Limerick boss John Kiely says that his side are going to have to be “flexible” if they are to overcome the challenge of Davy Fitzgerald’s Waterford on Sunday.
After sitting out his first Championship season as a manager in 2022 after featuring in the previous 14 across his stints with Waterford, Clare and Wexford, much anticipation surrounds Fitzgerald’s return this weekend as his second stint with Waterford begins in earnest.
And Kiely acknowledges that he will pose a fresh challenge in what will be the first time that they share the sideline in a Championship game.
He said: "It'll be different to what we've had in terms of the set-up will be different. Davy sets up his teams up differently.
“There's far more fluidity to the set-up of the opposition so we're going to have to be flexible, we're going to have to be adaptable and we're going to have to cope with some unusual positionings on the field.
“But some things won't change. The Waterford team are extremely highly skilled individuals, a lot of really great hurlers.
“They're physically very strong, they're very experienced, they've been around the block now the last five or six years with us in tandem and we've had some great battles with them.
“They have forwards well able to score and again they have a penchant for goals. There's a huge challenge coming on the 23rd. Those first round games are very important in terms of setting the tone and there's a lot of stake.”
This campaign will be the fourth where the provincials are being played on a round robin basis and in the previous three editions, no team has won the Munster Championship with a 100% record though Limerick went closest last year, their draw with Clare in Ennis the only game they failed to win.
"I would say we're all hoping to get through with that record,” Kiely acknowledged.
“We'd all like to think we could do it but it's very difficult. The challenges are immense and you don't know the challenges you're going to meet along the way in terms of sickness, injury, form... you just don't know what the narrative is going to be.
“Every season has its own story. We don't know what it's going to be. We will try to control it as much as we can but ultimately you're in there in that system and you have to try and survive for as long as you can.
“It's going to be really difficult but at the same time that's what makes it what it is and that's why it's such an amazing competition and a great privilege to be a part of it.
“There's nobody not looking forward to this. Everybody knows we have five really good sides there who on any given day can hurt you very badly."
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