‘immense’ battle against Clare

The GAA decision to adjust its calendar was helped this weekend by the elements, which transported the Munster hurling final forward to what felt like February but by way of compensation the match between Limerick and Clare burned like a furnace.

A full house turned up to see the first meeting of the counties at this stage since 1995, the blazing summer that ended with Clare as All-Ireland winners. Limerick, beset by injury problems, had negotiated the provincial round robin unbeaten, their performance levels climbing.

Their opponents though, had topped the table and ended up in the final having been thought likely not to qualify at all.

The more circumspect had been waiting for the champions to hand out a statement beating to their stubborn neighbours, who had twice this year held them to draws, most recently just a few weeks ago.

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Instead, the counties delivered an epic final, stretching it all the way to extra time – and so, technically a third draw – before Limerick took an unbreakable grip on proceedings.

Both teams had no shortage of lead actors: Séamus Flanagan had eight from play to keep the champions on course and Clare’s Tony Kelly, being Tony Kelly, swished over a line ball in the 74th minute to tie up the contest at the end of normal time.

Limerick manager John Kiely was relieved to have survived a concerted challenge from formidable opponents.

“It felt phenomenal because the challenge we had to overcome was immense. There were times there when things weren’t stringing together and we were struggling, we were struggling with restarts, we were struggling with general play. We just had to keep going. It was one of those days where you just had to keep grinding and keep grinding it out.

“There were phases then where we got a bit of control, in the last 15 of the first half, the start of extra-time, as well. Even in the second half of normal time, as well, we had a lot of the play. We just didn’t convert enough of our chances into scores. We had just too many wides.

“We created enough of scoring chances to win it in normal time. Listen, when you leave the door open with a one-point deficit and Tony Kelly has a side-line 21 yards out on the left hand side, you are opening the door. There was a chink of light and he struck it through the chink of light and that is a measure of the man he is himself.”

No strangers to extra time, the team’s first All-Ireland came after a semi-final win over Cork in 2018 that also required the additional 20 minutes – part of the experience that sustained them, according to the manager.

“Hugely – and we made reference to it after normal time and coming into extra-time that we had been here before with Cork in 2018. We have had a good few games go into that phase. Having that is great to look back on as a reference point going out again. We started well in extra-time, really, really well.”

It rounded off Limerick’s fourth successive Munster title, an achievement unparalleled in the county’s history since 1936. There was further gratification for the county when captain Declan Hannon was presented for the first time with the new provincial trophy, named in honour of his legendary predecessor Mick Mackey.

They now proceed to the All-Ireland semi-finals in a month’s time and await the winners of the All-Ireland quarter-finals with the prospect of another high-water mark, a three-in-a-row MacCarthy Cup now just two matches away.

Clare will be part of the process and if Brian Lohan gets them back on track, a third meeting with their neighbours may be on the cards. Certainly, Kiely wasn’t ruling it out.

“I have no doubt in the world,” he said when asked about the possibility.

Also in the last four will be Kilkenny, who won a third successive Leinster title on Saturday night. It is the 21st All-Ireland semi-final of Brian Cody’s 24 years in charge of the county. Social media’s insatiable interest in when and how convivially he shakes hands after matches continued.

Word had it that the Cody-Shefflin grip-and-grimace was trending higher than the Orange Order on Saturday night.

He’s unlikely to care too much, having said after the match: “The players win the games and everything happens on the field. I never look for any publicity or anything like that so I feel the same about things now.”