John Kiely (Waterford hurler)

For the baseball player, see John Kiely (baseball).
John Kiely
Personal information
Irish name Seán Ó Cadhla
Sport Hurling
Position Left corner-forward
Born Dungarvan, County Waterford
Club(s)
Years Club
Dungarvan
Inter-county(ies)
Years County
1940s–1950s Waterford
Inter-county titles
Munster titles 3 (1 as sub)
All-Irelands 2 (1 as sub)

John Kiely (1927–2004) was an Irish sportsperson. He played hurling with his local club Dungarvan and with the Waterford senior inter-county team in the 1940s and 1950s.

Playing career

Club

Kiely played most of his club hurling with his local Dungarvan club. He played in two county finals but never won a senior county medal. Kiely also won junior championship honours with Brickey Rangers and Éire Óg.

Inter-county

Kiely first came to prominence on the Waterford senior inter-county team in the late 1940s. He played in the first round of the Munster Championship in 1948, however, in spite of no further appearances that year, he was still eligible to receive both Munster and All-Ireland medals following Waterford’s victories over Cork and Dublin respectively. It would be 1957 before Kiely won his first Munster title on the field of play. Waterford later played Kilkenny in the All-Ireland final, however, victory went to the men from Leinster on that occasion. The team would later come to rue this defeat as an All-Ireland title that they should have won. Waterford lost their provincial crown in 1958, however, the team bounced back in 1959 with Kiely collecting a second Munster title. Once again Waterford subsequently lined out in the championship decider and, once again, Kilkenny provided the opposition. The game ended in a draw, however, when the two sides met for the replay a few weeks later the men from Waterford made no mistake in defeating their near rivals and Kiely collected his first All-Ireland medal on the field of play. He retired from inter-county hurling shortly afterwards.

Kiely also won Railway Cup honours with Munster in 1952 and 1957. He was also a magnificent handballer and participated in many Masters. John Kiely died on 18 June 2004.

Teams

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, March 28, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.