Tipperary town school principal John Kiely has masterminded Limerick's surge to All-Ireland Hurling Final

Following their thrilling extra-time victory over Cork in Sunday's All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship semi-final, Limerick are hoping that manager John Kiely will be the man to lead them to the Promised Land.

Limerick haven't lifted the Liam McCarthy Cup in 45 years, but now find themselves just 70 minutes away from their first triumph since 1973, when they face either Galway or Clare in the All-Ireland Final on Sunday August 19.

46 year-old Kiely is the principal of the Abbey CBS secondary school in Tipperary town.

Born in Galbally, on the Limerick/Tipperary border, he played GAA at juvenile and underage levels before becoming a dual player at senior level with the Galbally and Garryspillane teams. 

He won three championship medals across both codes and played inter-county minor and U-21 hurling. 

He was a member of the extended Limerick senior hurling panel that reached the All-Ireland Final in 1994 before later winning a Munster medal as a non-playing substitute in 1996. 

He later captained the Limerick senior football team.

When he hung up his boots John Kiely became involved in team management and coaching. After managing the Limerick intermediate team for two seasons, he was a Munster final-winning selector with both the Limerick under-21 and senior teams in 2011 and 2013 respectively. 

As manager of the county under-21s in 2015, Kiely guided the team to an All-Ireland title, as his stock began to rise.

He was named as the new manager of the Limerick senior team in September 2016. In his first year in charge they reached the semi-finals of the 2017 National Hurling League, losing to eventual champions Galway. 

In his first Championship game in 2017, Limerick lost to Clare in the Munster semi-final. 

This year, however, there has been a marked improvement in their fortunes. They won two games (against Tipperary and Waterford) and drew with Cork in the new Munster Championship format. 

A defeat by Clare in their final round-robin game meant they missed out on a place in the provincial final. 

But their first championship win over Kilkenny in 45 years, in the All-Ireland quarter-final in Thurles, breathed new life into their campaign.

Having won two of the last three All-Ireland U-21 championships, Sunday's win over Cork has offered the county genuine hope that they can at last reach the Holy Grail, following defeats in five All-Ireland Finals since beating Kilkenny in 1973.

Those defeats came in 1974 (against Kilkenny), 1980 (Galway), 1994 (Offaly), 1996 (Wexford) and 2007 (Kilkenny). 

As expectations begin to rise throughout the county, the manager will be keen to ensure that his players don’t get caught up in the whirlwind of hype that’s already starting to build in Limerick.

"There is no hype for us whatsoever," John Kiely stated after his team beat Cork in the semi-final. 

"Hype is something for a supporter. We have our own objectives, our own goals, our own work, we have our own routines and our own patterns. 

"We don't have open training sessions for example, the lads go to work every day.

"To be fair the supporters have been absolutely fantastic. They have given us great space and I'm sure they will over the next three weeks".