Anthony Daly: Is it all going too smooth for Limerick? Is this all perfectly set up for Cork?

If Limerick have improved, so too have Cork. The biggest question of all though is by how much?

Cork’s Sean O’Donoghue clashes with Limerick’s Cian Lynch during the Munster SHC clash. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

After we won the All-Ireland in 1997, our second in three years, the feeling afterward was completely different from our first. It was more satisfying, more gratifying, not just because we knew what to expect but also because we were more mature, and worldly as people.

I mean this in the best possible way, but you also knew what to avoid, or try to steer clear of. It was only natural that the county would go nuts after winning a first All-Ireland in 81 years. It was life-changing stuff, but we spent that winter, and the following spring playing catch up to a train that was always running away from us.