With Allianz League,
Munster and All-Ireland
silverware currently resting
on Shannonside, Kiely’s
policy of attacking every
trophy available in a season
comes straight from the Cody
playbook of winning what you
can while you can, and that’s
not where the parallels stop.
The principals which
underpinned Cody’s
All-Ireland four in-a-row
winning side (2006-’09)
bare striking resemblance
to the present Limerick
squad with an insatiable
work ethic which few have
been able to match in the
past 12 months.When speaking at the outset
of the year, Limerick attacker
Séamus Flanagan made some
interesting comments about the
endeavour which is a hallmark of
their success, insisting that “no-
one can match” them in terms
of effort as he laid down the
gauntlet to the chasing pack.“People are saying that people
can suss out our game-plan - our
game-plan is very hard to work
out, because it’s just work-rate,
that’s all it is. It’s straight up
work-rate,” Flanagan said in
January.“Hooking, blocking, tackling.
How do you create a game-plan
that can work against that? You
can’t. All you can do is try to
match our work-rate. We feel
ourselves that no-one can match
our work-rate.“If someone gives 100%, we
give 110. Once you always have
more work-rate, more hooks,
more blocks, more possessions,
then it’s hard to beat you. That’s
something that we always strive
towards.”JOHN KIELY may be only three years into his reign as Limerick hurling boss but it’s hard to
deny the similarities which are emerging between his Treaty charges and the great Kilkenny
team of the noughties under Brian Cody.