Nickie Quaid has played every minute of John Kiely's championship tenure, and ahead of the Limerick manager's 40th game at the helm he remains arguably the most crucial cog in their record-chasing team.
The five-time All-Ireland SHC winner however has been more involved in recent weeks than any other period under Kiely. Heading into his 15th Munster championship, the Limerick goalkeeper carries a save rate of 53% from the Allianz Hurling League after an unusually busy campaign for him.
The two-time All-Star has saved more than half of the 15 shots fired towards his goal, with one of those conceded being a follow-up into an empty net after he saved the initial attempt.
Quaid's average goal-per-game concession under Kiely (league and championship) is less than one – 66 in 79. During his games in the 2024 league it was almost two goals per game.
The high number of shots he faced and pressure he was under stemmed largely from his team being beaten for 56% of his long puck-outs. Quaid's overall puckout retention rate during the league was 67%, with Limerick winning 48 of the 50 restarts which landed inside their own half.
Directly from the long puckouts lost in the four league games which Quaid started, Limerick conceded 2-07 with the opposition missing a further 1-07. The two goals conceded were in the league semi-final defeat to Kilkenny, who played quick ball into their full-forward line before Limerick's defensive cover could set up.
Kilkenny won five Limerick puck-outs in a row during the first quarter, scoring 2-01, which was half their total opposition puck-out wins for the entire game. Quaid retained his next 11 as Limerick regained some control, but they never recovered.
Other league games followed a similar trend, with opposition teams finding a way into a game Limerick were otherwise dominating, by getting on top of Quaid's long puck-outs. Galway led by three at the interval after winning eight of 15 Limerick restarts, securing six of nine at one stage as the scores flowed in tandem. Tipp won four of the final six Limerick puck-outs, the same amount as they'd turned over during the rest of the game, to trigger a late flurry of scores.
On the flip side, Limerick scored 0-10 directly from Quaid's short puck-outs and 0-12 from his long puck-outs, with 56% of them going long.
Kilkenny finished that league semi-final with three goals, meaning despite his save rate Quaid comes into the championship opener having conceded three goals in two of his last three games. Prior to that, the Limerick number one had only conceded three once in league or championship since Kiely's first season in charge. That year it happened twice, once in the league against Kerry and then in Kiely's first championship game against this weekend's opponents Clare.
Before Kiely, Quaid had conceded three goals on six occasions and four goals twice – across six seasons in goal for Limerick.
Back in front of him however for the clash with Clare will be his full-back Dan Morrissey, who along with his brother Tom, are the only players who like Quaid have played in every championship match under Kiely; although the latter is the only one to have started (and finished) all 39, with Dan coming off the bench for three and Tom for the first two back in 2017.
Looking at the breakdown of the team for that opening game of the Kiely era, 12 players have featured in this year's league while Darragh O'Donovan and Gearoid Hegarty played the next match against Kilkenny. Kiely gave championship debuts to seven Limerick players in 2017: Sean Finn, Mike Casey, David Dempsey, Peter Casey, Kyle Hayes, Aaron Gillane and Pat Ryan. They've collected 13 All-Stars, a Young Hurler and Hurler of the Year award between them since.
The latter has featured off the bench the most for Kiely, on 18 occasions, while never starting a championship match. Hayes missed out on one game in 2022 otherwise he'd have matched Quaid in starting every game under Kiely, although he's been replaced for six of his 38 appearances.
The 34-year-old Quaid, with 138 league and championship appearances under his belt, is two championship games short of the great Christy Ring, and by the end of the Munster championship he should be safely inside the top 10 of all-time championship appearances.
Not even Kiely would've dreamt of the success which has followed for the bulk of the team he named for his first game against Clare. But as they go in search of immortality this summer, they have some areas to tidy up on.
They'll be confident however that if they do so, Nickie Quaid will be behind them saving more than he concedes to keep seeing them over line.
Watch Clare v Limerick in the Munster Hurling Championship on Sunday from 1.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to updates on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
