John Kiely’s Limerick reign was just two games old when he came up against Cork for the first time - and bombed out.
The Rebels fired 7-22 in that Munster Senior League pre-season game in January of 2017 and some of Kiely’s personnel were booed off by their own supporters.
Many of those players have gone on to win two All-Irelands and they’re favourites to collect a third today.
But Cork have consistently raised their game whenever they’ve played their neighbours, a county they’ve traditionally lorded it over.
Crunch the numbers from their 11 competitive meetings in the Kiely era over the last five seasons and there are just 10 points between them in Limerick’s favour.
Limerick have won six times overall to Cork’s four with one draw – all of which points to Cork being Limerick’s bogey team.
Boss Kiely said: “In 2019, they came here to Limerick and put in a huge performance, they blew us away in the Munster Championship, we didn’t perform that day.
“But the narrative of being a bogey team, I don’t buy into it. These games are all on the day. We have our parameters around what we’re chasing. We’ll go after it the way we’ve always done, we’ve prepared hard and we’ll try to bring the best performances we can.”
Cork have consistently registered more than 20 points in games against Limerick – and with 20 goals to Limerick’s 12 across those 11 meetings – they’ll be confident of raising green flags today.
The young Rebels have speed on their side too so will attempt to stay out of the rucks and exploit their pace.
Limerick, of course, have plenty of speed too – just ask Tipperary who failed to lay a glove on Kyle Hayes when he slalomed through their defence in the Munster final.
Kiely acknowledged pace is key to both teams and said: “I know a lot is being made of Cork’s speed but I assure you we’re no slouches ourselves. Maybe more teams have incorporated it as part of their game, there’s less long deliveries of the ball from one end of the field to the other now and possession is valued more highly.
“As a result, there are more support runners supporting the player in possession. It’s all part of the evolution of the game.”
Cork ran out of legs when the sides last met in the Championship at Croke Park, in the 2018 All-Ireland semi-finals.
They led by six points with 64 minutes played but were taken to extra-time and were outscored 2-5 to 1-4.
They are a different team now and the county is on a roll with success at all grades though Kiely isn’t interested in his opponent’s development.
He said: “I’m not really too concerned with the path others take, that’s for them and for their reflections. We’re just concerned about our own path and the incremental improvements we’ve made from the first game against Cork, to the Munster final against Tipperary to the Waterford game.
“We took it up another gear the last day and we’ll be looking to take it up another gear now.”
It’s a win-win for Munster fans whatever happens.
Kiely said: “Time will tell whether or not there’s a trend there but I wouldn’t read too much into it based on one year. I’m sure the likes of Galway and Kilkenny will bounce back, Wexford. Wait and see.”
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