Latest news with #JohnKiely
The Irish Sun
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
‘Don't Kill the Jeopardy' – Limerick boss John Kiely warns against expanding All-Ireland series
INCREASING the scope for qualification for the All- Ireland series would diminish the provincial hurling championships. That is the view of 2 Limerick manager John Kiely warned against expanding All-Ireland series 2 Limerick manager John Kiely says the current format must not be altered With the season already over for teams like Waterford, Wexford and All-Ireland champions Clare, the format has been called into question in some quarters. After last Sunday's loss to In each of the six editions of the round-robin system that have been played since its introduction, the Déise have yet to secure the top-three finish required. But allowing a fourth team to advance is not a proposal that Kiely would favour. READ MORE ON GAA He said: 'They've made great progress this year. Peter has done really, really well. It's tough. 'I suppose you just have to keep going back and eventually you'll get the breakthrough. 'Look at Tipperary last year, where they were bottom of the group and this year they've turned it around. 'They've got five points on the board. Most read in GAA Hurling 'The three teams tied with five points and it was only score difference that separated the three teams in the group at the top, so it can be done. 'Do I think putting four teams out is going to improve it? I don't. I think it'll actually diminish the importance of the games. There's great jeopardy there. 'It's tough, but it's a good tough. When you love sport, you want to be involved in a competition that has incredible standards, incredible competition, incredible rivalries and real jeopardy. 'That's what the Munster Championship has and that's why it's so special. That's why the crowds are turning out. We have to embrace the jeopardy with the desire to get out.' Kiely also empathised with supporters amid anger over another price hike for next Saturday's Munster final between his side and Cork. A €5 increase for the second year in a row sees adult stand tickets priced at €50 — €20 more than an equivalent ticket for the Munster football final. Terrace tickets will set punters back €40. Ahead of Limerick's fifth Championship outing since April 20, Kiely said: 'It's a lot of expense in a short period of time. 'People are looking towards the summer, looking towards summer holidays, kids going away on summer camps, all those types of things. 'It's just an added expense on a family, in particular, where you're trying to bring two adults, two or three kids to the match and it's going to cost you a nice few quid to go. I think that's the big piece. 'If the season was more stretched out, the expense is spread out as well with it and that's maybe something that needs to be taken into consideration — that it's a big hit for families all at the one time.' SELL OUT The ten games to date in this Munster SHC campaign have generated a combined gate of 285,717. Next weekend's decider is also set to be another sell-out at the TUS Gaelic Grounds. Kiely, who reported a clean bill of health for the Cork clash, added: 'I think the onus really goes back on the Munster Council now. "Ultimately they're the ones who are gathering this additional revenue. "And I think maybe in the course of the next 12 months, they need to make it visibly clear to everybody what the additional revenues went towards. 'I think that would be something that would be very much appreciated by the paying public, to know that the money is being put to very good use right across the association."
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
‘It is tough, but good tough': John Kiely backs current Munster championship structure
John Kiely has endorsed the current provincial championship format . The Limerick manager, who is preparing for Saturday week's final against Cork , was speaking at an online media briefing, organised by Munster GAA. Asked for his views on his Waterford counterpart, Peter Queally's call for the season to be extended on the lines of the football championship, Kiely sympathised but said that any more permissive a structure would 'diminish the importance' of provincial fixtures. In six years of the format, Waterford have yet to emerge from the round-robin despite having been All-Ireland finalists and semi-finalists during the two years of Covid when the format was suspended. 'It is tough, they haven't come out yet. They've made great progress this year; Peter has done really, really well. I suppose you just have to keep going back and eventually you'll get the breakthrough. READ MORE 'Look at Tipperary last year – where they were at the bottom of the group and this year, they've turned it around and have five points on the board. There were three teams tied with five points and it was only scoring difference that separated them at the top of the group so it can be done. 'Do I think putting four teams out [for the All-Ireland series] is going to improve it? I don't. I think it will actually diminish the importance of the games. There's great jeopardy there. 'It is tough but it's a good tough. When you love sport, you want to be involved in a competition that has incredible standards, incredible competition and real jeopardy. That's what the Munster championship has and that's why it's so special and that's why the crowds are turning out so we have to embrace the jeopardy as well as the desire to get out.' He said that his team, who are chasing an extended record of seven titles in a row, is at full strength but he cautioned on the potential impact of injuries when asked had he any concerns. 'No, not at the minute. We've had a really strong run the last couple of months and everybody's training at the moment. A few knocks after the Cork game, a few fellas had to step out for a week but they're all back since Wednesday night. 'We've got a session tomorrow [Saturday] morning, Tuesday night, Thursday night, so we've a bit of work to get through yet. In 2018 on the Friday night before the All-Ireland, Peter Casey just turned his ankle on a sliotar that was coming out from the goals. 'It was a non-contact session, if you like, for the most part. How could anyone get injured? When you're out in the field, anything can happen and so we have three sessions still to get through. Hopefully we get there with a full complement.' He also called for the Munster GAA to make it 'visibly clear to everybody' where the additional revenue from this year's raised ticket prices had gone. 'Supporters are never going to be happy with a price rise. It's a big commitment to be a supporter in the first place. They're going to league matches; they're going to all the championship matches. There's a lot of those matches in a short period of time. 'People are looking towards summer holidays, kids going away on summer camps, all those types of things. 'If the season were more stretched out, the expense is spread out as well with it, and that's maybe something that needs to be taken into consideration, that it's a big hit for families all at the one time. 'I think people haven't been giving out tickets too much. I think it's more about getting your hands on what is the biggest problem at the moment. I think we're going to have a fantastic occasion here. 'I think the onus really goes back on the Munster council now. Ultimately, they're the ones who are gathering this additional revenue, and I think maybe in the course of the next 12 months, they need to make it visibly clear to everybody what the additional revenues went towards. 'I think that would be something that would be very much appreciated by the paying public, to know that that money is being put to very good use right across the association.'
Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
John Kiely doesn't want jeopardy of Munster championship lost
John Kiely insists the jeopardy of the current format of the All-Ireland senior hurling championship has to be retained. The Limerick manager sympathised with his Waterford counterpart Peter Queally whose county's season ended last Sunday and have yet to qualify from the provincial round-robin structure. However, he disagreed with Queally's call for the championship to be reviewed along the lines of the All-Ireland SFC format and the idea four teams from Munster and Leinster could qualify for the knock-out stages. At a press briefing in TUS Gaelic Grounds on Friday ahead of Saturday week's provincial final against Cork, Kiely supported the feature of two teams in Munster exiting the competition at the provincial stage. 'It is tough, they haven't come out yet so it's going to be tough on them, they've made great progress this year, Peter has done really well. I suppose you just have to keep going back and eventually you'll get the breakthrough. Look at Tipperary last year where they were at the bottom of the group and this year they've turned it around, they've got five points on the board. 'Do I think putting four teams out (into the All-Ireland series) is going to improve it? I don't, I think it will actually diminish the importance of the games. There's great jeopardy there. It is tough but it's a good tough. 'When you love sport, you want to be involved in a competition that has incredible standards, incredible competition and real jeopardy and that's what the Munster Championship has and that's why it's so special and that's why the crowds are turning out, so we have to embrace the jeopardy with the desire to get out.' However, Kiely believes the scheduling of the championship is worth debating in the context of the costs associated with going to games and the Munster final tickets going up by €5. 'It's a big commitment to be a supporter in the first place,' said Kiely of following teams. 'They're going to league matches, they're going to all the championship matches. There's a lot of those matches in a short period of time. That's the biggest piece, really. 'It's the fact that we're coming off the back of four round-robin games, and now we're into a Munster final, and it's all happened in the space of seven weeks. It's a lot of expense in a short period of time. People are looking towards summer holidays, kids going away on summer camps, all those types of things. 'If the season was more stretched out, the expense is spread out as well with it, and that's maybe something that needs to be taken into consideration, that it's a big hit for families all at the one time. 'I think people haven't been giving out about tickets too much. I think it's more about getting your hands on them what is the biggest problem at the moment. I think we're going to have a fantastic occasion here.' Kiely said the Munster Council 'need to make it visibly clear to everybody' where the additional revenue from the ticket price increases is going. 'I think that would be something that would be very much appreciated by the paying public, to know that that money is being put to very good use right across the Association.' Kiely reported no fresh injury concerns although he pointed out Limerick have three training sessions before the game. 'We've got a session tomorrow (Saturday) morning, session Tuesday night, session Thursday night, so we've a bit of work to get through yet.'
The Irish Sun
7 days ago
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Major ticket update for Munster senior hurling final as Limerick set to host Cork in mouth-watering clash
TICKETS for the Munster senior hurling final between Limerick and Cork will NOT be available to the general pubic. Munster GAA provided an update on the ticketing situation for the game scheduled for Saturday, June 7 at the TUS Gaelic Grounds. Advertisement 2 Limerick face Cork in the Munster hurling final Credit: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile 2 Tickets will not be put on general sale Credit: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile And amid surging interest, the provincial council confirmed that tickets will not be available via general sale but will instead only be available through the respective county boards. A statement read: 'Due to the high demand, tickets for the Munster Senior Hurling Final on Saturday June 7 at 6pm in the TUS Gaelic Grounds Limerick will be distributed through the participating County Boards only. 'Season ticket holders from Limerick and Cork will receive their tickets through the normal channels. "There will be no public sale of tickets via Ticketmaster, Centra or Supervalu outlets.' Advertisement Read More on GAA The Munster final will be the third occasion on which Cork and Limerick go head-to-head. In the opening round of the league, they drew 1-16 apiece as the Rebels went on to win Division 1A. They rematched in the championship round robin, with John Kiely's men Pat Ryan's men bounced back by doing the Advertisement Most read in GAA Hurling The Rebels will compete in a Munster final for the first time since 2018, and Pat Ryan admitted the nerves got to them against the Deise. He said: 'We left an awful lot of chances behind us. But it's knockout Championship, there's going to be a bit more trepidation in it, a bit more nervousness in it. 'Like something out of the French Revolution' - RTE GAA pundit Donal Og Cusack slams Dublin star's reckless swipe 'Both ourselves and Waterford knew that if we didn't win, we'd be out of the Championship. We played a small bit like that, with a bit of nerves.' Ryan's side finished the game with their wides tally at 17. Advertisement And he added: 'That's something we'll work on, the efficiency side of it, but I thought our work-rate, our hitting the breaks, our hunger to get on the ball was an awful lot better than it was last week and that's the way it should be. That's the standard. 'You're not always going to play as well or have great hurling at times and things might not come off in your game-plan. "But your work-rate, your attitude and your character has to be the standard. 'From our point of view, the attitude last week wasn't good enough. The effort wasn't good enough. I don't think we played brilliant hurling today but today was about attitude and character.' Advertisement While Cork are back in the decider after seven years away, Limerick are into their seventh consecutive provincial final. John Kiely opted for eight changes against Clare. Declan Hannon made his first appearance of the season, and Shane Dowling lined out for his first championship game since the 2019 All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny. The manager was left agitated on the sideline by his team's mistakes. Advertisement He said: 'We just didn't come out of the blocks in the second half. 'It was one of our weakest quarters of the game. We lacked intensity, a bit of energy, and accuracy in what we were doing. 'We made too many mistakes and ultimately, across the 70 minutes, on analysis it will be shown that we made quite an inordinate number of errors. "Just missed pick-ups, dropped balls, misplaced passes, unforced errors, if you like." Advertisement
Irish Daily Mirror
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
RTE pundit Dónal Óg Cusack taunted by Limerick fans after win over Cork
Limerick fans couldn't resist taunting Dónal Óg Cusack as the former Cork player spoke live on TV following the Treaty men's win over the Rebel County. John Kiely's side ran out winners by 3-26 to 1-26 at the TUS Gaelic Grounds on a sun-soaked Sunday afternoon - and Cusack was full of praise for Limerick as he admitted Cork would have to take a lot of learnings from the game. He said on RTE: "The game is the game. I don't think anybody expected that Limerick would beat Cork by this amount today. "But from a Cork point of view, the worst part is over. They will just have to go back, take this beating and a lot of learnings. "There were more than small cracks became emergent there and those cracks will have a jackhammer put to them. "I think they definitely learnt their lesson in terms of how to mark key Limerick men individually. The need, when Cork get chances, that they need to put them away. There is a long season ahead. "It has to be said from a Cork point of view, this Limerick we ever seen a better team? "What a machine they were today. So well engineered, resilient, strong, every part working and up for the fight everywhere." As Limerick fans started jeering the three-time All-Ireland winner, he responded by saying: "There is a long year yet, folks."
