As John Kiely talks, the unmistakable racket of euphoria can be heard bouncing out from within the room down the corridor. The Limerick dressingroom, home once more to Liam MacCarthy.“Right boys, 10 or 12 minutes and we are out the gap, I have a dressingroom waiting for me,” he smiles as the press conference starts. But he means it, too. He wants to be in there among the players, celebrating his sixth All-Ireland SHC success as Limerick manager.Six. Limerick have won 13 in total. Kiely has been in charge for six of those between 2018 and 2026. The rabid hunger to get their hands on another All-Ireland was striking this season. A team on a mission.“God almighty, I was a part of 1994 and 1996 and the hurt, that leaves never leaves you, it scars you,” he says in referencing Limerick’s two All-Ireland final losses in the 1990s.“Anyone that was involved will tell you that those days never go away. So just sheer joy.“In particular, you want to see the team achieve their potential and I felt the last two years that we left a bit of ourselves after us. We just didn’t produce the quality in those key moments to get across the line.“There is no day that you are going to get anything easy. That might have shown a margin of difference between the two teams, but it was one we earned through sheer application and quality in what we did. It wasn’t anything to do with Galway. “It was our quality and intensity that we brought to the game, the physicality we went after it with. When we got chances we took them.”Limerick manager John Kiely celebrates after the match. Photograph: Bryan Keane/INPHO They outworked Galway in every area of the contest. If any team played with the edge of a side trying to win a first Liam MacCarthy in the guts of a decade, it was the side in green and white.“It’s our identity. Their [players] identity is based on how hard they work, in training and in matches and how committed they are to be doing the right thing for the group at all times. Whatever it takes, whatever they have to give, that’s what makes them special.”Kiely’s phenomenal record in finals now has an extra coat of gloss. As Limerick senior and under-21 manager – in league and championship – he has a 19-1 win-loss record, with the only defeat in 20 deciders coming against Cork after a penalty shoot-out in the 2025 Munster final. He has been building this Limerick empire since his days with the under-21s. “I can take you back to 2015, to the under-21 campaign we had then, back in those days we just had a projector, my laptop and some very flimsy software that was free.“Compared to what we have available to us, what I can tell you that those video sessions we took them through, sitting on a concrete floor upstairs in the dressingroom area, I knew then that these men had the ability to take a piece of footage, have it broken down, discuss it and take a learning from it and apply it.“And you didn’t have to come back to it then because they were able to carry it forward. They are an incredibly intelligent bunch of men when it comes to taking a tactical awareness piece and applying it consistently and under the most duress. “That is a quality this group has that is very rare in elite sport, to apply things consistently for years and years. I have been privileged enough to be there when this is put in front of them and when they apply it.”As he speaks, the music from down the corridor grows ever louder.“They have an incredible desire and hunger, there is no doubt, but it is about the level of enjoyment they get. You can hear them next door, you can’t do this if you’re not enjoying it. You can’t make those sacrifices if you’re not enjoying it. “Everybody contributes to a happy environment and there is great mutual support for everyone in the group no matter what is going on in your life. Everybody means a great deal to everybody else and we have a lot of fun. That is critical.”And with that he was off down the corridor. Off to celebrate with his players. Off to see Liam.