John Kiely set to extend stay at the helm with Limerick

John Kiely will be reappointed as Limerick senior hurling manager at a county board meeting on Tuesday night.

It is believed Kiely, who was first appointed in September 2016, will be proposed for a fresh term, though that will be finalised at a meeting of the Management Committee beforehand. He is the longest-serving senior intercounty manager of the same team.

Mickey Harte has an unbroken record stretching back to 2003 but when 2024 swings around he will have managed three different counties during that period – Tyrone, Louth, Derry.

Dublin GAA confirmed on Friday night that Dessie Farrell had agreed to stay on as manager of the capital’s senior footballers for two more years, so Kiely’s Limerick return ensures both the reigning All-Ireland senior hurling and football champions will have continuity at the helm for 2024.

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The Limerick hurlers are hoping to emulate what the Dublin footballers achieved in 2019 when they claimed the Sam Maguire for a fifth consecutive season – an accomplishment no senior intercounty team in either code had previously managed. The Dubs went on to win six in-a-row the following season.

But in 2024 Limerick will attempt to go where no hurling team has gone before by raising the Liam MacCarthy five times on the bounce.

The four in-a-row has only been achieved three times in hurling – Cork 1941-44, Kilkenny 2006-09, and Limerick 2020-23.

Cork’s five-in-a-row bid in the 1940s ended in a Munster SHC semi-final defeat to Tipperary, who progressed to win the All-Ireland that September.

Kilkenny went much closer to pulling off the feat just over a decade ago, with Brian Cody’s charges navigating a path back to an All-Ireland final in 2010. However, Lar Corbett’s hat-trick inspired Tipperary to victory that day and snatched history from Kilkenny’s grasp.

Kiely’s coaching ticket is expected to remain largely unchanged for 2024 with Paul Kinnerk, Alan Cunningham, Donal O’Grady and Aonghus O’Brien all staying onboard, but it is believed sports psychologist Carline Currid is stepping away.

Currid has been involved in all of Limerick’s five All-Ireland SHC-winning seasons since 2018. Indeed the only year she did not work in the backroom team was in 2019, when they came up short against Kilkenny in the semi-final.

Over the years, several Limerick players and other members of the management team have namechecked Currid when identifying key driving factors within the group during this era of dominance, so the Sligo native’s absence will come as a disappointment to the dressingroom for 2024. Tony Óg Regan, the former Galway hurler, replaced Currid in Limerick for the 2019 season.

The 2024 campaign will mark Kiely’s eighth as Limerick senior hurling manager, but it will bring him up to a decade of unbroken service as he was the county’s under-21 manager in 2015 and 2016.

Having guided the under-21s to All-Ireland success in 2015 – a team which, among others, included Seán Finn, Cian Lynch, Diarmaid Byrnes, Gearóid Hegarty, Mike Casey, Tom Morrissey – Kiely was appointed senior manager in September 2016, succeeding TJ Ryan in the position. The Galbally man was handed an initial three-year term.

He had previously served as Limerick intermediate manager too and was also a selector under John Allen during the Cork man’s time as senior boss on Shannonside.

Kiely was given a fresh two-year term in September 2019, with the option of a third season. Two years – and two All-Ireland wins – later he was reappointed for a further two years in September 2021, taking Kiely to the end of the 2023 season.

It appears he is now set to be proposed for another two-year period, which will be his third extension since first taking on the role in 2016.

Nobody could have envisaged the success garnered since Kiely first stepped up the senior side. Prior to his appointment, the county had won seven All-Ireland senior hurling championships – the first coming in 1897 and the last in 1973. They have since added five more between 2018-23.

Limerick have also won five Munster titles and three Division One National Hurling League crowns under Kiely.

The Treaty County will begin the defence of their Munster title with an away trip to Ennis on the opening weekend of the 2024 provincial championship, April 20th-21st.

Their second game in the list of provisional fixtures sees them at home to Tipperary the following week, April 27th-28th. They have a two-week gap then until a trip to Leeside to face Cork before finishing their round-robin schedule with a home tie against Waterford on the weekend of May 25th-26th.

Farrell’s reappointment as Dublin senior football manager was delivered with the kind of fanfare you’d get from an attendant delivering a parking ticket. The news emerged through a short social media post at 8.15 on Friday night, stating Farrell had agreed to stay at the helm until the end of the 2025 season.

“We are delighted that Dessie has agreed to stay on with the Dublin senior football team for another two seasons,” said Dublin chairman Mick Seavers.

“Dessie and his backroom team have dedicated so much of their time and effort to Dublin GAA over the past four seasons. We look forward to continuing to work with them in the years ahead.”