Defending champions Limerick’s “in it to win it” approach under John Kiely again manifested itself as they extended their winning League run to six games going back to last season.

When a losing manager — unprompted — describes a game as a tale of two halves the story writes itself.

Tipp versus Limerick. The first match of 2020. The last match of 2019 in an only very slightly parallel dimension, one not populated by Alan Kelly’s umpires.

If the championship is Broadway and the NHL off-Broadway, how would you describe last Saturday night?

An early-season title for Limerick, winners over Cork in this Co-Op Superstores Munster SHL final in the Gaelic Grounds, with 5,295 in attendance.

Here's the story of 2019, as told through Examiner Sport front pages.

Kilkenny are champions of the inaugural New York Hurling Classic after a convincing 24-point win over Limerick in Citi Field.

Both sides struggled to find their range early on, with Ballygunner’s Pauric Mahony (free) the only scorer in the opening ten minutes.

Sunday afternoon Ballygunner host Patrickswell in the Munster Club SHC semi-final in Walsh Park (throw-in 1.30pm).

Aaron Gillane revealed that he lined out for Patrickswell in Sunday’s Limerick SHC final against medical advice.

Cian Lynch’s last two All-Ireland final weekends couldn’t have been more different.

Ten years ought to constitute a sufficient sample size for undertakings such as these and in the present instance it does. It was not a difficult team to pick, nor should it have been.

Patrickswell are through to the Limerick SHC final after an impressive win over Doon in the Gaelic Grounds.

The Kilruane MacDonagh's man was influential for Liam Cahill’s side this summer as they claimed the first All-Ireland title at the new U-20 grade, scoring 1-1 in last month’s final against Cork.

The 23-year-old will undergo an operation tomorrow, club manager and former Limerick star Ciarán Carey telling sportinglimerick.com the forward had sustained two fractures in the draw in the LIT Gaelic Grounds.

The team includes six players from All-Ireland champions Tipperary and four from beaten finalists Kilkenny.

A look back at the magical moments from this year.

On October 7, 2010, a month after winning the All Ireland and stopping Kilkenny’s five-in-a-row, Liam Sheedy's Tipperary management team announced they were stepping down.

And then there were two — but how many of the Kilkenny and Tipperary teams are in the driving seat for All-Stars? John Fogarty makes his shouts

Having been nine points adrift as early as the 17th minute, Limerick would have given their right arm if offered there and then a 1-12 to 1-9 interval scoreline.

There’s no value in told-you-so’s and there’s no satisfaction in them either but what happened yesterday was in the offing.

Limerick manager John Kiely said he knew straight away that Darragh O’Donovan’s late sideline had taken a deflection off Cillian Buckley’s hurl, but did not criticise the match officials for failing to award a ‘65.

Not to put too fine a point on it but Kilkenny won the All-Ireland quarter-final largely because they were playing — and were allowed to play by and play through — Cork. Not to put too fine a point on it but they’re unlikely to win the All-Ireland semi-final largely because they’ll be playing — and will not be allowed to play by and play through — Limerick.

The first time I saw Peter Casey during my time with the Limerick Academy, and as Limerick minor coach in 2015, I felt he’d be more suited to being a jockey in the Irish Derby than a hurler lighting up Croke Park.

Limerick’s emotional All-Ireland final win last year was commemorated in a terrific publication — the book

There’s a blissful ignorance to Aaron Gillane’s hurling that he is loathe to surrender.

Much to the delight of the Limerick players, Mr Whippy has returned to the set-up.

By the time Brendan Maher left the Gaelic Grounds last Sunday, he had moved on. After that weighty loss to Limerick, Liam Sheedy gave him and the other Tipperary players a couple of evenings off to decompress before returning to training but he was already thinking of an All-Ireland quarter-final.

Former Limerick hurler and manager TJ Ryan reveals what he looks for as a rule of thumb when assessing the very best hurlers

It was understandable that John Kiely not so much took offence, but bristled at the suggestion that Limerick showed signs of Kilkenny ruthlessness last Sunday.

In emphatic style, All-Ireland champions Limerick claimed a first Munster title in six years in front of a packed LIT Gaelic Grounds.

Limerick’s strengths are based on ball retention and clever transition from defence through good positioning and support running.

Irrespective of how tomorrow’s Munster final plays out, Ronan Maher will point the car for Templemore on Monday morning to begin the first day of his new career.

Limerick and Tipperary face off in tomorrow’s Munster senior hurling final. You know that. But the conflict is not confined to the Gaelic Grounds. Michael Moynihan evaluates a quality fiction/hurling stand-off between Limerick’s Kevin Barry and Tipperary’s Donal Ryan.

Re-engaging with a team recently met is one of hurling’s hardest tasks. Familiarity breeds apprehension, a mixture of knowledge and fear.

Two former Tipperary forwards are concerned Liam Sheedy’s team could suffer against Limerick in the Munster Final as a result of beating them last Sunday week.

Difficult to distinguish the winners from the losers here. Because the scoreboard told only half the story.

When I arrived in Pearse Stadium for work with RTÉ yesterday, I’d only had a cup of coffee in my system. I had to be on-site by 10.30am but I was hungry by the time the Tipp-Limerick match started at 2pm.

Watching both teams warming up, I zeroed in on the goalkeepers.

First-half injuries to Cathal Barrett (hamstring) and Patrick Maher (knee) tempered Tipperary maintaining their 100% record as they and Limerick will meet again in a Munster final on Sunday week.

If the phoney war taketh away, sometimes the phoney war giveth.

Of the eight teams doing Championship battle this weekend, only Tipp and Limerick are guaranteed to progress.

For our purposes this game should have been played at High Noon, because all week we were hearing that this would be a western classic.

Summer certainly hasn’t started temperature-wise but from a refereeing perspective it did yesterday. The games in Cavan and Kilkenny swung the Championship into life.