Kieran Shannon: Limerick are the most improbable of world-beaters

We’ve come to take Limerick’s excellence so much for granted now it’s easy to forget their mediocrity from not that long ago.

In 2016, their championship petered out for a second consecutive year on a Saturday evening with Semple Stadium not even a third full, Clare the least-worst side in a drab second-round qualifier, just as Ger Cunningham’s Dublin had been against TJ Ryan’s men 12 months earlier.