John Kiely has challenged his Limerick players to outwork Clare in Sunday’s Munster final.
The Banner scored a landmark victory over their great rivals in the round robin phase on April 29, a game that they went into under considerable pressure having lost their opener to Tipperary the previous weekend.
But with Limerick hotly fancied to put their neighbours on the brink of elimination, Clare inflicted their first defeat in almost four years of Championship hurling, ending a run of 17 games unbeaten.
Brian Lohan’s side then beat Waterford and Cork to qualify for the provincial final, with Limerick subsequently joining them to set up a repeat of last year’s decider.
“Losing to Clare in the round robin was very disappointing for us,” Limerick boss Kiely acknowledged. “It was the blemish in our record in the round robin.
“They were the better team on the night. They outworked us on the night and they were far more accurate than us, so they deserved their result in that game. But we'll have learnt a lot from it."
He added: “No matter what way we analyse the game, we were well outworked on the day and that simply won't be good enough on Sunday.
