How Limerick’s leaders created legends

When Limerick trailed Cork by six points with almost as many minutes of normal time to go in the All-Ireland semi-final, John Kiely would have been forgiven if he started to think like most Limerick supporters undoubtedly and understandably were at the time.

His young side had made huge strides in 2018. They’d managed to get the county finally out of Div 1B, emerged with distinction from the piranha pit that was the Munster round-robin championship, dug out a massive win in Thurles by becoming the first Limerick team to beat Kilkenny in championship in 45 years and had now acquainted and acquitted themselves well in the new environs of Croke Park.

Only now the gap in experience and that extra year or two of development seemed to be telling between themselves and a more seasoned side, Cork, Munster champions for a second straight year. It was as if his team, to use a saying of the legendary NFL player Ray Lewis, had done what they were supposed to do for that season.