There is a lot of positivity around the camp’ – John Kiely

Jerome O’Connell Limerick Leader Sport

“YOU can’t beat a bit of positivity. It’s been a while since we won two championship matches in the one year,” said a smiling Limerick hurling manager John Kiely.

While he was full of praise for his players following the 13-point win over Waterford, Kiely was quick to turn attentions to Sunday’s Clare game.

“We have a tough assignment next weekend but it’s obviously a very enjoyable prospect as well. It will be a phenomenal atmosphere down there, there’s a lot at stake and you’ll have two teams that go toe to toe for it. Let’s go at it and see how we get on,” said Kiely.

Sunday will be Limerick’s third game in 20 days but the manager doesn’t fear burnout.

“They recover very quickly. When there is a lot of positivity around the camp, that’s half the battle as well. Positivity makes things an awful lot easier; negativity makes things a hell of a lot harder,” he explained.

The foundation for beating Waterford was a 2-7 to 0-2 lead after 15-minutes.

“We got off to a good start and made it count. We won the battles where we needed to win them. We were very solid at the back, very composed at the back. We worked the ball well moving forward, put it through the hands and had lots of runners available. I’d be happy with the performance. I think the most pleasing thing about it was when we got the lead we didn’t panic. We kept our heads. Sometimes it can be a tough thing to have a lead like that, of 10, 12, 13 points, but I think any time Waterford made a move to dent that lead, we responded. That response was key in keeping the momentum with ourselves, and I think we looked very secure in defence right throughout the game, but for one break that fell to Tommy Ryan for their goal, which was a very good goal.”

He added: “I just knew once the warm-up was complete that we were ready to go. I wasn’t one bit surprised that we hit the ground running”

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