Cork v Limerick: John Kiely managing rather than suppressing Shannonsiders' emotions

Over the course of winning five All-Ireland titles and six Munster championships, Limerick manager John Kiely is well-versed in the art of the press conference.

He knows what he wants to say and what he doesn’t want to say and so, when asked about how his side seemed to be written off after losing an All-Ireland semi-final by two points last July, the brevity of the response spoke volumnes.

“Yeah, maybe that narrative is out there or was out there,” he said.

“I think that narrative has been debunked now.”

While the Shannonsiders ended the provincial round-robin schedule with a loss at home to an eliminated Clare side, their place in the decider was never in doubt and they go in as favourites tomorrow evening at home to Cork, when a victory would turn an unprecedented six in a row into an unprecedented seven in a row.

Three weeks ago, they sounded a warning with a 16-point win over Cork and afterwards the Limerick camp made no bones about the fact that it was a game they had targeted, having lost to the Rebels twice last year.

Summoning the same levels of energy and emotion again may be a challenge but Kiely isn’t overly concerned.

“Obviously the process of preparation is very detailed and for ourselves and the opposition there's a lot of detail involved,” Kiely says.

“But, on top of the detail, you have to have that little piece of the reality of the emotion of what's at stake, number one, and what it would mean to be successful, number two. Those rivalries between your opponents add that extra layer to it because it does bring additional meaning to it. That's what sport is all about, isn't it? It's a really important ingredient in sport.

“It's what we all enjoy about sport. There's always that certain amount of emotion in there. I suppose it's controlling it and having it in the right way and using it for the right purpose to get the right outcome.

“It should be an energy-giver rather than an energy-taker and managing that emotion is a task in itself to make sure that's what happens.”

And how does he assess the Cork challenge?

“Every team is looking to get to improve and get better at the various aspects of the game,” Kiely says.

“Cork have huge skill-sets, and different maybe to ours – and that's actually a good thing, that teams have different attributes that make them what they are – but there's no doubt that there's very little between the two groups.

“On any given day, it comes down to the smallest of margins, really, the smallest of margins.

“They're a very competitive group, [Cork selector] Dónal O’Mahony is a good friend of mine, he's in the coaching ticket there and we’d have huge regard for each other.

“We embrace the challenge, we embrace the competition, we embrace the rivalry that's there and I think all of these occasions are special in their own right.

“I think they obviously are bringing through new players as well into their group, just like ourselves and all the other groups, and they have fantastic young talent coming through into their group.

“All that young talent adds to the competition for places, adds to the drive that's within the group, but you know everybody's working so hard.”